President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo is leaving the country on Saturday for a working visit to the US that will be dominated by the business agenda, including a meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce and a stopover in Silicon Valley
resident Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo is leaving the country on Saturday for a working visit to the US that will be dominated by the business agenda, including a meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce and a stopover in Silicon Valley.
Jokowi, who will be in the US on Oct. 25 to 29, is scheduled to sign a business deal with the chamber of commerce on Oct. 26.
On Oct. 27, Jokowi is expected to meet with the US foreign commerce committee and fund managers at The Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington DC. On the same day, he will also deliver a speech at US think tank Brookings Institution.
On the second leg of the visit in San Francisco, Jokowi will meet with leaders from Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said that the state visit aimed to secure business agreements.
'This visit is deliverable-oriented visit,' Retno said earlier this week. 'In general, there will be lots of MoUs [memorandums of understanding] and B2B [business-to-business]. There will be a G2G [government-to-government] MoU signing, but there will be even more B2B signing because that will be the red meat of the visit.'
To support the country's thriving startup business, Jokowi will also take along key players in the country's top Internet startup firms.
Founder and CEO of motorcycle taxi application Go-Jek, Nadiem Makarim, said on Thursday that he would join Jokowi's delegation to Silicon Valley to help Indonesia's startup ecosystem grow.
'This is in the state's interest. I will meet with people in Washington DC and Silicon Valley to explain about startups in Indonesia,' he said.
Earlier, Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said that besides Go-Jek's founder, Jokowi would also be in the company of Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya, Kaskus founder Andrew Darwis, and Traveloka CEO and founder Ferry Unardi.
They are scheduled to meet with top officials from US venture capital firms.
'We want to tell them that Indonesia is a potential market for startup investment ' not just India and China,' Nadiem said, adding that it was part of an effort to help smaller, newer startups.
Jokowi is also scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Oct. 26, according to Presidential communication team member Ari Dwipayana.
'The focus is not only to meet businesspeople but also to meet the US government as well as those from civil society. So it's not purely business,' he said earlier this week.
Environmental groups have called on Jokowi to discuss environmental issues, such as climate change, with the US government and civil society as Indonesia is in the spotlight for its inability to eradicate annual land and forest fires, which have contributed significantly to global emissions.
'There's a big chance that the US will ask about the issue of forest fires. I don't know whether it will be a subject of discussion, but it is best [that Jokowi] prepare himself,' I Nyoman N. Suryadiputra of the Wetlands International Indonesia program recently said.
Jokowi's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was vocal about climate change, declaring the country's commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, compared to the business-as-usual scenario.
'We have already made the commitment, so we have to prevent forest fires, because instead of meeting the target of 26 percent, we will actually have surplus carbon emissions [owing to the annual forest fires],' Nyoman said.
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