TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia and El Salvador have signed a diplomatic and official visa waiver agreement to better encourage cooperation between the two countries, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi and El Salvador Foreign Minister Hugo Roger Martinez Bonilla signed the agreement on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) in San Jose, Costa Rica, on August 21, the ministry said in a press statement released on Sunday.
The visa waiver agreement means that holders of diplomatic and official passports of both countries will be exempt from visa requirements.
The Indonesian foreign minister believed the signing of the agreement will encourage the mutual visits of the two countries citizens, which will eventually increase trade and investment cooperation.
Earlier, the governments of the two countries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of Indonesia-El Salvador Bilateral Consultation Forum in 2013.
El Salvador Foreign Minister Hugo Roger Martinez Bonilla expressed optimism about the future of bilateral relations between the two countries.
The two countries have signed two significant agreements to boost bilateral ties since they opened diplomatic ties in September 2011.
"I am convinced that bilateral relations between the two countries will increase in various sectors in the future," he said.
Both countries also have agreed to hold the first bilateral consultation meeting at the end of 2015 or early 2016.
The meeting will discuss the implementation of bilateral cooperation particularly in the fields of economy, trade, transportation, education, disaster mitigation and preventing transboundary crimes.
El Salvador which is the third largest economy in Central America applies open economic policy for its export market. It ranks 12th in terms of economy in Latin America and fourth in terms of human development index in Central America.
Trade between Indonesia and El Salvador rose by an average of 24 percent since 2010. However, trade between the two countries fell to US$12.25 million in 2014 from US$65.7 million in 2013.
Indonesias exports to El Salvador cover paper, rubber, chemicals, vehicles, footwear, soap, and electronics, while its imports from the Latin American country include sugar, tobacco and yarn.
ANTARA
