Bilateral cooperation was one of the discussions between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Prime Minister (PM) of Papua New Guinea (PNG) James Marape.

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo held a meeting with Prime Minister (PM) of Papua New Guinea (PNG) James Marape at APEC Haus, on Wednesday (July 5), discussing efforts to increase bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Indonesia is committed to continuing to increase bilateral cooperation with Pacific countries, including Papua New Guinea, the Indonesian president said in a press statement after the meeting.

The president further said Indonesia and PNG had agreed to develop a development cooperation roadmap for the next five years.

"Indonesia will also immediately start renovating facilities at the Port Moresby Hospital, doing the construction of a firefighters post, doing waste management in Vanimo, carrying out construction of a school in Wutung, and increasing scholarships for PNG students," the president explained.

President Widodo and PM Marape also discussed increasing cooperation in the economic field between Indonesia and PNG.

According to the president, the trade value between Indonesia and PNG in 2022 increased sharply to reach 307 million US dollars.

This needs to be continuously improved by encouraging the continuation of PTA (preferential trade agreement) discussions, forming a business council, visits of trade and investment missions, participation of Indonesian state-owned enterprises in highway construction in PNG," he said.

Regarding connectivity and borders, the head of state said that he welcomed a number of policies and opening of activities at the border, starting from opening the PNG Express shipping route, opening the Denpasar-Port Moresby flight route, ratifying the Basic Agreement on Border Arrangement, to reopening the Skouw-Wutung crossing post.

President Widodo and PM Marape also discussed Indo-Pacific cooperation. The Indonesian president conveyed his commitment to enhance the engagement of Indonesia and ASEAN with the Pacific.

"It includes inviting Pacific representatives to the East Asia Summit and organizing the ASEAN-Indo-Pacific Forum," the president pointed out.

During his visit to PNG, the president also attended the first business forum meeting between Indonesia and this country in the Pacific region, which was held at APEC Haus.

“PNG and Indonesia are economic giants, with PNG in the Pacific and Indonesia in Southeast Asia. You can imagine that if these two potentials merge, it will certainly have a huge impact, not only for the people of the two countries, but also for the region," the president said.

In addition, President Widodo also said that Indonesia would support the PNG Connect Program, one of which is through construction projects by an Indonesian state-owned company that has experiences in several countries.

The president said that infrastructure and connectivity are the main conditions for sustainable economic growth.

During the meeting, the president also said that Indonesia and PNG have considerable economic potentials with the length of the border between the two countries reaching more than 800 kilometers, and according to data received by the border post in Skouw (in Papua province), the trade value of the two countries was recorded at more than three million US dollars in 2019

"We need to maximize this. We need to make these border points the centers of new economic activity. This will greatly impact not only the border communities, but also the economies of the two countries," said the president, who is sure that the closeness between Indonesia and PNG would be stronger with concrete economic cooperation.

On this occasion, President Widodo also witnessed the handover of a miniature Citilink aircraft symbolically to representatives of business forum participants as a sign of the launch of the airline's inaugural flight for the Denpasar – Port Moresby route.

Reporting by Indonesia Window