RI, S'pore to form cooperation team for tourism and aviation
RI, S'pore to form cooperation team for tourism and aviation
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Singapore have agreed to form a
high powered joint team of six cabinet ministers to handle
cooperation in tourism and aviation.
Indonesian cabinet ministers in the team are led by
Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto and his
Singapore counterpart Deputy Prime Minister B.G. Lee, Hartarto
said on Saturday.
The others are Indonesian Minister of Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications Joop Ave, Minister of Transportation Haryanto
Dhanutirto, the Singapore Minister of Tourism and International
Trade and Minister for Communications Mah Bow Tan.
The idea for a new Indonesia-Singapore scheme for expanded
cooperation was first raised by Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok
Tong.
"President Soeharto responded positively," Hartarto said after
seeing the head of state on Saturday together with Minister of
Finance Mar'ie Muhammad, Coordinating Minister for Economics and
Finance Saleh Afiff, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono and
Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo.
Hartarto said the team will kick off the scheme in September.
"A basic agreement will be signed soon. Private businessmen
will be asked to participate," he added.
Hartarto and the other three ministers met the president on
Saturday to discuss follow-up steps.
Under the program, the six million foreign tourists that visit
Singapore annually are to be lured into visiting Indonesia as
well.
Work on Bintan, an island close to Batam now being jointly
developed to attract one million foreign tourists annually by the
year 2000, with the bulk of them from Singapore, has pleased
President Soeharto, according to Hartarto.
Tourists traveling to Singapore will be wooed to points such
as West Sumatra, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Lombok and Ujungpandang
as part of the plan.
To support the bid, Singapore will invest in the expansion of
airports in Indonesia, including one in Lombok, and build a
highway in Yogyakarta.
Airlines
In a related development, the government is inviting four
domestic airlines to fly to Singapore directly from Yogyakarta,
Surakarta in Central Java, Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara and
Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi, Minister Joop said.
"The four scheduled airlines - Bouraq, Sempati, Mandala and
Merpati - are welcome to operate direct flights to Singapore from
those provincial cities as the two countries have agreed to
expand their cooperation in tourism development," Joop told
reporters here on Saturday.
Joop made the remarks after accompanying Singaporean
transportation minister Mah to Saturday's meeting.
"We also agreed to study cooperation in airport expansion and
tourist development projects in Solo and Lombok," he said.
The Solo airport expansion is estimated to cost US$400 and the
one in Lombok $600 million.
Joop said that Minister Mah was here as a special envoy of the
Singapore Prime Minister Goh to follow up on a proposal for
expanded cooperation in tourism development made by Soeharto to
Goh during the latter's visit to Indonesia in February. (17/icn)