Receiving Chinese National Development and Reform Minister

Jakarta. Vice President (Wapres) Jusuf Kalla received Chinese National Development and Reform Minister Xu Shaoshi during his official visit to Indonesia, at the Vice President’s office today. Mr Shaoshi in the meeting stated that the relationship between China and Indonesia has been very good. “In the last eight months, our presidents had even met up for three times,” he said.

Mr Shaoshi also told Vice President China’s interest to take part in the infrastructure development in Indonesia, especially in transportation and energy. He in particular promoted China’s appeal in the construction of Jakarta-Bandung high speed rail project. “The high speed rail project we are proposing would speed up to 360 kilometres per hour and it is secure, meeting the international standards,” he said.

In reply, the Vice President said Indonesia currently deliberately needs to speed up infrastructure development, especially in Java which is populated by 165 people. The high speed rail, he said, is thus deemed highly required. The city of Bandung, the third largest city in the country, Mr Kalla added, is a city of trade and tourism at the same time. “We find the project is crucial, yet we need to study it thoroughly at first,” he said.

Mr Shaoshi also told the Vice President that coal fired power plant (PLTU) Celukan Bawang in Bali, which was jointly built by Indonesian and Chinese companies, just started to run officially. He wished that in the future there would be other joint cooperation with China to build more power plants.

Minister Shaoshi in the meeting was accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xie Feng, Deputy Secretary General of Chinese Development and Reform Minister Maz Xin, Head of Chinese Corporate Engineering He Huawu, Chief Operating Officer of Chinese Development Bank Wang Gefan, Deputy Director General of International Relation Li Xuedong and Deputy Director General of Chinese Development Bank He Wei.