Vice President Ma'ruf Amin Invites Greece To Invest In The Capital Of The Archipelago

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin during a bilateral meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at Maximos Mansion, Athens, Friday (11/24/2023) local time. (ANTARA/Indra Arief Pribadi)

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin invited Greek entrepreneurs to invest in the development of the capital city of Nusantara (IKN) in East Kalimantan, which is Indonesia's new capital city.

This was conveyed by the Vice President during a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Maximos Mansion, Athens, Friday, November 24.

"I also invite Greece to invest in the development of the capital city of the archipelago," said Ma'ruf as quoted by ANTARA.

Ma'ruf arrived at Maximos Mansion, the official office of the Greek PM, at 09.30 WIB on the third day of his state visit in Greece.

Vice President Ma'ruf wants to strengthen and improve bilateral cooperation relations between Indonesia and Greece, including in the economic sector.

In addition to promoting IKN, during the meeting, the Vice President also stated that there are still many potential cooperation that need to be explored by two countries in the blue economy and tourism sectors.

"This momentum needs to be used by increasing facilitation of business actors' interactions in priority investment sectors, such as maritime, shipyards, tourism and agribusiness," said Ma'ruf.

In the investment sector, the Vice President stated that there was a significant increase of 10 times in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the same period trend in the previous year.

In the trade sector, the Vice President invited the Greek government to increase cooperation in the strategic sector because the volume of trade until September 2023 decreased by 20 percent compared to the same period in 2022.

"Therefore, I welcome the Economic Cooperation Action Plan which was signed in May 2023," said the Vice President.

Based on Satudata of the Ministry of Trade, the trade value of Indonesia-Yunani fell 20 percent in January-September 2023 to 265 million US dollars compared to the same period in 2022 of 331.8 million US dollars.

In addition, the Vice President also asked for support from the Greek Prime Minister to help Indonesia overcome the European Union's discriminatory policies on Indonesian strategic products such as palm oil and wood.

These products are also needed by Greece and are against our efforts to increase bilateral trade, Ma'ruf said.