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Thursday, 24 September 2015

Australia and Indonesia would greatly prosper through deeper and more visionary economic, security and humanitarian engagement, according to His Excellency Professor Doctor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking yesterday with the Australia-Indonesia Working Group at The University of Western Australia.

“I am really optimistic about our future progress and we could create new opportunities to strengthen our friendship, partnership and cooperation,” Dr Yudhoyono said. “Let’s develop new frameworks for cooperation and investment. We have to think outside the box.”

Openness to new ways of listening, learning from each other and practical frameworks to create ways to work together were key discussion points between Dr Yudhoyono and the 25 working group members representing diverse sectors from higher education, government, business, law and health.

Dr Yudhoyono highlighted three priority areas to focus the working group’s long-term efforts - economic and business cooperation, political and security partnerships, and people-to-people relationships.

Dr Yudhoyono said by 2030 the Indonesian economy (by GDP) would be in the world’s top 10 and the population would increase to 300 million people, opening up greater opportunities for long-term partnerships with Australia in commodities (rice, wheat, coal, sugar, beef, soya beans), power generation and oil and gas.

“Indonesia is growing a stronger domestic market and a higher purchasing power and Australia’s economy is also progressing,” Dr Yudhoyono said. “If we could combine our resources and capital then we could, for sure, create new opportunities for our countries.”

The upcoming major Australian trade mission to Indonesia, led by Trade Minister Andrew Robb, was a positive sign that the bilateral trade relationship was being explored with greater vision and priority.

Perth USAsia Centre CEO, Professor Gordon Flake noted that Australians and Indonesians needed to look more towards one another.

“How do you get Indonesians to look south to see the great expertise we have here, and how do we get Australians to look north and say we have all this excess capacity to offer?” Professor Flake said.

Dr Yudhoyono underlined the importance of regional security and agreed that everyone wanted a stable and peaceful Asia.

“I have to be realistic, solving conflict over the South China Sea is not easy,” he said.  “This will not be overcome in the next decade, but at least we could manage it and prevent it from escalating further. Of course there are many other things we could do together to manage conflict while strengthening the framework of our regional cooperation.”

He said as neighbours, Australia and Indonesia faced separate but similar challenges such as the threat of terrorism, people smuggling and transnational crimes.

“We are also facing geopolitical challenges in a dynamic region,” he said. “We have witnessed the rise of China with all its implications. We can manage every issue we are facing and I believe that there is always a solution to every problem. We need to work together more effectively.”

Entwined in greater trade relationships and a more peaceful, secure region was the importance of people-to-people relationships and Dr Yudhoyono emphasised the need to promote better understanding between Australians and Indonesians and more humanitarian assistance programs.

“We need to avoid miscommunication, misperception and miscalculation,” Dr Yudhoyono said. “Our task and challenge is to further promote the quality of human capital.”

He said bilateral investment and cooperation in education and health could form the backbone to Australian- Indonesian people-to-people engagement.

The meeting also heard ideas and recommendations for increased research and student exchange, humanitarian programs and further leveraging the Australian-Indonesian relationship to enhance understanding and relationships across Asian nations.

Media references

Sonia Nolan (Perth USAsia Centre Communications Manager)                                 (+61 4) 01 034 103|
Professor Gordon Flake (Perth USAsia Centre Chief Executive Officer)                     (+61 8) 6488 4322
Jess Reid (UWA Media and Public Relations Officer)                                                (+61 8) 6488 6876

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