TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan said that Saudi Arabia did not want to lose Indonesia as its partner. Luhut added that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said that Saudi wanted to make more investments in Indonesia.

The Crown Prince made the statement to Luhut during a working visit to Saudi two months ago. Luhut has met with the Crown Prince twice in the last four months.

"He said he didn't want to lose Indonesia as he lost China in the '80s. 'We want big investments in Indonesia'," said Luhut in Banjarmasin, Friday, July 22, quoting the Saudi Prince's statement.

Luhut also said that Saudi wanted to invest in various sectors being developed by Indonesia, such as the new capital, mangroves, high technology, data center, and others.

According to him, this had never happened before and Indonesia's relations with Saudi are running well which was evident from the additional hajj quota for Indonesian.

Saudi Arabia, Luhut added, did so because the Middle Eastern country sees Indonesia as a growing country with a promising investment place.

Luhut thus argued that cooperation with any country could be conducted so long as it brings benefits to the people of Indonesia.

ALI AKHMAD NOOR HIDAYAT

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