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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
Following the devastating impact of COVID-19 on African economies, the Republic of Indonesia has expressed its readiness to cooperate and boost economic recovery in Nigeria and other African countries.
This was even as the Asian country expressed the desire to enhance health cooperation with Africa in the sector of telemedicine and vaccine development.
The Director General for Information and Public Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Ambassador Teuku Faizasyah, gave the assurance on the occasion of ‘Journalist Visit Program (JVP) 2021 with the theme: ‘Africa and Indonesia: Cooperation Overview on Infrastructure, Transport and Health Industry Webinar.’
The event, which was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, had in attendance Ambassadors of the Republic of Indonesia in the African Region, journalists from various African countries, representatives of Indonesian State-Owned Enterprise, staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Indonesian representatives abroad, amongst others.
Faizasyah also said it was his strong belief that stronger partnership between Indonesia and the African region was needed more than ever to overcome the current challenges and to address various risk to mitigate the future crisis.
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Faizasyah further said the JVP was dedicated to journalists from the African region as Indonesia viewed Africa as a growing continent with much economic potential.
He stated that according to the McKinsey Global Institute, the economy of the African region grew by 3.3 per cent from 2010 to 2015, but continued to decline to minus 2.4 per cent in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic like the rest of the countries around the world.
Faizasyah added that there was not one country immune to the devastating economic impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said Indonesia and Africa have shared a long and strong historical background, adding that Indonesia and Africa also shared a common destiny that goes beyond the goals of Bandung Conference in 1955.
“Following the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia through G20 in 2017 in Hamburg, Indonesia is committed to transforming cooperation and ensuring sustainable economic growth in the African region. Concrete results can be seen in the implementation of the New Asian-African Partnership, Indonesia-Africa Forum (2018), and the Indonesia-Africa Infrastructure Dialogue (2019).
“On top of that, Indonesia has also established the first Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in the African continental with Mozambique and has at least, 34 outbound investments in the region valued at around USD 5 billion,” he noted.
