The Czech Republic is eyeing stronger cooperation with Indonesia '€” the biggest country in Southeast Asia '€” with the two countries agreeing to waive visa requirement for diplomatic passport holders as well as attempts to expedite bilateral consultation to increase people-to-people contact.

Diplomatic visits between Indonesian and Czech officials will be simplified after Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi and her Czech counterpart Lubomír Zaorálek signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Jakarta on Thursday on visa exemptions for diplomatic passport holders.

The step is expected to simplify interactions between officials of the two countries and to bolster bilateral relations, particularly economic cooperation and people-to-people contact through student exchanges.

The two ministers agreed to grant more scholarships to students from their respective countries who were interested in exchanges. Last year 180 students participated in the program.

Besides the MoU, the two ministers also signed a document to resume talks on possible regular bilateral consultations, discussion of which had been pending since 2007.

'€œWe are very glad that there are no current issues between our two countries and the only thing that we have to do in the future is to strengthen the economic cooperation between our two countries,'€ Retno said following the meeting at the Foreign Ministry.

The two ministers also mentioned the need to create more room to strengthen the economic relations, with two-way trade figures reaching US$200 million. '€œThe potential remains very big for us to strengthen trade investments,'€ Retno said.

The Czech Republic is among 75 countries that have been exempted from tourist visa fees in Indonesia, as stipulated in a presidential regulation. The exemption is expected to trigger more contact between businesspeople, boost direct trade and increase the number of Czech tourists to the country.

The country, according to a Foreign Ministry data, is Indonesia'€™s fourth biggest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe.

Trade figures between the two countries reached $217.62 million last year, with Indonesia exporting a total of $72.23 million of goods and importing $145.39 million from the Central European country. The figure declined around 16 percent compared to the previous year, taking into account that Indonesia'€™s total trade figures last year were also constrained because of global slowdown.

Zaorálek '€” who is on a Southeast Asian tour from Feb. 24 to March 1 '€” was accompanied by more than 30 business representatives. The business entourage, he said, aimed to '€œconsolidate business contracts and start some concrete plans'€.

Zaorálek said that regular consultation was needed to achieve positive results on a wide array of issues in which his country and Indonesia shared a similar vision.

'€œWe had a good opportunity to discuss our bilateral issues and relations. We conveyed our willingness to strengthen political dialogue, direct investment and tourism, environment and infrastructure, security and defense and education. We also wish to continue our cooperation to multilateral platforms,'€ he said.

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