US President Barack Obama’s two-day visit to Indonesia is expected to boost foreign investment in the renewable energy sources sector, a minister said here Monday.
“We expect there will be more transfer of technology for development of renewable energy sources, and investment in the management of the technology,” said Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa.
Indonesia must use the opportunity of President Obama’s visit to secure ways to improve its economic conditions, he said.
“Besides discussing energy-related issues, we will also discuss climate change, trade, education and plantations,” he said.
Indonesian and US officials would also discuss the need to adapt planting technology to climate change anomalies to increase plantations’ production.
Noting that the US had so far mostly invested in the oil and gas sector, he said it should be persuaded to also invest in other sectors.
Speaking about trade with the US, Hatta said it had now reached a value of 20 billion US dollars but efforts must be made to raise it to 35 billion US dollars.
“Indonesia’s trade with China now stands at 30 billion US dollars but with the US it should be more than that,” he said.
At present two major US companies - GE and Caterpillar - were planning to invest in Indonesia, Hatta said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia had various goods to offer to the US despite the restrictive rules of the WTO (World Trade Organization).
“There is still a plenty of room for expansion of Indonesia-US trade while we want to encourage the manufacturing industry, the renewable energy and geothermal sectors,” Hatta said.
