Jia Qinglin meets with Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla

On March 27, 2006, Chairman Jia Qinglin of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) met with Indonesian Vice President Muhammad Jusuf Kalla in Jakarta.

Jia conveyed the greetings from Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong to Jusuf and Jusuf asked Jia to convey his cordial greetings and best wishes to Zeng.

Jia said that the traditional friendship between both peoples goes back to ancient times and Indonesia is one of the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with the New China. With joint efforts of both sides, bilateral relations have scored satisfactory rapid development. In particular on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties last year, the heads of state of both sides exchanged visits successfully and announced the establishment of their strategic partnership, which has pushed bilateral relations to a new historical height. China would like to work with Indonesia to take the establishment of strategic partnership as a new start point, carry forward bilateral friendly tradition and earnestly push for exchanges and cooperation in all areas in a bid to bring benefits to both countries and their people and make greater contributions to peace and development of this region and the world at large.

Jia indicated that bilateral economic and trade cooperation has scored new achievements and bilateral trade volume has increased year after year. Some large cooperative programs have been launched successively and brought tangible benefits to both peoples. China hopes to further strengthen economic and trade cooperation with Indonesia and promote in-depth development of bilateral relations. To this end, Jia put forward suggestions in the following four aspects. First, to strengthen trade and investment cooperation. Both sides should try to safeguard the sound momentum in the development of bilateral trade and strive to fulfill in advance the target of 20 billion US dollars for the bilateral trade volume in 2008 and that of 30 billion US dollars in 2010. China would like to actively consider the possibility of establishing an investment-promotion mechanism and encourage more Chinese businesses with strengthen and good reputation to invest in Indonesia. Second, to further advance cooperation in large programs in the areas of electric power, infrastructure construction and water conservancy so as to push the overall economic and trade cooperation to one new level after another. Third, to deepen cooperation in energy and resources exploitation, step up efforts in implementing related projects, and make cooperation bear fruits at an early date. Fourth, to keep closer coordination and cooperation in regional economic and trade cooperation and continuously advance the development of China-ASEAN free trade area and East Asian cooperation process. China will continue to do a good job in the reconstruction of tsunami-affected areas in Indonesia and offer necessary support to Indonesia for bird flu prevention and control.

Jusuf indicated that since the establishment of diplomatic ties between both sides, bilateral relations have witnessed sound development and both sides have conducted effective cooperation in the areas of economy & trade, infrastructure construction and energy exploitation. Indonesia admires China's achievements in economic growth and hopes that more Chinese businesses will invest and develop in Indonesia. Both countries are developing nations of great significance in Asia and enjoy complementary advantages and good prospect for cooperation in the field of economic development. Indonesia would like to conduct all-round economic and trade cooperation with China, expand bilateral trade, strengthen cooperation in the areas of infrastructure construction, investment, energy exploitation and technology and comprehensively advance bilateral strategic partnership. Both sides can also enhance educational cooperation, increase the number of their students studying in each other and expand the basis of bilateral friendship. Indonesia would also like to work with China to jointly promote in-depth development of China-ASEAN cooperation and East Asian cooperation.

On the same day, Jia met with the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia and representatives from Chinese-funded institutions and Chinese students in Indonesia. On the evening of the same day, Jia attended the welcome banquet held by Chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid of the People Consultative Assembly (MPR) of Indonesia.