President Jokowi Meets Prime Minister of Poland

President Jokowi meets Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydlo at Conrad Hotel, Beijing, Sunday (14/5) (Photo: PR/Deni)

At a meeting with Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydlo at Conrad Hotel, Beijing, on Sunda (14/5) afternoon, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo encouraged cooperation enhancement in a number of sectors, among others economy, maritime, and people-to-people contact.

Poland, that has good maritime and shipping traditions could be a partner in developing maritime industry in Indonesia. “At the moment, Indonesia is developing maritime infrastructure, including port and shipping in order to increase inter island connectivity in Indonesia. Therefore, I encourage development of maritime cooperation with Poland,” the President said.

Regarding people-to-people contact, President Jokowi emphasized on cooperation development on education and tourism sectors. The President welcomed Indonesian Language program in a number of universities in Poland and also Polish Language program in University of Indonesia and Atmajaya University.

Since 1987, there are 400 Polish students who have received Dharmasiswa scholarship and from 2011 to 2016, there were 5 Polish students received Indonesian Arts and Culture scholarship.

“Hence, I encouraged to finalize the MoU of Higher Education between the two countries,” the President said.

In the meantime, in tourism sector, the President pays special attention to the increase of Polish tourists to Indonesia in 2016 (27,903 people) that increased by 42 percent.

The President was happy because now there is a tourism package Warsawa-Denpasar-Warsawa using a charter plane Lot Polist Airlines.

“I also expect a support from Poland to the plan to open a direct flight Jakarta-Warsawa-Jakarta,” the President said.

On that meeting, President Jokowi also expressed his appreciation to the Poland for their agreement to give support to each other on the candidacy of both countries at the UN Security Council. Indonesia runs for the candidacy of 2019-2020 period, while Poland for 2018-2019 period.

Also accompanying the President on the meeting were Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, and Head of Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong. (DN/ES) (MMB/YM/Naster)