07.01.2013 -

Dirk Niebel, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Co­op­er­a­tion and De­vel­op­ment, leaves today for a visit to Indonesia. His schedule includes talks with senior political figures and visits to German-Indonesian de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion projects. The Minister will be accompanied by representatives from the German business community.

Dirk Niebel said, "As the third largest democracy in the world, the seat of ASEAN's secretariat office and a member of the G20, Indonesia is, and will remain, an important strategic partner for Germany. Moreover, Germany and Indonesia have a long tradition of de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion. De­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion between our two countries is currently undergoing a change. My visit to Indonesia will serve to explore how, with such an important partner as Indonesia, we can change our perspective on de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion to that of a partnership between equals."

De­vel­op­ment Minister Niebel will start his visit in Jakarta, for high-level political talks. There he will meet Indonesia's planning minister, Professor Armida S. Alisjahbana, as well as other senior officials. He also plans to hold talks with members of the German-Indonesian chamber of commerce, EKONID.

A major topic of discussion will be co­op­er­a­tion between Germany and Indonesia in the forestry sector. Visits to projects concerned with renewable energies are also on Minister Niebel's itinerary. Following his visit to Jakarta, Dirk Niebel will travel on to Solo in Central Java in order to inspect a suc­cess­fully com­pleted German-Indonesian co­op­er­a­tion project on vocational edu­ca­tion. There he will be able to see how the Indonesian gov­ern­ment has taken a de­vel­op­ment concept sup­port­ed by Germany and made it its own by rolling it out to other locations.

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