Events

MINSK, 26 May (BelTA) – The Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus and the Regional Representative Council of the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia have signed a statement on cooperation, BelTA has learned.

The document was signed as a result of the official visit of the Indonesian parliament delegation to Belarus in the upper chamber of the Belarus parliament on 26 May. The delegation was led by Speaker of the Regional Representative Council of the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia Irman Gusman. Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich signed the document on behalf of the Belarusian side.

After the signing ceremony Mikhail Myasnikovich explained that the document embodies all the arrangements made during high-level talks. “We are going to pay more attention to regional cooperation. Three regions work quite actively in this regard – Brest Oblast, Mogilev Oblast and the city of Minsk,” he said. In particular, work is in progress to establish regional cooperation between Mogilev Oblast and South Sumatra Province, between Minsk Oblast and the provinces East Kalimantan and East Java, between Brest Oblast and West Sumatra Province, and between the cities of Minsk and Jakarta. The South Sumatra governor is expected to visit Mogilev Oblast in August 2015.

Mikhail Myasnikovich also pointed out the need to expand the bilateral legal base due to the lack of some fundamental documents that regulate the operation of the business community. Another clause of the joint statement addresses the organization of a session of the Belarusian-Indonesian commission on trade, economic, scientific, and technical cooperation. The fifth session of the commission will take place in Belarus in late June 2015. “These and other matters will be discussed by members of the commission for the sake of working out a kind of a roadmap on the basis of previous arrangements that will allow raising the bilateral trade turnover to at least $1 billion by 2018,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich. “Apart from that, the day before we rather thoroughly discussed matters concerning joint enterprises in Indonesia for the sake of developing the production sector, including the production of food and confectionery.”

In turn, Irman Gusman remarked that the joint statement includes arrangements on considerable invigoration of bilateral cooperation in various fields, primarily interaction in trade and investment spheres as well as interregional cooperation. The Speaker said he believes that both countries should use the available potential in an optimal manner, in particular, the geographical location. “We represent Southeast Asia. Indonesia is the largest country in the region, with the population of over 250 million people. Over 600 million people live in ten ASEAN member states. As you know, ASEAN’s common economic community will start working soon. Indonesia will play a very important role in this association. In turn, Belarus is an important player in the Eurasian Economic Union. I believe that we should use the opportunities we have in an optimal manner for the sake of prosperity of our nations,” he said.

Apart from that, in the long term the sides will pay attention to such cooperation avenues as culture, education, science and technologies, youth policy. There are plans to arrange culture days on a mutual basis among other things.