Indonesia, Japan Concretize Projects Ahead Of Ties Anniversary

Pewarta : Reported by Andi Abdussalam

Indonesia, Japan Concretize Projects Ahead Of Ties Anniversary

President Joko Widodo. (ANTARA FOTO/Rosa Panggabean/wdy)

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesia and Japan are concretizing cooperation on several strategic infrastructure project such as seaport, mass rapid transit (MRT) and railways in the runup to celebrating the 60th anniversary of their relations next year.

The cooperation was among others reinforced during a bilateral meeting between President Joko Widodo and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines, on Sunday.

On the occasion President Jokowi expressed wish for significant progress in the infrastructure cooperation ahead of the anniversary.  "This will be a monumental gift for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries," he said.

On investment cooperation President Jokowi expressed appreciation to increased Japanese investment in the country, adding that "it almost reached 90 percent in 2016."
    
Foreign Minister Retno said that the bilateral meeting between the President and the Prime Minister of Japan is an important meeting because they discussed the plan to commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Japan in 2018.

"Indonesia and Japan will be celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations, and in the bilateral meeting, the two leaders discussed activities that will be done for the 60th anniversary of the relationship," she said.

In addition, according to Foreign Minister, President Jokowi and PM Abe plan to launch the logo of 60 years of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Japan. She mentioned that in the bilateral meeting, the two state leaders discussed various infrastructure development cooperation between the two countries.

"Prime Minister Abe and President Jokowi discussed cooperation projects on infrastructure development with Japan in Indonesia, such as the construction of Patimban Port in Subang, West Java, Mass Rapid Transit, and other projects," she said.

The construction of Patimban Port will be financed with a fund provided by Japan. For this project, Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)  provides in the first phase 118.9 billion yen or Rp14.2 trillion.

Japanese Ambassador Masafumi Ishii  signed the agreement in Jakarta on Monday (13 nov) with Director General of Asia, Pacific  and Africa of the Foreign Ministry  Desra Percaya.

Japan's Deputy Ambassador for Indonesia Kozo Honsei  told reporters that financial closing is expected to be concluded soon and contractor would be named that work could start  in 2018.

He said the first phase of construction is expected to be completed in 2023, adding tender has been held to select the contractor both for Japanese and Indonesian companies.

"There have been Japanese companies taking part in the tender. Indonesian companies could team up with Japanese companies," he said.

The Indonesian government has named the port of Patimban as a National Strategic Project, which has been mentioned in Presidential Regulation No 58  of 2017 on Revision of Presidential Regulation No 3  of 2016 on Acceleration  of Implementation of National Strategic Project.

Construction of the port of Patimban  will be carried out in three phases  and especially for the first phase there are two parts.

The first part of Phase I of the port of Patimban will have a terminal  for vehicles with a 300 meter long quay  and container terminal  measuring 420 x 35 meters of the total length of 4,320 meters of quays in the phase 1, 2 and 3 . The port basin is 10 m LWS.

Besides the port project, Indonesia and Japan are also cooperating on the development of the Jakarta ¿ Surabaya medium speed train project.

The Governments of Japan and Indonesia will finalize the pre-feasibility study on the revitalization of the Jakarta - Surabaya Railway this year.

The northern Java railway revitalization project involves the upgrading of the railway between Jakarta and Surabaya. "The Directorate General of Railways of the Ministry of Transportation, the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), and JICA have held a survey," Senior Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Indonesia, Kawabata Tomoyuki, said after signing the loan agreement of Patimban seaport project and research facility development of Gadjah Mada University in Jakarta on Monday (Nov 13).

Indonesia expected the pre-feasibility study to be completed this year. The result will be followed up by JICA, he stated. The governments of Indonesia and Japan have agreed on using the existing tracks for the revitalization of the northern Java Railway.

Tomoyuki said train speed is medium could be set at 160 kilometers per hour and the travel time between Jakarta and Surabaya at 5.5 hours.

In addition to infrastructure cooperation, the governments of Indonesia and Japan will cooperate in the software program related to the preparation of regulation and human resource development in the field of railways, especially for MRT and LRT technology. (WDY)
Editor: Edy M Yakub
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