Singapore, Indonesia boost cooperation in post-pandemic recovery

President Joko Widodo (R) and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attend the Indonesian-Singaporean Leaders' Retreat on January 25, 2022. (Photo: ANTARA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong discussed measures to strengthen cooperation for post-COVID-19 economic recovery and vaccine recognition at the  Singapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat on January 25.

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Widodo said he and Lee focused their discussion on how to strengthen bilateral cooperation in many fields, especially economic cooperation.

Antara News quoted Widodo as saying that Singapore is now the largest investor in Indonesia. From January to September 2021, Singapore invested 7.3 billion USD in Indonesia.

At the Retreat, the Singaporean side committed to invest an additional 9.2 billion USD, including new and renewable energy projects on Batam island in Riau Islands, Sumba island and West Manggarai district in East Nusa Tenggara province, as well as a logistics centre at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta.

Widodo emphasised that investment in the energy and renewable energy sector continues to be a priority of the Indonesian government to promote a green and sustainable economy.

According to the Indonesian leader, in order to support a green investment environment, the two sides signed a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) at the meeting, including a MoU on energy cooperation and another one on cooperation in green and circular economy.

In order to continue to maintain financial and monetary stability to support post-pandemic economic recovery, a number of other cooperation agreements have also been signed by the two sides, including  those on financial cooperation and extending one more year for local currency bilateral swap agreement (LCBSA) and bilateral repo line (BRL).

Widodo announced that the two countries are also finalising a cooperation agreement on vaccine recognition and vaccination data synchronisation, as well as interoperability between online medical declaration platforms./.