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)