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Vice President Ma'ruf Amin (left).  (Photo by: ANTARA/Dokumentasi BPMI Setwapres)

VOINews, Jakarta: Vice President Ma'ruf Amin thanked Saudi Arabia for always working to make things better for Hajj pilgrims.

As reported by Antara, Amin expressed his admiration during an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel on May 7, which was later broadcast on his secretariat's YouTube channel.

"I would like to praise the Saudi Arabian government for granting us additional pilgrim quotas for this year and properly preparing services, including the swift process of visa issuance," he noted in a press release cited here on Saturday.

However, the vice president drew attention to the fact that Indonesia is still in need of an even higher number of quotas, as some of its prospective pilgrims had to wait for decades to finally perform the pilgrimage.

"More quotas will cut the waiting time, though only by several years," he stated.

Amin also commended the well-maintained coordination between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, noting that the Saudi Hajj and Umrah minister had acknowledged Indonesia's capability of administering the handling of its pilgrims.

"We still have room for improvements because Hajj pilgrimage is a matter of transporting (a host of) people in a short period of time. I believe we are still facing brand new issues. Hence, we need to work to prevent the emergence of such issues next year," he affirmed.

The vice president then drew attention to Medina, praising the holy city's rapid progress in the development of supporting infrastructure and facilities for Hajj pilgrimage.

"In my view, Medina's development stands among the world's fastest. The city has continued to improve, including by constructing more hotels, which in turn provide a higher level of convenience to pilgrims," he highlighted.

Amin also praised the efficient and well-run air transportation services offered by the airports in Medina and Jeddah that can handle an aircraft landing once every five minutes.

"Serving an enormous number of Hajj pilgrims is no easy task. Hence, thumbs up to the Saudi Arabian government for consistently making improvements in Hajj services every year," he concluded.//Antara/VOI