Luhut And Erick Thohir 'seduce' Saudi Arabia To Build Indonesian Houses For Umrah And Hajj Pilgrims
JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and BUMN Minister Erick Thohir are exploring cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in order to restore the post-COVID-19 economy.
BUMN Minister Erick Tohir hopes that investment and economic cooperation can be realized with the participation of the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).
In addition, he continued, cooperation was also established in BUMN projects, including BUMN Sharia Banks, investment in the Mandalika Special Economic Zone (KEK), as well as Indonesia's interest in building Indonesian Houses in Mecca for Umrah and Haj pilgrims.
Minister Erick and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan have completed working visit assignments to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh where they met the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Saudi Arabian Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih , and the Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf.
The visit to the two Middle Eastern friendly countries was carried out to strengthen strategic relations and friendship in the investment and economic fields, especially in the post-COVID-19 period.
During the visit, the Minister of BUMN also gave an explanation regarding the transformation of BUMN which is currently underway where the number of clusters has decreased from 27 to 12, the management of BUMN companies that are in accordance with good corporate governance (GCG) and the many performances of BUMN companies on the Indonesian stock exchange which are appreciated by the market.
"The progress of this transformation is highly appreciated by the Governments of the UAE and Saudi Arabia," he said as quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 10.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister Marves Luhut saw the need for closer bilateral cooperation between countries to be able to restore the economy after COVID-19.
He said that the arrival of vaccines has provided good news in the economic sector, but without real cooperation in investment and economy, Indonesia's economic recovery will not be optimal.