Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba - Photo: AFP file
JAKARTA: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced a set of projects in Indonesia worth a total of 129 billion Japanese yen (US$815 million) during his visit to Jakarta on Saturday (Jan 11) for a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto.
The meeting is part of the PM’s four-day official visit to Indonesia and Malaysia, which began on Friday (Jan 10) and is set to end on Sunday (Jan 12).
A third expansion of Patimban Port in West Java is to receive the lion’s share of the funding, 83.4 billion yen, in the form of a loan with an interest rate of between 0 and 3 per cent that was signed on Friday.
The expansion is to increase the port’s car export capacity to 600,000 units a year, 1.5 times the current nationwide volume.
“The important thing is that we are trying to make Indonesia a hub for car exports,” Ueda Hajime, Minister for Economic Affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Since 2017, Tokyo has granted over 189 billion yen in loans for the first two phases of the construction of Patimban Port, which seeks to alleviate the cargo traffic burden at the country’s chief port, Tanjung Priok in Jakarta.
Japan is also looking to help improve existing fishing ports and is planning to conduct feasibility studies on eight potential locations across the country before deciding which to work on.
The candidate locations include fishing ports on the Natuna Islands. The fisheries development plan, signed on Dec. 24 of last year, is to be financed by a 15.54 billion yen loan and include port expansion and the construction of cold chain facilities at the selected location.
“The project [...] is totally in line with President Prabowo's priority area for his food self-sufficiency and free meal projects,” Ueda said.
Other projects include a 7 billion yen loan for the professional development of government officials at the central and regional levels, with a target of training 7,240 officials within seven years, which Ueda said was a big leap from the 4,500 officials trained with Japanese funding in the past 35 years.
A 23.1 billion yen loan is to be provided for the development of volcanic disaster risk reduction infrastructure around Mount Semeru and Mount Kelud in East Java, as well as Mount Agung in Bali.
In addition to the projects above, the two leaders are expected to discuss existing cooperation efforts, including the development of the Jakarta MRT.
In mid-2024, Japan and Indonesia started working on a 24.5-kilometer East-West line for the rail system.
Currently, the Jakarta MRT consists of a 16 km North-South line, which is to be expanded to 28 km by the end of 2027.
When asked about potential talks on defense cooperation, Ueda did not rule them out, saying that since both Ishiba and Prabowo were former defense ministers, an in-depth discussion of defence could be expected.
“And we have already signed this agreement on the transfer of defence equipment and technology,” he added, referring to a bilateral deal signed in Tokyo in March 2021.
Japan will also continue to help expand geothermal energy projects in Indonesia, including one operated by Supreme Energy Muara Laboh in West Sumatra, which is backed by Japanese firms Sumitomo Corporation and INPEX, according to embassy materials.
The project, finished in 2019, is currently running with a capacity of 85 megawatts (MW). An additional 80 MW of capacity is set to become available in 2027.
Ueda said a further 60 MW addition was still under discussion.
The Jakarta Japan Club, which groups Japanese enterprises in the country, also aims to increase its contribution to the local economy to 36 per cent by the end of 2030, up from around 16 per cent recorded last year, according to Ueda. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
[Editor's note: This article has been updated following the prime minister's meeting with President Prabowo.]
