VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The topic of  MY INDONESIA today is “Indonesia and Cambodia agree to promote bilateral cooperation.”

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno L.P. Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with Cambodian Minister of Foreign and International Cooperation, Prak Sokhonn in Jakarta on Friday (2/2). At the meeting, Indonesia and Cambodia agreed to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, including trade and investment, tourism and regional cooperation. To strengthen the bilateral mechanism, Minister Retno Marsudi expressed Indonesia's commitment to hold the 4th Joint Commission Meeting of Indonesia-Cambodia as the main bilateral forum to encourage the improvement of bilateral relations, in particular the implementation of commitments and agreements between the two countries. In the economy, the two Ministers recorded a positive growth in the value of bilateral trade between the two countries, with trade values ​​of 492.75 million dollars in the period from January to November 2017 compared to the previous year of $400.01 million dollars. Meanwhile, Indonesia's investment value in Cambodia reached approximately $350 million dollars in 2016, covering areas such as culinary, housing, transportation, and infrastructure. Minister Retno also said that there is considerable potential for Indonesia to establish cooperation in the field of health products.

As both countries have a number of world heritage sites, Indonesia and Cambodia are committed to enhancing tourism and culture cooperation, such as through sister temple cooperation between Angkor Wat and Borobudur Temple. Meanwhile, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said that he was present in Jakarta to reaffirm the common desire to further promote friendly relations and close cooperation between the two countries.

Minister Retno Marsudi said that  during the meeting, Cambodia also expressed interest to improve cooperation and investment in pharmaceutical sector with Indonesia and invited Indonesian pharmaceutical companies to invest to Cambodia.

On regional issues, the two Ministers view the need for more concrete cooperation among ASEAN member countries. In terms of peace and security in the South China Sea region, the two Ministers view positively the adoption of the Code of Conduct -the COC for the South China Sea formulated in August 2017. The two Ministers also hoped that the COC negotiation is scheduled to be held in March 2018 went well. The two ministers also discussed the preparation agenda for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Cambodia which will be commemorated next year. This is the first visit for Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn to Indonesia since he was inaugurated in April 2016. In addition to holding bilateral meetings with Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Cambodian Foreign Minister also paid a courtesy call to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.