Indonesia pledged to participate actively in developing African infrastructure with the signing of multi-million-dollar business deals and the establishment of a task force consisting of representatives from various government institutions, state-owned enterprises and banks to help with the construction push.

Some 500 participants from 46 African countries took part in the inaugural Indonesia-Africa Forum, which saw the signing of 10 deals worth US$586.56 million on Tuesday.

Among the deals, Ethiopian Airlines will commence its first direct flight connecting Jakarta and Addis Ababa in May.

The agreements also cover various sectors, including textiles, commodities, transportation and infrastructure involving 18 Indonesian and African companies.

“We are striving to develop vast infrastructure just like Africa,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla said during his remarks in the opening ceremony. “We understand that infrastructure development is a necessity if we want to see robust economic growth.”

The value of trade between Africa and Indonesia in 2017 was US$8.84 billion, a 15.25 percent increase from 2016, he said. African investments in Indonesia in 2017 were worth $1.28 billion.

“Hard work is necessary to follow-up on the business deals,” he said. “In 2019, the cooperation between Indonesia and Africa will continue through the convening of the Indonesia-Africa Infrastructure Dialogue.”

On Wednesday, the Indonesia–Africa Business Forum is to highlight various topics, such as connectivity, the digital economy and South-South and triangular cooperation schemes.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Panjaitan, who chairs the team, said the task force would serve as an agency that can solve every obstacle while reinforcing existing potential.

He said that the task force was set to visit African countries that were deemed to have potential for Indonesia’s infrastructure push: Alegeria, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia.

“The task force is set to help solve various problems hindering enhancement of trade and investment cooperation between Indonesia and Africa,” said Luhut. “We want everything to be easy. We will adjust regulations. We prepare the financing mechanism.”

He added that several state-owned enterprises planned to expand to Africa. Train manufacturer PT INKA, for instance, hopes to undertake a railway project in Zambia. State-owned contractor PT WIKA, shipbuilder PT PAL and airframer PT Dirgantara Indonesia also plan to expand there.

British-based bank Standard Chartered and state-owned Indonesia Eximbank would also be involved in financial assistance to push Indonesian-African partnerships on infrastructure, Luhut said. African countries had expressed interest in including Indonesia in developing their infrastructure, he added.

“They talked about infrastructure during bilateral talks and discussion panels in the IAF,”
he said.

Separately, Daniel Tumpal Simandjuntak, the Foreign Ministry’s director for African affairs, said the task force was Luhut’s initiative and established one day prior to the forum, but he dodged a question on how the team would work on issues such as security and connectivity in Africa.

Tumpal added that the team was established on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s instruction to step up Indonesia’s ties with Africa, which were cemented during the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, West Java.

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