JP/3/Berlin

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)