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View all search resultsJokowi’s East Asian trip for pineapples and railways
During the encounter with his host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on July 26, President Jokowi raised a sensitive bilateral issue, namely the Jakarta-Bandung railway project.
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President Joko (Presidential Secretariat's Press Bureau/Laily Rachev)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo demonstrated his favorite down-to-earth diplomacy when he visited Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul last week. In Beijing he promoted Indonesian pineapples and raised his concern of the Jakarta-Bandung high speed train project, while in Tokyo he called on Japan to import more fruits and accelerate the completion of Jakarta’s MRT project.
In the last leg of his four-day trip, Jokowi succeeded in winning a major concession from new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who promised to participate in the relocation of Indonesian capital city to Nusantara in East Kalimantan. But Jokowi also faced a moment of embarrassment when President Yoon reminded him about Indonesia’s unsettled financial commitment in the joint fighter jet project.
Jokowi also discussed the Group of 20 summit in Bali that he will host in November, the skyrocketing prices of energy and food and North Korea’s nuclear threats, as he did when attending the Group of Seven summit and visiting Moscow and Kyiv last month.
Jokowi’s main agenda in the East Asian trip heavily focused on bilateral issues, including promoting Indonesian fruits, considering the fact that the three countries are Indonesia’s main sources of investment and key trading partners.
During the encounter with his host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on July 26, President Jokowi raised a sensitive bilateral issue, namely the Jakarta-Bandung railway project. The project will be completed only in June next year, far beyond the initial target of 2019. As a consequence, its cost has increased by 23 percent from the original estimate of US$6.07 billion.
Public criticism against the project comes as no surprise for at least three reasons.
First, the project seemed to lack a comprehensive feasibility study. Japan had completed its feasibility study and offered loan facilities, including very low-interest rates and long-term repayment, in 2015. In September of that year, out of a sudden, however, Jokowi shifted to China, because he fell in love with its business-to-business financing promise. The project would go to state-owned companies from both sides, however, In the end it turned into government-to-government affair just as Japan had proposed.
