Benefits of Japan – ASEAN Ties Must be Felt by ASEAN People, President Jokowi Says
President Jokowi attends the Joint Photo Session at the 19th ASEAN Japan Summit on Wednesday (7/9) at the NCC in Vientiane, Laos. (Photo by: Presidential Secretariat/Laily)
After attending the Retreat of the 29th ASEAN Summit and the 19th ASEAN China Summit, President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Wednesday (7/9) attended the 19th ASEAN Japan Summit held at the National Convention Center (NCC), Vientiane, Laos.
In his remarks at the Summit, President Jokowi hopes that ASEAN Japan relations that have been established strongly for 43 years can contribute to the peace and security in the region.
Regarding the ASEAN Japan cooperation, President Jokowi highlights two things: cooperation in the maritime sector as Japan has been very active in it and emphasis on the cooperation in the development of human resources in which Japan has the edge in it, including in the vocational school and technology.
Indonesia also gives its appreciation to Japan for promoting cooperation in infrastructures with high quality and certainly this initiative will be able to support the ASEAN master plan within the context of connectivity, President Jokowi said as quoted by Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi in her press statement on Wednesday.
On that occasion, President Jokowi also extended his appreciation to theJENESYS 2.0, a program launched by the Japanese Government in April 2015 as the replacement of the previous program.
In 2016, Japan allocates 250 participants from Indonesia, university students from all over Indonesia. This is one of the efforts to further promotethe ASEAN Japan relations, the President said.
Ending his remarks, President Jokowi alsomentionedthe popularity of Japanese manga in Indonesia, a home to the second biggest manga readersin the world after Finland.This is only to show the close people-to-people contact between Japan and ASEAN. However, we hope it will not stop here (manga); instead, the benefits of ASEAN Japan must be felt by the Indonesian people.Most importantly, the benefits of ASEAN Japan cooperation must be directly felt by the Indonesian people as well as the ASEAN people, the President concluded. (EN/ES)(EP/YM/Naster)
