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ndonesia'€™s Regional Representative Council (DPD) and the Australian Senate have agreed to cooperate to forge a mutual relationship in investment and other areas, according to an Indonesian legislator.

The bilateral cooperation was agreed on Friday between DPD Speaker Irman Gusman and Australian Senate President Stephen Parry on the sidelines of a consultative meeting attended by representatives from Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia (MIKTA) in Seoul.

'€œThis cooperation marks a new era in the relationship between Indonesia and Australia through senates in both countries. We have agreed to build a communication channel separate to the governmental one,'€ DPD secretary-general Sudarsono Hardjosoekarto said after the bilateral meeting.

Sudarsono said both countries had agreed to support efforts to increase cooperation in investment, culture and education between provinces and regions, despite strain on diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Australia caused by the executions of Bali Nine drug traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in April.

Following the executions, the Australian government ceased communications from the foreign ministry and withdrew its ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson. However, Grigson has recently resumed his post.

'€œThe issue of the post-Bali Nine executions relationship was mentioned in the bilateral meeting, but Senator Parry has said that the Australian Senate understands the situation,'€ Sudarsono said.

Regarding investment, Sudarsono said both countries'€™ lawmakers wanted to continue existing investment cooperation between the administrations of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Australia'€™s Northern Territory.

'€œHowever, Senator Parry said he would study the program first to decide whether a future enhancement needed approval from Australia'€™s federal government or the Northern Territory only,'€ Sudarsono added.

DPD member NTT Abraham Liyanto said the existing investment cooperation between the two areas had been initiated by NTT Governor Frans Lebu Raya in 2013.

In that year, the Northern Territory Cattlemen'€™s Association (NTCA) toured NTT to increase sharing of expertise and
technology from northern Australia'€™s cattle industry and grow prospective investment in NTT, which remains one of Indonesia'€™s poorest regions.

Governor Frans envisioned the province being developed like Batam, Riau, through the Growth Triangle program, a trilateral initiative for sub-regional integrated economic development linking eastern Indonesia, Timor Leste and northern Australia. The program was first mooted in 2012 and is expected to start work later this year.

'€œThere are ongoing talks between the NTT administration and businesspeople on the trilateral program. This growth triangle will resemble the SIJORI
[Singapore-Johor-Riau] Growth Triangle between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore,'€ said Abraham, who also chairs the NTT Branch of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin). DPD Speaker Irman Gusman said Indonesian representatives at the MIKTA forum in Seoul had called on lawmakers attending the event to start introducing cross-border provincial partnerships into their own governments to help speed up regional development.

'€œIn the future, we will expand cross-border provincial partnerships in other provinces too, perhaps through a sister province program, but we must wait for official approval,'€ Irman said.

The MIKTA forum, comprising five G-20 members, promotes itself as a group of middle-power countries with common characteristics, such as democratic government and a free-market economy. Its five members have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$6 trillion and a total population of 540 million people.