President Jokowi Inaugurates Indonesias High-Speed Train Project
President Jokowi during the ground breaking ceremony of the high speed rail service project in Bandung (21/1)
President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Thursday led a ground breaking ceremony of a joint project with China to build high speed rail service, connecting Jakarta with Bandung in West Java.
Once again, this is an important cooperation between the Indonesian Government and the Chinese Government and we are hoping for other cooperation and new cooperation, the President said after the ceremony at Mandalawangi Maswati tea plantation in West Bandung, West Java on Thursday (21/1).
President Jokowi also said that Indonesia has entered an era of competition, efficiency, speed, and competitiveness and Indonesia must pursue them if it wants to win the competition.
Now were already on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) era, and like it or not, we have to be ready for that and prepare everything. Goods and people mobility are very important these days, President Jokowi said.
Low transportation and logistics costs, President Jokowi believes, will bring a better competitiveness for Indonesia.
President Jokowi also said that the project, which is the result of concrete cooperation and synergy between state-owned enterprises in Indonesia with state-owned enterprises in China, is not only to bring efficiency, but also as a preparation to face global competition.
With the mastery of technology, with the mastery of manufacturing industries, we hope we can compete with other countries, the President said.
President Jokowi also hopes that high speed rail service can bring benefits, both short term benefits and long term benefits. He further said that he would continue monitoring the project so the benefits can be directly felt by the people. (SM/ES) (EP/YM/Naster)
