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Jakarta Post

Poland seeks stronger ties with Indonesia

As Poland commemorated its 101st Independence Day on Monday, the Central European country took the opportunity to reiterate its commitment to improving ties with Indonesia

Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, November 13, 2019

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Poland seeks stronger ties with Indonesia

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span>As Poland commemorated its 101st Independence Day on Monday, the Central European country took the opportunity to reiterate its commitment to improving ties with Indonesia.

Polish Ambassador to Indonesia Beata Stoczynska said Monday that both nations had been engaging in beneficial relationships — as seen in reciprocal high-level bilateral visits between the two governments that have strengthened cooperation in the past few years.

“Our political relations support our economic relations. The trade between Poland and Indonesia is increasing,” Stoczynska said, citing the mining, energy and maritime sectors as its main focuses and IT, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and agriculture as priority sectors.

She said the Polish government was encouraging Polish companies to engage with Indonesian businesspeople through the exchange of skills, with a current focus of supporting the Indonesian government to improve vocational education. Indonesian students were becoming more interested in studying at Polish universities, she said.

“We believe that the collaboration in such areas can strongly contribute to the ambitious economic strategy unveiled by President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo recently,” she said Monday in a reception in Jakarta.

Attending the reception was Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto, who expressed appreciation for being able to attend a celebration of history, saying he was pleased to witness the steady growth of bilateral relations between the two countries in various sectors.

He echoed Stoczynska by citing the increasing bilateral trade between the two countries and saying that, “in terms of trade, Poland is Indonesia’s biggest trade partner in Central Europe”.

During a visit to Warsaw recently, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said that two-way trade reached US$640 million. This is backed by data from the Trade Ministry, which recorded bilateral trade at $639.5 million in 2018, an increase from $524.9 million in the previous year.

“I am confident that with extra efforts we can further increase our bilateral trade,” Agus said.

In order to achieve the goal, he added, both sides needed to encourage the interaction of businesspeople, besides accommodating people-to-people and cultural engagements between the far-flung nations.

Stoczynska said distance was a sort of hindrance to raising awareness on the two countries, adding that, for many years, the Polish people only knew about Bali if they were asked about Indonesia.

“But that is actually a good start to start venturing into business [...] people-to-people interaction can open doors,” she told The Jakarta Post after the event, which also marked the 30th anniversary of the birth of democracy in Poland.

The number of Polish tourists to Indonesia doubled in 2017, with 32,000 Polish tourists arriving in Indonesia that year, compared to 15,000 four years ago.

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