President Jokowi, Japanese PM Abe Discuss Patimban Seaport Project

President Jokowi leads Indonesian delegates in a bilateral meeting with Japanese delegates led by PM Shinzo Abe on Friday (27/5), in Ise Shima, Japan

On the sidelines of G7 Summit, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday (27/5) to discuss cooperation to develop Patimban deep-sea port project in Subang, West Java.

The seaport is aimed at supporting the flow of goods to and from industrial estates in regencies east of Jakarta that are home to automotive, electronics, machinery, and IT component manufacturers.

The new port will replace the scrapped Cilamaya port project.

President Jokowi has also appointed Minister of Transportation Ignatius Jonan as the focal point to follow up on the project.

Both leaders also discussed progress in the settlement of Indonesia’s failure to lower its import tariff on cars from Japan as agreed to in the Economic Cooperation Agreement between the two countries (IJEPA).

According to President Jokowi, the auto tariff could be settled if Japan agreed to provide greater access for Indonesia’s goods.

“The completion of automotive tariff issue will be finalized together with measures creating market access for fishery, agricultural and horticultural products (R and Q category), as one package,” President Jokowi said.

Prime Minister Abe expressed his hope that the automotive tariff issue will be resolved.

President Jokowi and his Japanese counterpart also discussed the power plant project in Batang and a plan to construct a northern Java railway network, as well as several efforts to intensify economic cooperation between the two countries.

On that occasion, Prime Minister Abe also appreciated the participation of President Jokowi and Indonesia’s contribution as the largest country in ASEAN during the G7 Outreach Summit.

Minister of National Development Planning (PPN)/the Head of National Development Planning Agency Sofyan Djalil, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, Chairman of Financial Services Authority (OJK) Muliaman D. Hadad, and Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Yusron Ihza Mahendra accompanied the President during the meeting. (TKP/DAN/SKM/ES) (RAS/EP/YM/Naster)