Indonesian President Joko Widodo met with Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe on April 23 on the sidelines of the Asian-African Conference(AAC) in Indonesia to discuss the future of their cooperation underagreements reached during Widodo’s visit to Japan in March.

The two leaders agreed on the implementation of Japan’s plans to boostits investment into Indonesia in infrastructure, transportation,maritime, and energy.

Widodo said he hoped the twonations would continue the negotiation on Double Taxation AvoidanceAgreement (P3B) so as to increase capital flows and that the financingscheme for the 140 million Yen Calimaya and Shinkansen railway projectsthat have been agreed can begin shortly.

He also expected that Japanese investors, such as Toyota, Suzuki and Mitsui, will soon start their projects in Indonesia.

Both leaders were delighted at the visit of representatives of theJapan Chamber of Commerce and Industry to Indonesia in early April tofoster partnerships between the two countries’ businesses.

During the visit, the two sides signed several trade agreements,including the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on trade cooperationbetween the Indonesian Ministry of Trade and the Japan External TradeOrganisation (JETRO) and the other on investment promotion between theIndonesia Investment Coordinating Board and the JETRO.

Japan is among Indonesia’s largest economic partners and third biggesttrade partner after China and Singapore with bilateral trade hitting40.17 billion USD in 2014.

Japan’s investment to thepartner reached 2.7 billion USD last year, making it the second largestinvestor, only after Singapore.-VNA