RI, Chile sign investment pact

RI, Chile sign investment pact

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas (right)
and his Chilean counterpart, Jose Miguel Insulza (left),
yesterday signed a joint declaration, marking the start of
bilateral investment relations between the two countries.

In the declaration, both countries agreed on the importance of
the private sector's involvement in development and the need to
increase productivity, to accelerate transfer of technology and
to step up economic relations.

Chile and Indonesia will, in the future, identify the specific
fields of cooperation, exchange information concerning the
business sector of each country, establish measures to anticipate
conflicts which might occur in the future and follow up
yesterday's declaration with the signing of a treaty on promotion
and protection of investment.

"We have gone one step further but we still have a lot to do
in the fields of trade and investment," Insulza said.

He said cooperation in the near future would most probably be
in the field of telecommunications.

Chile, which made its debut in the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum at the ministerial meeting yesterday,
presently records no investments in Indonesia.

"We are still unfamiliar with each other's economy but both
being in the APEC forum, we hope to increase cooperation," Alatas
said.

Chile's main trading partners include the United States, Japan
and Brazil. (pwn)

JP/arh