Korea, Indonesia Forge Partnership
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
South Korea and Indonesia agreed Tuesday to expand strategic partnership initiated last December, the presidential office said.
President Roh Moo-hyun held a summit with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Cheong Wa Dae and signed a joint declaration celebrating widening bilateral ties and promising efforts to forge mutual, complementary relations.
According to Roh's aides, the two leaders expressed willingness to develop a variety of means to strengthen cooperation the two sides agreed upon last December when Roh visited Jakarta.
Accompanied by several Cabinet ministers, Yudhoyono discussed regional and international issues with Roh.
The two leaders also signed several memorandums of understanding, including those on worker training, shipbuilding and the forestry sector.
Cooperation between the two countries has improved since the signing of a joint declaration on strategic partnership by the two leaders late last year.
A number of trade and investment agreements were signed during their summit in December.
Roh's aides said the two heads of state expressed satisfaction with the friendly ties between the two nations since they established diplomatic relations in 1973 and agreed to make joint efforts to develop it more substantially.
Earlier in the day, Yudhoyono visited the National Cemetery in Seoul with his wife Ani.
President Yudhoyono, who is on a four-day visit, will meet with leaders of the nation's four major business lobbying organizations at Shilla Hotel in Seoul Wednesday to discuss ways of expanding economic cooperation.
Yonsei University plans to confer the Indonesian President with an honorary doctorate for his contributions to the promotion of international cooperation and exchanges. Yudhoyono is scheduled to leave Seoul for Jakarta on Thursday.
Indonesian government officials were quoted by the country's state-run news agency as saying that Yudhoyono's visit is likely to garner $1.5 billion in oil, gas, mining and electricity investments.
The projects include a $150-million liquefied gas processing plant on Sumatra island, to be jointly built by Korean and Indonesian companies.
With a per capita gross domestic product of about $900, Indonesia is South Korea's largest trading partner among 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In their summit in November 2005, the two leaders expressed satisfaction at their close cooperation in trade and agreed to make joint efforts for an early conclusion of talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Yudhoyono hoped that Korean businesses would invest more in the Southeast Asian nation's infrastructure, energy and information-technology sectors.
Indonesia is South Korea's fourth largest investment destination, with a cash inflow approaching $5 billion a year. Last year, South Korea's exports to Indonesia amounted to $2.9 billion, while its imports from the county reached $4.8 billion.