Dutch PM Visit to Indonesia Yields ‘Concrete Results’

Jakarta Globe, November 25, 2013

Netherland’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte, left, poses with Indonesia’s President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, right, during a visit at the presidential palace in
Jakarta on Nov. 20, 2013. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

As many as 21 agreements worth millions of dollars have been signed between Indonesian and Dutch companies in various sectors during the visit of the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to Jakarta last week.

Retno LP Marsudi, the Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands, described the visit as “a big success” in term of the acceptance of the visit by the Indonesian public and results that were achieved.

“We have achieved so many concrete results during the visit,” she said.

The two governments signed several agreements to bring the relations to a new era, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono praising Indonesia-Dutch relations as providing concrete solutions to Indonesian problems while Rutte describing the bilateral cooperation being very beneficial to both nations after their meeting on Nov. 20.

Rutte brought with him nearly 200 businesspeople from 110 companies, the biggest ever Dutch delegation to visit Indonesia. The group includes the Dutch biggest companies, such as Phillips and Friesland Campina.

Both Yudhoyono and Rutte launched the unprecedented comprehensive partnership that aimed to boost cooperation in at least 11 sectors, including water management, logistics, infrastructure, food security, agriculture, energy and education.

Hatta Rajasa, Indonesian chief economic minister, said that Indonesia expected to double trade and investment with the Netherlands from the current $5 billion and $1.3 billion respectively in five years.

“We will work harder because this is a new opportunity, especially since we have reduced license procedures, increased transparency and provided incentives,” he added.

He expressed the hope that Indonesia could become a marketing base for Dutch companies to enter Southeast Asia by 2015. Similarly, the Netherlands could become the base for Indonesian companies hoping to enter Europe.

“We want to become a single market by 2015. We hope that Indonesia can become the base for Dutch companies to enter the Asean market and, in turn, Rotterdam in the Netherlands can become our base to expand into the European market,” he said.

With regard to the national coastal development management, he said the Dutch government had expressed its intention to help and participate in the Great Sea Wall project, which is expected to start in 2014.

The Netherlands has funded a plan for a massive sea wall in Jakarta Bay to prevent tidal flooding and to manage the flow of water within the capital.

The area behind the 35-kilometer-long, 15-kilometer-wide wall will be turned into office complexes, malls and other commercial buildings. There is even a plan to relocate all government offices to the area once it is completed by 2025.

“We are cooperating with the Netherlands. We plan to carry out the project together. After the master plan is finished, we will offer it as a public-private cooperation project,” Hatta added.

In business-to-business deals, Van Oord, a Dutch port company, will work on a $27 million project to create five islands around Tanjung Perak port in Surabaya. An industrial estate will be built on the new land.

“Indonesia faces big marine engineering challenges,” Van Oord chief executive Pieter van Oord said, after the contract signing at Tanjung Priok in Jakarta in the presence of Rutte.

“The broad experience of Dutch engineers in protecting low-lying areas and the construction of land makes good cooperation possible.”

Work on the project will start in December and will continue until spring 2014. The project will involve dredging 4,000,000 cubic meters of sand from the sea bed and using it to construct five islands with a total area of 220 hectares. The contract will also include the installation of rock. Van Oord will be deploying a large trailing suction hopper dredger on the project.

In food security and agriculture, the Indonesian Horticultural Seed Producers Association (Hortindo) and its Dutch counterpart agreed to cooperate in developing horticulture in Indonesia. “For us, cooperation is very important because the Netherlands is the world’s second-largest exporter of horticultural products,” Hortindo spokesman, Glenn Pardede said.

“The Dutch investors want to develop potato and large yellow onion plantations in Indonesia,” he noted.

In the education and health sectors, several universities in the Netherlands signed agreements with their counterparts in Indonesia.

Hasanuddin University in Makassar and the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam (AMC) agreed to work together to create a state-of-the-art heart center in the eastern Indonesia’s biggest city.

Meanwhile, Erasmus University, a Dutch university with a leading health center in Europe, signed agreements with Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Airlangga University in Surabaya to build health research centers for patient care.

On logistics and training, the Bandung Institute of Technology, Surabaya Institute of Technology, the Indonesian Transport Operators Association and the Indonesian Logistics Association teamed up with Dutch’s STC and Panteia/NEA to enhance cooperation on education, training, capacity development, research and consultancy in transport and logistics.

In the aviation and airport sectors, the Indonesian Civil Aviation Training Center and JAA will work together to boost the aviation safety training to meet international aviation safety standards while becoming a center of excellence in the region.

The string of accidents that have rocked Indonesia’s aviation industry, raising concerns in the safety standards applied by the country’s industry.

In addition, Indonesia’s Jaya Teknik and Dutch Vanderlande Industries signed a contract on improving the handling of baggage at the New Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Terminal 3.

Especially in palm oil plantation, Vice President Boediono asked Rutte to help Indonesia overcome obstacles that had hindered its palm oil exports to the Europe.

“Palm oil is a very important and sustainable industry in Indonesia. We hope that palm oil exports will increase again,” Boediono told Rutte during their meeting last Friday.

In response, Rutte said that he would try to resolve bottlenecks in Indonesian palm oil exports.

“I understand that there are 3.7 million workers in the palm oil industry, and that palm oil is a large and important industry for Indonesia. Hopefully, it can gradually improve,” he said.

Boediono also asked the Netherlands to cooperate in developing Indonesia’s depleted infrastructure, many said has become the main stumbling block for the country to develop further into an advance nation.

“We need investors from the Netherlands to help develop our infrastructure,” he said.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Indonesian Ambassador to the
Netherlands Retno LP Marsudi, side by side in The Hague.
(Photo courtesy of Indonesian embassy)

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