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.