JP/3/Berlin

Jakarta, Berlin sign sister city agreement

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta's governor yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Berlin on a sister city agreement, following the singing of letter of intent on April 22 of last year.

With the signing, Berlin becomes Jakarta's tenth sister city. Previously, Jakarta has signed similar agreements with Tokyo, Beijing, Rotterdam, Casablanca, Islamabad, Jeddah, Seoul, Los Angeles and the state of Arkansas.

The memorandum of understanding, signed by Governor Surjadi Soedirdja and Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen yesterday at the City Hall, outlined six areas of cooperation between the two cities. They were city planning, city public transport system, clean water and waste water management, housing development planning, economy and culture.

Both the governor and the mayor stressed the importance of the agreements, especially because the two cities have many things in common.

Surjadi said both cities are metropolises, have a large, diversified populations and are directed towards becoming service cities as well as have a high rate of rural-to-urban migration. However, Jakarta is a province while Berlin is a federal state.

Mayor Diepgen, on the other hand, praised Jakarta as a symbol of victory (Jaya Karta) and unity -- similar to Berlin which he referred to as a laboratory for the process of German unification, where the success of unification itself was a victory.

Diepgen said Berlin, like Jakarta, also has problems in managing traffic growth and insufficiency in providing jobs and housing to its residents.

"With the sister city agreement, we can learn from each other on how to find solutions to those shared problems," Diepgen said.

Both also agreed that the emphasis of the agreement should be on economic cooperation.

"I highly appreciate the initiative of Mayor Eberhard Diepgen to bring a number of businessmen. I hope mutually profitable trade contacts can be developed among businessmen of the two cities," Surjadi said.

Diepgen came with a delegation of 19 Berlin businessmen from various firms, including three firms specializing in transportation techniques, one firm in power plant systems, one firm in computer consultation and one firm in planning consultation.

On the other hand, Diepgen said he hoped Indonesian businessmen would invest in Berlin, and particularly in new federal states of the former East Germany.

Diepgen said that Indonesian investors can use Berlin as a foothold to expand their businesses both to the east -- Russia and East European countries -- as well as to the western European countries, because Berlin is becoming the heart of Europe.

"I hope business contacts between Indonesian and German businessmen will result in real practicable economic cooperation projects," Diepgen said.

Diepgen said Berlin is particularly good at transportation planning, and mechanical and environmental engineering and he invited Jakarta to make use of these strength for its development.

Diepgen yesterday paid courtesy call on President Soeharto. He also met with Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto, Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, and Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie.

Today, Diepgen is scheduled to visit the state aircraft manufacturing company IPTN in Bandung and render a lecture entitled Technology Location Berlin, Perspective of A Cooperation between Berlin and Indonesia.

Jakarta is the third city Diepgen visited on his current Asian tour. Previously, he has visited Beijing and Hong Kong. (06)