RI, U.S. will hold business meeting in Washington
RI, U.S. will hold business meeting in Washington
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and the United States will hold a
round table business meeting in Washington in addition to trade
and investment forums in New York and Chicago next September.
The series of meetings, scheduled for Sept.10-15, are being
organized by the U.S. Committee of the Indonesian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (Kadin) in cooperation with the American
Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, the U.S.-ASEAN Council and the
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.
"The business forums will be held as one of the programs to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of Indonesia's independence," said
Tony Agus Ardie, Chairman of the Kadin U.S. Committee.
Tony briefed House Speaker Wahono yesterday on preparations
for the business forums and asked for House participation.
"Wahono fully supports the programs and made some suggestions
to make the planned meetings more effective," Tony said.
He added that the business conference will be held in
Washington DC to discuss the outlook of Indonesia's economy and
opportunities for bilateral economic ties.
Indonesia's delegation to the round table conference and the
trade and investment forums will be led by Coordinating Minister
for Trade and Industry Hartarto and will include several other
high officials.
Other Indonesian business leaders joining the meeting are
Aburizal Bakrie, Kadin's chairman, and chief of the Bakrie &
Brothers Group, A. R. Ramly, Chairman of PT Astra International,
James T. Riady, President of the Lippo Group, Tony Agus Ardie who
is also Chairman of the Indokor Group and several business people
from East Java and North Sulawesi.
The U.S. delegation at the business conference will include
Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, a number of congressmen and
business leaders.
Education
Apart from the business forums, Tony said, the Indonesian
delegation will also launch a special program to educate 16
million American high school students about Indonesia.
"We will distribute teaching guidelines with the basic facts
on Indonesia to around 70,000 high school teachers in the U.S.,"
Tony said.
The teaching guidelines, called the Scholastic Ambassador
Program for Indonesia, are being prepared in cooperation with
Scholastic Education Inc. of the U.S. and Alwi Dahlan, an
Indonesian mass communications scholar.
The education program is a long term project but is vital to
strengthen cooperation and mutual understanding between the two
countries, their leaders and peoples, Tony said.
"Many U.S. high school students will become either business or
government leaders by the year 2020 when the Asia-Pacific Free
Trade Area will be fully operating," he said.(vin)