The direct flights can be established between Indonesia and Azerbaijan just like the ones, which are made between Indonesia and Turkey, Husnan Bey Fananie, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Indonesia to the Republic of Azerbaijan, said.
Fananie made remarks at the meeting with a delegation of Caspian Energy headed by Natalya Aliyeva, president and editor-in-chief of the Caspian Energy International Media Group.
“In this way, we can attract many Indonesian tourists to Azerbaijan”, the ambassador said. “If we want to build our cooperation in the economy, we have to establish good transportation links – Baku-Jakarta and Jakarta-Baku – and cooperation between AZAL and Indonesian Airlines”.
The ambassador has also noted a very key opportunity in terms of increasing people to people visit.
“Every day we have people traveling to Umrah (Hajj)”, he said. “We can send them back to Indonesia through Azerbaijan as an alternative to several well established transit points”.
“It will not only help to develop further cooperation in the field of tourism but also develop a certain awareness and understanding between Indonesia and Azerbaijan”, he said.
The discussions during the meeting focused on the possibilities to expand contacts on the informational level within the Caspian European Club (Caspian Business Club) and Caspian Energy International Media Group, as well as the issues of participation of Indonesian companies in the Caspian Energy Forum on December 7.
Fananie mentioned that his mission in Azerbaijan started in May, when the economic situation in Azerbaijan deteriorated amid the crisis on the global oil markets.
“But for me and for our country Azerbaijan is obviously a strategically important country, not only within its region, but also across Central and Eastern Europe”, the ambassador said.
Along with high level visits, playing a key factor in strengthening bilateral relations, the ambassador also underlined the importance of business-to-business contact.
“It is very important to strengthen our relations, trade, and to encourage the visit of Azerbaijani investors to Indonesia, and Indonesian investors to your country to further discuss investment-related matters”, he said. “This will make it possible to establish mutual business cooperation between Indonesian investors and Azerbaijan companies”.
Describing the bilateral economic cooperation between the countries, the ambassador said that Indonesia is a huge country with the population of 155 million people and consisting of 17,500 islands.
Fananie stressed that such a large population requires a large amount of energy and electricity.
“Indonesia has oil like Azerbaijan does”, he added. “We produce 800,000 barrels per day, but we need 1,600,000 barrels per day. Indonesia has to import about half of the required volume”.
“We buy oil from Azerbaijan while also acquiring it from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iran”, he said. “To that end, every year we spend as much as $2.4 billion. From Azerbaijan we import from 400,000 up to 600,000 barrels”.
“That is why, in recent years Indonesia has been the third largest trade partner of Azerbaijan, after Italy and Germany”, he said. “In addition, we also buy black oil from Azerbaijan”.
He emphasized that due to those certain facts, Azerbaijan will continue to be an important business partner, as well as an important partner in the field of energy security for Indonesia. (Trend/Business World Magazine)