Zhu's visit to strengthen economic ties
Zhu's visit to strengthen economic ties
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Aimed at solidifying relations between the two largest
countries in East Asia, China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji pays a
five-day state visit to Indonesia beginning on Wednesday.
Zhu's visit, the first by a Chinese prime minister in the past
11 years, is expected to bring pledges of financial assistance to
Indonesia and to focus on strengthening economic ties between the
"two giants" of the region.
Zhu, born on Oct. 1, 1928, is known as a technocrat who has
helped bring about substantial economic progress to the world's
largest communist country after he was appointed premier on March
17, 1998.
Joining the communist party in 1949, Zhu, who was a graduate
of prestigious Tsinghua University, Beijing, earned the favor of
then Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping when Zhu was mayor of
Shanghai. Zhu's reform measures turned out to be effective in
reducing the number of inefficient civil servants and inflation
as well as in fixing state-run enterprises, which had been
operating in the red.
Zhu's visit, from Nov. 7 through Nov. 11, is seen as a great
stride in bilateral relations between the countries, which
resumed full diplomatic ties in August 1990, after being frozen
for more than two decades in the wake of the September 1965
abortive coup allegedly launched by the Indonesian Communist
Party.
Besides meeting President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Zhu is also
slated to meet with the People's Consultative Assembly Speaker
Amien Rais and House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.
Among the agreements that are expected to be signed during his
visit is cooperation on tourism, which will make Indonesia one of
the leading tourist destinations for Chinese travelers. It is
also expected that China will give financial assistance to the
Jakarta government, though the amount has yet to be finalized by
Beijing.
Zhu will also strive for the reopening of the Bank of China,
which was closed after the suspension of diplomatic ties in 1967.
The Chinese premier will visit the ancient Javanese city of
Yogyakarta and will spend the weekend on the resort island of
Bali before flying back to Beijing on Sunday.
Sino-Indonesian ties have achieved enormous progress since the
normalization of full diplomatic ties, particularly during the
tenure of former president Abdurrahman Wahid.
Chinese foreign ministry officials said that the replacement
of the deposed Abdurrahman by Megawati had not affected bilateral
ties as Megawati, whose father was Sukarno, Indonesia's first
president, had been one of Asia's familiar figures in the minds
of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.