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)