Indonesians' hospitality delights Ecuadorian first ambassador
Indonesians' hospitality delights Ecuadorian first ambassador
Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It may not be commonly known that three out of every 10 bananas
consumed worldwide come from Ecuador.
The equatorial state of Ecuador, which has 180,000 hectares of
banana plantations, is indeed the world's biggest exporter of
bananas. Around 12 percent of the total employment in Ecuador is
in it banana sector.
Not only that. Ecuador, a country of 13.7 million people with
abundant natural resources, has the world's best quality flowers,
especially roses.
"We are the world's third largest exporter of flowers. We
export every year around 85,000 tons of flowers to the U.S.,
Holland, Germany, Canada, Spain and even China," Ecuador's first-
ever resident ambassador to Indonesia Alfonso Lopez-Araujo told
The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview at his office located
in the World Trade Center in Central Jakarta.
Surprisingly, this South American land of bananas and roses
only opened its full-fledged embassy in Jakarta in May 2005. And
its first ambassador, Alfonso, who is new to both Indonesia as
well as Asia, was sent here to build relations between Ecuador
and Indonesia from the ground up.
"We have had diplomatic relations with Indonesia since 1980,
but we used to operate our activities from Tokyo. But you see,
Tokyo is far from Jakarta. Our main intention in opening our
embassy here is that Indonesia is too big to ignore. Indonesia's
size, geostrategic location and its leading role in world
politics motivated us to have close links with this beautiful
country," said Alfonso, who submitted his credentials to
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Nov. 25, 2004.
Indonesia's ambassador to Venezuela is concurrently accredited
to Ecuador.
By appointing Alfonso -- one of Ecuador's few elite diplomats
who has received high decorations from Ecuador, Sweden, Colombia,
Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Dominican Republic and Peru -- as its
first ambassador to Indonesia, Quito wants to convey to Jakarta
that it is serious in building its relationship with a strong
foundation right from the beginning.
Alfonso, who has doctorate in law from Universidad Central del
Ecuador, is an experienced and adept career diplomat.
The 59-year old, who likes classical music, photography and
computers, revealed why he abandoned a potentially lucrative law
profession and joined the foreign service.
"When I was young, I always thought how fascinating it would
be to serve my country abroad. One of my sisters got married to a
diplomat. I saw personally what a diplomat's life is. That's why,
I decided to join the foreign service," said Alfonso, who is
married and has three children.
Alfonso's career began in Belgium as third secretary in the
Ecuadorian embassy. Later, he became a counselor at Ecuador's
Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and New York.
Thanks to his good performance at the UN, Alfonso was
appointed as ambassador to Sweden in 1996, simultaneously being
accredited to Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania.
After working for a period of three years in Quito, Alfonso
went again to Europe as ambassador to Hungary in 2003.
In 2004, Ecuador realized the importance of establishing an
embassy in Jakarta.
Alfonso's law background, experience at the UN and in Europe
and his distinguished 30-year diplomatic career made him the
right man for the job, even though he has never worked in Asia.
Ecuador's then-president Lucio Gutterez transferred Alfonso to
Jakarta from Budapest in late 2004.
Before arriving in Jakarta, the computer-savvy Alfonso
established contacts through the Internet with the Indonesia's
real estate company Koll.
"Koll is a professional organization it had arranged
everything for me and my office. I appreciate the Indonesian
Foreign Ministry for its big help in opening our embassy. Latin
American ambassadors also helped us," said Alfonso, who speaks
fluent Spanish, English and French.
He was amazed by the hospitality and friendliness of
Indonesian people.
"Indonesian people are the most friendly people. Whenever I
had problems in finding the names of the items I wanted to
purchase, someone was always ready to help me. This is amazing,"
Alfonso said while adding he wants to learn Bahasa Indonesia so
he can mingle with Indonesian people.
The establishment of the embassy in Jakarta is a step forward
in building better and stronger relationship with Indonesia, but
building that relationship from scratch is going to be Alfonso's
big challenge.