Indonesia extends invitation to attend meet

PAPUA New Guinea has been invited among more than 140 countries to attend the World Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development Cooperation in Indonesia next month.
Dr Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, in leading a team of Indonesian politicians and staff to PNG this week, told acting speaker of Parliament Jeffery Komal yesterday that Indonesia extended its invitation to PNG to be part of this international event in Bali from Sept 12-13.
“PNG is the closest neighbour to Indonesia,” Assegaf said.
“We want to strengthen our relationship by working closely to bridge the gaps for a stronger and better cooperation between the two parliaments and other mutual relationship. There are areas of cooperation and partnership Indonesia has established with PNG and would like to continue to strengthen them, while encouraging other areas such as trade for economic development in both countries, small medium enterprise (SME), education, defence, culture and tourism, people-to-people relationship and more.
“Indonesia has about 100 universities in Java province and would want to open more scholarships to its neighbour as the opportunity to send more students to study there.
“The SME sector of about 55 million SMEs is one of the biggest that contributes about 17 per cent to the country’s economy. PNG can work closely and learn a lot from Indonesia to develop its SME here.”
Assegaf is the chairperson of the Indonesia’s parliamentary committee on finance and planning.