President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) made a pitch for the resumption of Taiwan-Indonesia ministerial dialogues to a visiting Indonesian business leader yesterday.
Chen told Mohamad Hidayat, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), that bilateral dialogues, especially between economics ministers, will promote the economic and trade exchanges to the benefit of both sides.
Chen thanked the Indonesian government for allowing his plane to stop in Bali when Typhoon Longwang prevented him from returning to Taipei from a stopover in the United Arab Emirates last month.
Chen said bilateral trade between Taiwan and Indonesia stood at US$6 billion last year, which represented a growth of 35 percent over 2003, and expanded by 19 percent to reach US$3.3 billion in the first half of this year.
Taiwan is the fifth-largest foreign investors in Indonesia, with more than US$13.1 billion invested in more than 1,000 projects, Chen said, adding he is sure that more Taiwanese businesspeople will be attracted to the country as long as Jakarta keeps improving its business environment.
Chen also mentioned Taiwan's aid to Indonesia after the massive tsunami on Dec. 26 last year. However, he said he was sorry that Jakarta had still spoken against Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization in Geneva in May.
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