Venezuela eyes new air routes, media exchanges with Indonesia
Venezuela eyes new air routes, media exchanges with Indonesia
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
The Indonesian and Venezuelan governments wound down two days of
senior officials meetings on Tuesday and agreed to several
commitments that would immediately be put into effect, a senior
Venezuelan official said on Wednesday.
At the two-day meeting in Bandung, called the 2nd Meeting of
High Level Joint Commission between Indonesia and Venezuela, the
governments of Indonesia and Venezuela agreed to explore the
possibility of opening new flight routes between the countries,
as well of an exchange of diplomats and media exchange between
the news agencies of the two countries.
The Venezuelan government also proposed at the meeting the
establishment of the Simon Bolivar Center in Bandung in order to
introduce Bolivar's thought to the Indonesian public, said
William E. Izarra, the Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs. Simon Bolivar is a Venezuelan national hero and founding
father. "In order to speed up the projects, we plan to invite the
Indonesian President to visit Venezuela next year," said William.
Izarra believed that the projects would help strengthen ties
between Indonesia and Venezuela.
Regarding the flights, Venezuela had proposed that Indonesia
and Venezuela open new flight routes.
"So far, flights between Indonesia and Venezuela had to go
through European countries but now we propose that commercial
aircraft fly directly between Indonesia and Venezuela," said
Izarra.
The media exchange would help enhance the ability of
journalists in the two countries, said Izarra.
Responding to the proposal, the director general of European
and American affairs at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Arizal Effendi, said that the two countries were
exploring the possibility of forging cooperation between
Indonesian flag carrier Garuda and Lan Chille.
"For example, Lan Chille can carry passengers from Venezuela
to Sydney, Australia and then Garuda carries passengers from
Sydney to Jakarta or Bali," he said.
Arizal said that bilateral trade between the two countries had
doubled between 2002 and 2004. While in 2002 the value of trade
was US$21.79 million, last year this increased to US$55.21
million.