Indonesia, Singapore cooperate in tourism

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said Indonesia and Singapore have agreed to cooperate in a number of sectors such as tourism and energy.

The fields of cooperation include tourism, development of liquefied natural gas (LNG), development of IT Park and sea waste processing into electricity energy.

“We hope they will all be realized at the end of 2017. In the tourism sector, Singapore agreed to invest in the development of Lake Toba, the Buddhist Borobudur Temple and the Mandalaika,” the coordinating minister said in a written statement in Jakarta on Sunday.

Indonesia has set itself the target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2019. The government is making all efforts to achieve the target by building a number of supporting facilities.

Therefore, in its cooperation with Singapore, Indonesia is planning to build cruise terminals.

According to the minister, the government is planning to develop the terminals in Tanjung Benoa, Palembang, Medan and Semarang. This is to attract some 300 cruise ships per annum.

So far, the number of cruisers visiting Indonesia is still small, despite the fact that Indonesia is part of foreign destinations.

Luhut has the target that in the coming two to three years, at least 150 cruisers will come to Indonesia.

“On Wednesday, we will hold a meeting to discuss the plan to develop the cruise ship terminals,” he said adding that Singapore also agreed to provide tourist service training assistance.

Regarding LNG, Luhut added that Singapore agreed to develop power generating plants in isolated islands in Indonesia.

Singapore is viewed to have the technology for increasing the electrification in Indonesia.

He also referred to the plan to develop IT parks in the form of data reading centers. On the plan, minister Luhut said he would communicate with the Ministry of Communications and Informatics.