Indonesia Helps Suriname to Develop Sharia Banks
Paramaribo, MINA – Indonesia affirms its commitment to help Suriname in developing Sharia banking. Bank Indonesia has sent a team to Suriname to provide training in regulation and supervision of Islamic banking.
According to a written statement from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, this statement was conveyed by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi after a bilateral meeting with Suriname Foreign Minister Yldiz Deborah Pollack-Beighle, in Paramaribo, Suriname on Monday.
“Cooperation in the field of Islamic banking is one of the potential for cooperation, in this context, Bank Mandiri Syariah has supported efforts to increase capacity in the field of sharia risk management and accounting,” said Foreign Minister Retno.
The visit of Indonesian FM to Suriname was the first full-fledge visit in the last 26 years. During the visit of Retno also had opportunity to pay a courtesy visit to President of Suriname, Desire Delano Bouterse.
Indonesia has special historical and cultural relations with Suriname. The ethnic group and Javanese are one of ethnic groups and languages that live in Suriname.
“With the provision and special historical and cultural relations, it is very natural for Indonesia and Suriname to strengthen bilateral relations in various fields, especially economics and development,” Retno said.
Several other areas of economic cooperation are encouraged to be strengthened including infrastructure, mining, energy and livestock development, especially artificial insemination.
“Indonesia expressed its interest in participating in infrastructure development projects in Suriname, including projects that received funding from the Islamic Development Bank,” he explained.
In an effort to take advantage of the various opportunities available, Indonesian business delegation has also visited Suriname in March 2019.
Several areas of cooperation that received the attention of Indonesian business delegates included gold mining, urban development, solar panel construction for housing.
In the field of animal husbandry, Indonesia has expressed its commitment to cooperate in artificial livestock insemination in the framework of cooperation between South-South Triagular Cooperation, through Reverse Linkage from the Islamic Development Bank. The draft Technical Agreement is planned to be signed in the first half of 2019.
In addition, economy, one of the areas that has also become a concern for cooperation between Indonesia and Suriname is the development of uriname Diplomatic Training Center.
MoU cooperates with diplomatic training and education in December 2018. In March 2019, Indonesia has sent a team to provide Indonesia’s experience in developing diplomatic education and training.
During the visit, an agreement on a short-term visa-free visit for ordinary passport holders has been signed. This agreement is the only one that includes holders of diplomatic, official, and ordinary passports in an agreement.
“It is expected that the visit visa-free agreement and the close relationship between history and culture that is specific will become the basis for further strengthening people-to-people contact between the two countries,” Retno said. (T/Sj/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
