Indonesia-Singapore Explores Cooperation on Travel Corridor Arrangements

Singapore, MINA – Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Tuesday, August 25 in Singapore.

Singapore is the third country visited by the Foreign Minister after China and the United Arab Emirates.

In her meeting with the Singapore Foreign Minister, one of the things discussed is the plan to make an Essential Business Travel Corridor Arrangement (TCA) between the two countries.

The two Foreign Ministers exchanged elements of each concept that each country had and agreed to assign their respective teams to start negotiations at the first opportunity.

Previously, Indonesia already had TCA arrangements with the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and China.

The TCA arrangement is carried out by implementing strict health protocols and applies primarily to important business trips and urgent business trips.

Singapore is one of Indonesia’s important partners. Singapore’s investment rate in Indonesia still ranks first, namely US$ 4.7 billion for the first semester of 2020, or an increase of 36.3 percent over the same period the previous year.

The non-oil and gas trade surplus also recorded an increase. Indonesia experienced a non-oil and gas trade surplus in the first semester of 2020, namely US$ 398 million compared to US$ 360 million in the same period in 2019, or experienced a 10.6 percent increase in surplus.

The two Foreign Ministers also agreed to encourage six Working Groups, namely in the field of Batam Bintan Karimun cooperation, investment, human resources, transportation, agriculture and tourism to immediately intensify communications in order to prepare the Leaders’ Retreat deliverables whose timing will be determined at the first opportunity.

During her visit to Singapore, the Indonesian Foreign Minister was also welcomed by the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong. Preparations for the Leaders’ Retreat were discussed during the courtesy call. (L / RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)