Friday November 13, 2009
KL and Jakarta to forge new friendships
By MAZWIN NIK ANIS and NURBAITI HAMDAN
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia and Indonesia are committed to establishing more platforms for the people of both countries to forge “new friendships”.
Both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also pledged to create more socio-economic opportunities.
Najib announced that a “friends of Malaysia” group would be set up in Indonesia soon – and vice-versa – to give the right perspective on arising issues.
“President Susilo and I, we want to work towards maintaining good ties at all times.
“We do not want the occasional minor problems to cast dark clouds over the good things that we have done,” Najib told a joint press conference with Susilo yesterday.
Susilo was here for a two-day visit – the first country he visited after being re-elected as the Indonesian president for a second term recently.
Najib added that both countries agreed on areas of cooperation including food security and tackling anti-palm oil campaigns.
Susilo said Malaysia was Indonesia’s “closest friend, neighbour and partner”.
The Indonesian president said that with Indonesia’s strong domestic market and Malaysia’s sound economic fundamentals, both countries should combine resources to become key players in the economic growth of Asia.
Later, when delivering a key address at a luncheon talk titled “Investment and Business Opportunities in Indonesia” at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here yesterday, Susilo said Indonesia wanted to achieve at least 7% economic growth by 2014.
He invited Malaysian companies to invest in various sectors in the republic.
“We need a rather huge amount of investments each year that ranges from US$150bil to US$200bil (RM507bil to RM676bil) for large-scale infrastructure development such as transportation, power plants and ports,” he said.
The talk, organised by the Council for the Promotion of Malaysia-Indonesia Relations, was attended by Najib, members of the private sector and business community.
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