Ambassador Wants Better Partnership between Malaysia, Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Sarawak - The Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Rusdi Kirana is committed to opening more doors for cooperation between the two neighbors. To date, Malaysia has been the bigger investor to Indonesia. 

"In my capacity as ambassador, I want to say that Indonesia and Malaysia are neighbors. That is our nature. There is no need for bickering, and if both countries treat each other as equals, I am sure that excellent partnerships can be established," Rusdi said in Miri, Sarawak, when launching Lion Air's new flight route between Pontianak and Miri, Thursday, March 15.  

Rusdi said Malaysia should not consider Indonesia only as a market and vice versa, but both countries should be able to work together to attract other countries to bring benefits to them, both in the tourism and trade sectors.

In the tourism sector, there is a potential of some 20 million Malaysian tourists and 10 million Indonesia tourists, he said. The tourism sector of both countries can rise in parallel by attracting tourists from other countries.

In the trade sector, next week the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia will hold an SME fair, followed by about 100 SMEs from Indonesia.  

Daniel Putut, managing director of Lion Air Group, said that the Pontianak-Miri route is the second international flight of Wings Air, Lion's subsidiary. In January, Wings Air opened its first international flight between Pontianak and Kuching.

Suci Sekarwati