Mouab Breaking News
In a virtual press conference from Dubai, on Wednesday (20/10), Deputy Foreign Minister Mahendra Siregar explained that he had a meeting with officials from one of the largest retail companies in the UAE, Lulu Group International. In this conversation, Mahendra asked Lulu Group to partner with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia.
“Our goal in communicating and in this meeting is to always cooperate and partner, for Lulu Group to be able to facilitate and make part of its supply chain, the main producers of which are Indonesian SMEs, become exporters to the Middle East and a number of other regions that are part of the network and existence. from the Lulu Group, which is getting bigger and bigger,” said Mahendra.
Lulu Group welcomes the request, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Mahendra, will facilitate and promote Indonesian exporters to penetrate markets in the Middle East and other regions.
Mahendra also held a meeting with the UAE Ministry of Human Resources and discussed efforts to protect Indonesian migrant workers from obtaining better working conditions and welfare.
Mahendra said ADIA (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority) and INA (Indonesian Investment Authority) were in the finalization stage of discussing the list of projects and their investment values. He hopes that the finalization will be completed before President Joko Widodo’s visit to the UAE early next month.
From the UAE, Mahendra continued his trip to Qatar also on a mission to attract investment. Mahendra is scheduled to hold a meeting with top officials of QIA (Qatar Investment Authority). He said QIA is holding cooperation talks with INA the Indonesian Investment Authority).
Mahendra said QIA and INA were discussing a number of investment opportunities in Indonesia in the infrastructure sector, strategic projects and others.
Mahendra is scheduled to hold talks with several companies in the real and financial sectors in Qatar to explore cooperation in the fields of investment, trade and other potentials.
President Jokowi Will Visit Dubai in Early November
On that occasion, Indonesian Ambassador to the UAE Husin Bagis said President Jokowi would visit Abu Dhabi and Dubai. President Jokowi is scheduled to visit the Indonesia Pavilion at the Dubai Expo on November 4.
Husin explained that bilateral relations between Indonesia and the UAE are currently running very well and are friendly. According to him, there will be many cooperation projects signed between INA and the UAE and it is hoped that many cooperation agreements will be signed when President Jokowi visits the Gulf Arab country on November 3-4.
“Right now, the government of Abu Dhabi (funds) has prepared around US$ 10 billion to be invested in Indonesia. But it cannot be used more because there are still many challenges that we must solve in our country, especially SOEs (State Owned Enterprises). Meanwhile, our target is until Pak Jokowi arrives, everything is still in process, the investment target is between US$ 7-12 billion,” said Husin.
Husin explained that the type of investment from the UAE is in the infrastructure sector, either ports or airports, as well as in energy, renewable energy, telecommunications, vaccine-related health, and so on.
One of the investment plans from the UAE, continued Husin, is to build luxury resorts such as in Aceh such as in the Maldives. This tourism project is an investment from a UAE company called Murban Energy.
Husin said one of the reasons for choosing Aceh for tourism investment was its close distance from Abu Dhabi, which could be reached in five hours by plane. [fw/em]
