Govt to open gate for tourists with vehicles
Govt to open gate for tourists with vehicles
JAKARTA (JP): The government will soon open a gateway for foreign tourists coming into Indonesia with vehicles through the Strait of Malacca, Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto said yesterday.
"A joint decree of four ministers and the national police chief will be issued in the near future to allow ferries carrying tourists with their vehicles crossing the strait," Hartarto told a seminar on the natural resource potential of Aceh province.
He said Aceh, on the northern-most of Sumatra island, therefore, should determine which of its ports can be used as the gateway.
Aceh is one of the two provinces in Sumatra, which are involved in the subregional growth triangle, which also includes nearby provinces of states in Malaysia (Kedah, Perak, Penang and Perlis) and Thailand (Satun, Songkha, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani).
The other province involved in the triangle is North Sumatra.
Business cooperation in the growth triangle include five projects in trade, agriculture and fisheries, industry and energy, tourism, telecommunications and transportation.
Hartarto also said that the National Development Planning Board, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications will review the plans on the development of infrastructure in northern Sumatra, including Aceh, to facilitate business cooperation in the triangle, officially called the Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT).
Hartarto and Malaysia's Chief Minister Perlis Abdul Hamid Pawanteh and Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi, in a meeting in Medan, North Sumatra, in June 1994 agreed to eliminate any obstacles to economic cooperation in the area.
He urged executives of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to cooperate with local businesspeople in Aceh to establish new businesses in cooperation with partners from Thailand and Malaysia.
The IMT-GT area, including Aceh, according to a study of the Asian Development Bank, promises profits to investors because it has abundant resources, while the countries involved have a high degree of complementarity for cooperation with each other.
The bank has identified some 50 projects, policies and programs which are feasible for cooperation in the IMT-GT areas.
Meanwhile, Aceh Governor Syamsuddin Mahmud told the seminar yesterday that his province needs total investments of Rp 2.1 trillion (US$924 million) to support its target of 7.5 percent in economic growth in the 1996 to 1997 period.
He said that 45 percent of the investment will be provided by the government and the local administration, while the remaining 55 percent is expected from the private sector. (kod)