RI, India to set up joint ministerial commission
RI, India to set up joint ministerial commission
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and India have agreed to establish a joint ministerial commission to promote economic and trade relations between the two countries.
The agreement was announced yesterday, at the close of the third Indonesia-India Senior Officials Meeting, which began on Monday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.
The joint commission will be an upgraded version of the Senior Officials Forum, which met for the first time in Jakarta in 1986 and held its second meeting in New Delhi in 1988.
Director General for Foreign Economic Relations of the Foreign Ministry Wisber Loeis, who headed the Indonesian delegation, said that the establishment of the ministerial commission reflected the strong commitment of both sides to boosting bilateral economic ties.
Wisber said that the commission would be comprised of economic officials from the two countries.
He did not reveal when the first meeting of the joint ministerial commission would take place.
Apart from the joint commission, the two sides also agreed to establish an Indian-Indonesian Joint Business Council in New Delhi to complement the one that already exists in Jakarta.
Both delegations agreed to promote the establishment of joint ventures, particularly in the areas of telecommunications, fertilizers and pulp and paper.
During the senior officials' meeting, each delegation put forward a list of products that their country would like to export to the other. Indonesia offered to export processed food, automobile parts, marine products and textile machinery.
The Indian delegation, headed by Tejendra Khanna, permanent secretary at the Indian ministry of trade, offered to export, among other products, oil seeds, engineering items, scooters and motorcycles.
Two-way trade between Indonesian and India currently stands at some US$500 million a year.
According to Wisber, two Indonesian companies have already begun projects in India. The first is the Sinar Mas Group, owned by tycoon Eka Tjipta Widjaja, which operates in the palm oil industry and PT Takengon, which operates in rubber.(mds)