Bosnian energy firm plans to invest $60 million in RI
Bosnian energy firm plans to invest $60 million in RI
Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has close and cordial ties with
the Indonesia, is aiming to increase its trade with Indonesia in
many areas and invest US$60 million in the power sector in the
near future.
"Bosnia and Hezegovina's Energoinvest co. is planning to
invest around $60 million in Indonesia's power sector. It has
already signed a memorandum of understanding with PLN (state-
owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara) to build
transmission lines," Bosnia and Herzegovina's Ambassador to
Indonesia Zdravko Rajic told The Jakarta Post in an interview
recently.
Ambassador Rajic, whose country is celebrating its 13th
Independence Day on Tuesday, said that Bosnia and Herzegovina's
power and coal companies had a lot of experience in Indonesia.
Despite the close ties -- especially on the political front --
the economic relations are not reflective of the two countries'
potential.
"In 2003, the value of bilateral trade reached $4 million. We
are still waiting for this year's figures," Rajic, who will
complete his tenure as an ambassador in Indonesia this month,
said.
He is optimistic that the situation will change rapidly in the
coming months, after Bosnia and Herzegovina's chamber of commerce
signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral trade in
December 2004 with its counterpart in Indonesia.
Indonesia exports cacao, furniture, wheat products, wood and
carpet to Bosnia and Herzegovina and imports electrical products,
machines and mechanical equipment from that country.
Rajic said the high level contacts between the two country's
leaders have strengthened the relationship.
"Indonesia's former president Megawati Soekarnoputri visited
our country in 2002 and our Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic came
to Jakarta and signed several agreements in various fields,"
Rajic recalled said.
Indonesia's first president Sukarno visited Sarajevo, the
present capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1960s as did
former president Soeharto in 1995.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono served in Bosnia in 1995 as
a UN military observer.
Indonesia, which supported Bosnia and Herzegovina's
independence struggle, helped build one of Sarajevo's biggest
mosques, the Istiqlal Mosque, in 2001.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, a tiny Balkan nation with less than
Jakarta's population, became independent on March 1, 1992 after
the break up of Yugoslavia. About 40 percent of Bosnia and
Herzegovina's four million people are Muslims, 31 percent
Orthodox, 15 percent Roman Catholic, along with various others.