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.