Vietnam, a potential partner for Indonesia
JAKARTA - Foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda said here Wednesday the Indonesia`s relations with Vietnam still had to be improved further, although the trade between the two countries had been increasing.
"Despite the steadily growing trade between the two countries, such bilateral relations still need to be further developed and expanded," he said after accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a meeting with visiting Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The Vietnamese prime minister and an entourage which included his wife, Mrs Tran Thanh Kiem, were on a two-day visit to Indonesia to discuss cooperation, marked by the signing of anti-corruption, cultural, trade and investment cooperation agreements.
Wirajuda said Vietnam`s economy had been growing by 8.2 percent in the last ten years.
"The trade between the two countries in 2006 reached US$1.8 billion with Indonesia enjoying a surplus of around US$240 million," he said.
He said Indonesia and Vietnam had many things in common especially in their independence struggle, so they had a strong will to develop their bilateral relations more comprehensively in all sectors.
In investment and trade, the two countries have been cooperating in the last 10 years.
He said a sector that had also become a focus of cooperation was energy, following the recent ratification of a continental shelve agreement between the two sides.
"The potential for cooperation in oil or gas exploration and exploitation is huge, so that cooperation between Pertamina, Petronas and Petro Vietnam could be stepped up," he said.
In the field of security he said the two countries had agreed to conduct an exchange of visits, anti-terrorism and anti-international crime exercises and on the need to make an extradition treaty, which is also expected to be made with the other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Antara News (.id) - August 9, 2007.
Indonesia, Vietnam agree to work together on corruption eradication
JAKARTA - Indonesia and Vietnam on Wednesday agreed to cooperate in efforts to eradicate corruption, Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda said after the nation's two leaders held talks.
Vietnam's visiting Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono witnessed the signing of an agreement to work together to fight corruption, Wirayuda said.
"This is technical cooperation... The cooperation we want to promote is an exchange of experience in the eradication of corruption," he was quoted by AFP as telling reporters.
Dung, who arrived here Wednesday on the first leg of a swing through five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has won praise at home for his tough stance on corruption.
Yudhoyono was elected president in 2004 on an anti-corruption platform, but critics have said the fight has been slow and not impartial.
Dung and Yudhoyono, who made no comments to the press after the meeting, also witnessed another agreement signed on tourism and culture, Wirayuda said.
The two countries were also keen to boost bilateral trade, which stood at 1.7 billion dollars in 2006, as well as to develop ties in energy now that they had agreed on their maritime border in the South China Sea, he said.
Defence and security links would also be boosted, he added.
Dung, who was re-elected as premier on July 25, was welcomed on arrival by Yudhoyono in an official ceremony that included 19 cannon shots.
The Vietnamese leader is scheduled to lay a wreath at a cemetery and meet with members of the Indonesian chamber of commerce and industry on Thursday before flying to his next destination, the Philippines.
He is to return to Vietnam before heading to Singapore, Myanmar and Brunei.
Antara News (.id) - August 8, 2007.
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