Luhut: I Ask China To Build Hotels In The Tourist Area Of Lake Toba

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said investors, especially from China, will continue to invest in the Lake Toba area, North Sumatra. One of them is investment in the form of hotel development.

This morning, Luhut held an Indonesia-China Tourism and Investment Forum for 5 Key Super Priority Tourism Destinations. The Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia, Xiao Qian, was also present at the visit. This event was also held to commemorate 70 years of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and China and to promote Indonesia's tourism economy.

"Later, if next month, hopefully the foreign minister (China) will also come (to Lake Toba). So he will see that it is very beautiful. We ask them to build one hotel here (Lake Toba)," he told reporters, Friday, December 18th.

Luhut did not specify the amount of investment that had been invested and would be added by Chinese businessmen. However, he said, the value would be quite large.

"It's big enough, I don't know how many trillions, I don't remember the figure. It's quite big," he explained.

Regarding the investment target, Luhut did not clearly mention it. However, he stressed, the government expected a lot of cooperation between Indonesia and China.

Furthermore, Luhut also said that the government does not only expect investment from China, but is also open to other countries.

"We don't know, there can be many. It can be of various kinds. A lot of our cooperation with China is currently running. In the future there are many more that we can cooperate with. Now China is good, with Japan is okay, we are also with Hong Kong okay, no there is a problem I think, "he explained.

On the other hand, Luhut said, for next year the focus of the Toba Fund development is to improve existing facilities, especially those directly related to tourists.

"We fix the hotel, we fix 10 tourist spots, as well as the toilets. So we fix it," he said.

Previously, Luhut had revealed that China plans to invest in Lake Toba up to 10 billion US dollars. According to Luhut, investment in China and other countries is the hard work of the government which continues to strive to drive the economy, including in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the midst of efforts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, the government is also focusing on the national economic recovery program (PEN). One of the sectors of the PEN program is Indonesia's mainstay sector, namely tourism.

The government, through the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, he said, is developing tourist destinations that prioritize the five main areas, namely Lake Toba, Labuan Bajo, Borobudur, Mandalika and Likupang.