Italian President To Visit Indonesia

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Italian President Sergio Mattarella, accompanied by several leading businessmen of the country, will visit Indonesia in November 2015, according to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry's official website on Thursday.

The Italian president's plan to visit Indonesia was informed by Italian Foreign Minister Benedetto Della Vedova in a return speech during a diplomatic reception at the Indonesian Embassy in Rome on September 22, 2015.

The planned visit of President Mattarella to Indonesia will be the first of its kind after Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi visited the country in 1999.

Vedova stated that Mattarella would visit Indonesia in an effort to enhance trade and economic relations between the two countries, which until now have not yet reached the expected level.

"With the volume of bilateral trade only reaching US$3.2 billion in 2014, there are still several opportunities that could be explored to increase it," Vedova affirmed.

He said the government of Italy hoped that the two countries would reach an agreement on investment promotion and protection in order to step up economic, trade, and investment cooperation.

Indonesian Ambassador to Italy August Parengkuan stated that the Indonesian government was committed to increasing bilateral cooperation with Italy as a follow-up to the result of the meeting between President Joko Widodo and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Brisbane in late 2014.

To this end, August expressed hope that the Italian companies could make use of various forms of cooperation in the energy, transportation, construction, trade, textile, and agroindustrial sectors to boost economy and trade between Indonesia and Italy.

He noted that Italy was the third-biggest trade partner of Indonesia among the European Union countries.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, the value of bilateral trade between Indonesia and Italy reached US$4 billion in 2014, with a surplus in favor of Indonesia amounting to US$560 million.

The Italian investment in Indonesia reached US$152 billion, excluding investment in the oil and gas sector. (WDY)