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Indonesia seeks China's support to extend Whoosh to Surabaya
Indonesia also hopes for China's support in building ports and strategic industries.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) shakes hands with Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan (right) in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, on April 19, 2024. (Chinese Foreign Ministry/-)
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oordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told his Chinese counterpart during a visit to Labuan Bajo regency, East Nusa Tenggara, that Indonesia’s first high speed railway (HSR), dubbed Whoosh, should be extended to Surabaya.
Luhut met with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday to discuss bilateral cooperation at the Fourth Meeting of the China-Indonesia High-Level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism (HDCM), an annual event focusing on bilateral trade and investment cooperation.
During the meeting, Luhut pointed to the existing 142-kilometer Whoosh connecting Jakarta and Bandung as one of the exemplary outcomes of cooperation under the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The US$7.3-billion project started operations in October last year.
He expressed his hope that China will continue giving “priority attention and financial support” to the project through its institutions, namely the China Development Bank (CDB) and China Railway Engineering Cooperation (CREC), as well as by stepping up the technology transfer for the existing project.
“We also propose the formation of a joint task force to accelerate the [HSR extension to Surabaya] project,” Luhut said in a statement.
Plans to extend Whoosh to Surabaya have been in the works since 2023, and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo again pushed for the completion of a feasibility study during his meeting with Wang at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.
China is Indonesia’s second largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI), after Singapore.
