Wen builds trust with Indonesia
Source: Agencies |
April 30, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE Premier Wen Jiabao promised Indonesia US$19 billion of investment credit yesterday as he sought to boost relations between the two countries.
Wen held a singsong with Indonesian students, met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then announced US$9 billion of soft and commercial loans for infrastructure development and another US$10 billion of export credits.
He said China would also give 1 billion yuan (US$154 million) for maritime cooperation.
Relations with China will be a dominant theme at a string of Southeast Asian regional meetings this year that Indonesia will chair.
"China and Indonesia are in key roles now, both have enormous market potential, so we need to combine the development strategy of the two countries and expand strengths to gain mutual benefits," said Wen, who described his meeting with Yudhoyono as friendly and honest.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, wants US$100 billion of private investment to overhaul its creaking transport network, rather than just increased trade.
Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat described Wen's trip as a breakthrough that would lead to enough Chinese direct investment to overcome a widening trade deficit.
Chinese firms have struggled to make headway in Indonesia, as domestic tycoons do not want to cede control of assets, whereas companies from Japan, South Korea and India are pouring billions into infrastructure and manufacturing.
Wen, on the first official Chinese visit in six years, is expected to aim with Yudhoyono to more than double bilateral trade to US$80 billion by 2015, and is also signing other agreements on cooperation in foreign affairs and education.
China is already Indonesia's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade at nearly US$42.7 billion last year, up 50 percent over 2009.
Wen visited a Muslim university and sang a song with students studying Chinese literature.
"It's been a long time for me, and I sang it rather badly, but I sang it from the bottom of my heart," Wen, who learned the song when he was younger, told female students in headscarves through an interpreter.
Wen told the students he was too excited to sit down and answered questions about how to understand China better, in the university next to the Al Azhar mosque, one of whose founders was a Muslim of Chinese descent.
While many prominent Indonesian businessmen are ethnic Chinese and Christian, Muslims make up about 90 percent of Indonesia's population, the world's fourth largest.
Some locals meeting Wen, such as 23-year-old Chinese literature student Dini Silviaty, who had to hide inside her house during the 1998 riots, said they now saw Indonesia as a safer place for people of Chinese descent.
Wen held a singsong with Indonesian students, met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then announced US$9 billion of soft and commercial loans for infrastructure development and another US$10 billion of export credits.
He said China would also give 1 billion yuan (US$154 million) for maritime cooperation.
Relations with China will be a dominant theme at a string of Southeast Asian regional meetings this year that Indonesia will chair.
"China and Indonesia are in key roles now, both have enormous market potential, so we need to combine the development strategy of the two countries and expand strengths to gain mutual benefits," said Wen, who described his meeting with Yudhoyono as friendly and honest.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, wants US$100 billion of private investment to overhaul its creaking transport network, rather than just increased trade.
Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat described Wen's trip as a breakthrough that would lead to enough Chinese direct investment to overcome a widening trade deficit.
Chinese firms have struggled to make headway in Indonesia, as domestic tycoons do not want to cede control of assets, whereas companies from Japan, South Korea and India are pouring billions into infrastructure and manufacturing.
Wen, on the first official Chinese visit in six years, is expected to aim with Yudhoyono to more than double bilateral trade to US$80 billion by 2015, and is also signing other agreements on cooperation in foreign affairs and education.
China is already Indonesia's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade at nearly US$42.7 billion last year, up 50 percent over 2009.
Wen visited a Muslim university and sang a song with students studying Chinese literature.
"It's been a long time for me, and I sang it rather badly, but I sang it from the bottom of my heart," Wen, who learned the song when he was younger, told female students in headscarves through an interpreter.
Wen told the students he was too excited to sit down and answered questions about how to understand China better, in the university next to the Al Azhar mosque, one of whose founders was a Muslim of Chinese descent.
While many prominent Indonesian businessmen are ethnic Chinese and Christian, Muslims make up about 90 percent of Indonesia's population, the world's fourth largest.
Some locals meeting Wen, such as 23-year-old Chinese literature student Dini Silviaty, who had to hide inside her house during the 1998 riots, said they now saw Indonesia as a safer place for people of Chinese descent.
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