RI offers Burkina Faso plane-for-cotton deal
RI offers Burkina Faso plane-for-cotton deal
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday proposed to swap
Indonesian-built planes for Burkina Faso's cotton during a
meeting with Blaise Compaore, his counterpart from the West
African state.
The offer was made before they witnessed the signing of an
economic and technical cooperation agreement by their foreign
ministers, Ali Alatas of Indonesia and Ablasse Ouedraogo of
Burkina Faso.
Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told reporters that during
the meeting the President reviewed two possible ways of financing
the sales of Indonesian planes to Burkina Faso.
One is through barter, in exchange for cotton, which Indonesia
has been importing from Burkina Faso. Another is by obtaining
credit from the Islamic Development Bank, which has schemes to
finance trade within the Organization of Islamic Conferences.
As part of his four-day visit, Compaore will travel to
Bandung, West Java, today to inspect the plant of the state
aircraft manufacturer IPTN. He and his entourage will later
travel to Bali to spend the remaining two nights there before
leaving the country.
Moerdiono said the economic and technical cooperation
agreement signed yesterday would act as an umbrella for future
agreements between the two countries.
"The two leaders felt that the visit is quite a significant
beginning because of the high level talks and the signing of the
agreement. They hope other agreements will follow," he said.
At the meeting, the two leaders agreed that Indonesia will
send a trade delegation to Burkina Faso to explore the
possibility of investing in the cotton industry there. By helping
to build spinning mills, Indonesian textile companies would only
need to import threads rather than the cotton, Moerdiono said.
Indonesia also offered to help Burkina Faso develop its
agriculture sector, including fisheries, and also forestry,
tourism, telecommunications sectors and the training of Burkina
Faso's aviators.
Funding for these programs, Moerdiono explained, could be
obtained from third party sources.
President Soeharto also explained at length about Indonesia's
policy on East Timor.
Jakarta never had any ambition to annex the former Portuguese
colony, and it was the East Timorese who chose to become part of
Indonesia, Moerdiono said.
"The President tried to convince his guest, that, seen from
any angle, there was no reason whatsoever for Indonesia to annex
East Timor or any other territory for that matter," he said,
stressing the already huge territory and population Indonesia
covers.
"My impression is that the Burkina Faso president fully
understood Indonesia's position," the minister said.
Compaore, in response to President Soeharto, said he would
order his ambassador at the United Nations to maintain closer
relations with the Indonesian delegation, according to Moerdiono.
(emb)