New Malaysian PM to visit Indonesia

Erwida Maulia ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 04/21/2009 8:28 PM  |  National

Newly inaugurated Malaysian Prime Minister M. Najib Tun Razak will visit Indonesia on Wednesday and Thursday, during which he will pay a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

This will be Najib’s first visit to Indonesia since he was inaugurated as the new Malaysian Prime Minister on April 3, replacing former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Najib will be accompanied by eight of his Cabinet ministers: the foreign affairs minister, the defense minister, the trade minister, the transportation minister, the home affairs minister, the plantation minister, the agriculture minister and the manpower minister.
            
In their bilateral meeting on Thursday, Najib and Yudhoyono are expected to have talks on the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as a number of regional and global issues.

It is a long-standing tradition among newly elected leaders of Southeast Asian countries to pay courtesy call on the leaders of their neighbors in the region.
            
As well as having a meeting with Yudhoyono, Najib is scheduled to meet with Vice President Jusuf Kalla, People’s Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid and House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono.
            
Najib will also visit Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery in South Jakarta.
            
“Personal closeness between leaders of the two countries, like that between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and [former] prime minister Abdullah Badawi, is a strong point in the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia,” Indonesia presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said in a press statement on Tuesday.
            
“We hope this can continue with Prime Minister Najib Razak, who knows Indonesia very well and has long been a close friend to Indonesia,” he added.
            
According to Dino, Yudhoyono and Najib last met in June 2008 when Najib, at that time serving as Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, paid a visit to Jakarta.     
            
During a phone conversation between himself and Yudhoyono a day after his inauguration, the two leaders confirmed their commitment to preserve and develop the “good relationship” between the two countries in the future. They also agreed to follow up the results of the annual bilateral consultation meeting between Indonesia and Malaysia that last took place in Jakarta on March 17.
            
According to data from Indonesia’s Trade Ministry, the bilateral trade value between Indonesia and Malaysia amounted to US$15.3 billion in 2008, an increase of 33 percent from $11.5 billion in 2007.
            
This is one among other real achievements of the strategic goals enacted during the consultation meeting in Malaysia’s Putrajaya in January 2008, aimed at continually increasing trade volume between the two countries, Dino said.
            
Malaysia’s realized investment in Indonesia, meanwhile, reached $363.3 million in 2008, a 67 percent increase from $217.3 million in 2007.
 

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