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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will open the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Business Summit on Monday at the Jakarta Convention Center, which will see business leaders from around the Indian Ocean and afar gather to build partnerships for sustainable and equitable economic growth.

The Business Summit is being held as part of the inaugural IORA Summit, for which heads of state and government will assemble for the first time since 1997, when the IORA was first established.

Jokowi is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech, taking the title “Indian Ocean Rim Cooperation toward a Prosperous and Sustainable Future,” in the afternoon.

Other leaders will also deliver speeches to business leaders.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who will take over the IORA chairmanship from Jokowi later this year, will become the first foreign leader to deliver a speech.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull are also scheduled to speak at the featured speaker sessions.

All leaders will talk about achieving sustainable and equitable growth in the Indian Ocean Rim, the theme chosen by the organizing committee for the summit.

There will also be three discussion sessions involving high-ranking officials and business leaders.

Earlier in the morning, foreign ministers from all 21 IORA member states are scheduled to convene at the IORA Council of Ministers to prepare all the documents for the leaders at Tuesday’s IORA Summit.

“The IORA Summit will produce four documents that will be approved by the IORA member states,” the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s director for information and media services, Siti Sofia Sudarma, said Sunday at the summit’s venue, the Jakarta Convention Center.

Among the topics the ministers will discuss are the IORA Action Plan and the Declaration on Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism.

The ministers will also prepare the IORA Concord and the Joint Declaration of the IORA Business Community to Build Partnership for Sustainable and Equitable Economic Growth.

Sofia said all 21 delegations and seven dialogue partners supported the four documents.

She added that one of the benefits of the Indian Ocean region for Indonesia was the source of investment, with a total value of US$3.05 billion, or 41 percent from the total value of investment realization.

“The Indian Ocean region is also one of the centers of world tourism, which can attract 121.8 million tourists and is worth US$146,8 billion,” she said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Tourism and Culture Minister Arief Yahya is scheduled to speak as a panelist at the IORA Business Summit, highlighting Indonesia’s efforts to boost tourism and attract 20 million tourists by 2019.

Arief is set to offer member states and dialogue partners the “10 New Balis,” consisting of Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Tanjung Kelayang (Bangka Belitung), Tanjung Lesung (Banten), Thousand Islands (Jakarta), Borobudur (Central Java), Bromo-Tengger-Semeru (East Java), Mandalika (West Nusa Tenggara), Labuan Bajo (East Nusa Tenggara), Wakatobi (South East Sulawesi) and Morotai (Maluku).

In addition to a series of meetings for high-ranking officials and leaders, the IORA Summit will be accompanied by a series of supporting events.

One of them is the Indian Ocean Great Voyage Exhibition, which showcases photographic reproductions of classic maps, artifacts, artwork and Indonesian tourist spots along the Indian Ocean coast.

The exhibition also aims to portray the Trail of Civilization, the Silk Road, the Spice Trail and the Exploration to the New World.

Meanwhile, contemporary exploration is portrayed in a great tour to the “10 New Balis.”