M

ali is setting aside 1 million hectares of traditional agricultural land in connection with a trade and investment deal it hopes to make with Indonesia at upcoming meetings in Bali.

According to the Indonesian Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, which also covers neighboring Mali, Bamako wants to build on a trade surplus with Indonesia, which came from the African country’s sale of cotton to the Southeast Asian nation, says Mali Chambers of Commerce and Industry chairman Youssouf Bathily, by enhancing the economic partnership between the two countries.

“Following the achievement, the Mali government has prepared a special land area of 1 million hectares for agriculture and irrigation cooperation,” said Bathily, as quoted by the embassy in a recent press statement.

The Malian government, said the Indonesian Embassy’s second secretary, Dimas Prihadi, planned to use the land for agriculture and the development of irrigation systems, as well as housing facilities involving 440,000 homes with a total value of US$140 billion.

“What they want from Indonesia is a beneficial investment for all,” Dimas said, adding that the details had to be worked out through negotiations. “[They] could be agreed in a memorandum of understanding [MoU] profitable for both sides.”

He said that the Malian government had not revealed exactly what it needed from Indonesia, except that it wanted Indonesia to be involved in technology transfer.

Mali, through its President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, had called on Indonesian entrepreneurs to establish a textile company and technology transfer in the country, the largest cotton producers in Africa, as according to World Bank data it exported $263.5 million worth of the commodity in 2016.

Last month, Indonesian Ambassador to Senegal and Mali Mansyur Pangeran met with Keita and Coulibaly on separate occasions, during which Keita reportedly said that he hoped Indonesian entrepreneurs would invest in Mali, particularly through technology transfer in the textile sector.

“If Mali wants capacity building, we will provide it like we have done for other West African countries,” said Dimas, adding that Indonesia had helped set up an agricultural training center in Gambia.

As for the 1 million ha of land, Dimas said the Malian government had not yet revealed exactly where it is, only that it was already being used for farming.

“Currently, the area is reportedly agricultural land but it is managed traditionally,” Dimas said on Sunday, adding that he did not yet have any information on who was currently using the land and what would happen to them.

Bathily added Mali wants Indonesia to get involved in prospecting for minerals and petroleum in Mali and in the development of a 634,500-cubic-meter oil deposit and for Bank Indonesia to set up a branch in Mali to facilitate financial transactions between the two countries. “The legal umbrella [for cooperation] is expected to be signed during the Indonesia-Africa Forum [IAF] in Bali on April 10 to 11,” he said in the press statement.

Indonesia is hosting the IAF, the first economic forum between the country and African nations and, according to Dimas, Bathily hopes to meet with Indonesian entrepreneurs in the housing industry.

The event will involve 550 representatives of government, state-owned enterprises and the private sector from Indonesia and 53 African countries.

Ambassador Mansyur said he would try to arrange a business-to-business meeting between Indonesian and Malian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and others.