VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan offered US Vice President Mike Pence to relocate the US pharmaceutical industry to Indonesia.

"When I met Pence, I also emphasized that their pharmaceutical industry, which is no longer lucky in America or if they put it in another country which later becomes problematic for them, just relocate it to Indonesia," he said in the IGOV Expo webinar of the University of Indonesia, Wednesday.

Luhut himself had met with US Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Washington DC, USA, last week.

He added that the Indonesian government had also followed up on talks about the pharmaceutical industry, including about vaccine cooperation with the US.

The former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs hopes that with this request, next year there will be a relocation of the US pharmaceutical industry to Indonesia.

Currently, there are many pharmaceutical industries in India, making the country as one of the main markets for the pharmaceutical world.

"We hope that in the future, there will be a relocation of the pharmaceutical industries which we did not have, many of which are in India, will be in Indonesia," he said.

According to Luhut, the Indonesian government is building a balanced relationship with many countries.

He himself admitted that he had continued to strive to build good relations with the US for more than two years ago as directed by President Jokowi.

One of the fruits of the successful relations between Indonesia and the US is the extension of the GSP facility.

"Yes, you can see the fruit now," he said.

This also dismissed the notion that the Indonesian government was only getting close to China. Indonesia has also built good relations with other camps including the US and Japan, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"So don't think that we only have relations with China. We also work with China, the US, Japan, Abu Dhabi. That is a constitutional mandate, we work with anyone," Luhut concluded. (Antaranews)