Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan speaks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 18, 2023. Indonesia and China have been cooperating closely in recent years to achieve a win-win situation, Pandjaitan said.(Xinhua/Xu Qin)
JAKARTA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia and China have been cooperating closely in recent years to achieve a win-win situation, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said.
Pandjaitan told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that the cooperation between Indonesia and China in energy, agriculture, science and technology, education and other areas has been deepening and fruitful, and has played a great role in promoting the realization of Indonesia's development goals.
Pandjaitan has visited China many times and is fully responsible for economic, trade and investment cooperation with China in the Indonesian government.
He has witnessed the fruitful results of the cooperation between the two countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the official operation of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR).
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday morning announced the official operation of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR at the Halim HSR Station in the capital city of Jakarta.
The Jakarta-Bandung HSR connects Jakarta and West Java's provincial capital Bandung. With a design speed of 350 km per hour, the 142.3-km railway is the first overseas high-speed railway project that fully uses Chinese railway systems, technology, and industrial components.
"Indonesia's decision to cooperate with China to build the Jakarta-Bandung HSR is the right choice," Luhut said, adding that China's HSR technology is advanced and its construction and operation strength has been well accredited.
Indonesia and China have cooperated well on the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR, the Chinese staff who participated in the construction were all technical experts with strong professional capabilities, and Indonesia has gained rich technology and experience in the process of cooperation, he further noted.
The senior minister added that in the future, Indonesia will continue to cooperate with China to construct more HSRs in the country.
He said Indonesia is grateful to Chinese companies for their continued investment in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed Indonesia to achieve faster economic growth in difficult times. ■
