Jokowi says Singapore can help him achieve goals: PM Lee

JAKARTA — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today (Oct 20) expressed his wish for Singapore to take its relationship and cooperation with Indonesia another step forward, following the inauguration of Mr Joko Widodo as Indonesia’s seventh President.

Mr Lee was among the foreign leaders who witnessed the historic swearing-in of Mr Widodo — the first Indonesian President not from the political, business or military elite.

“We have many things going on — economic; we have trade, we have investments, we’ve got security cooperation, our armed forces work together with TNI (the Indonesian military). And I told him that we work well and we would like to do more together,” Mr Lee told Singapore reporters after his meeting with Mr Widodo. Singapore is also open to helping the new president bring in investments for his country, he added.

Mr Lee noted that Mr Widodo’s priorities are on domestic issues. “He’s focused very much on certain ideas and reforms which he has — reforms and fuel subsidies to start off with. But also reforms to the bureaucracy, getting investments in on infrastructure, getting the idea of a maritime nation going,” Mr Lee said.

“And he believes Singapore can help him to achieve this. So I said: ‘Yes, certainly’. So the next time he or his ministers are in Singapore, I encourage them to meet our business people and then make a pitch to them on his strategies and his plans.  And I’m sure they’ll be very interested in what he has to say.”

The two leaders, however, did not discuss the issue of transboundary haze hanging over Singapore, caused by hotspots in Indonesia’s Sumatra island. 

“We’ve made our position known to the Indonesians. I think they understand the difficulty,” said Mr Lee. 

“I have read what President Jokowi has said earlier that he’s quite determined to tackle this problem. But I think today is not the time to go into such specific issues. There’ll be time enough later for us to take them up and to ... work on them with the new administration. And we hope to work on them in a cooperative way with the Indonesian government.”

Separately, Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam, who is now in the United Kingdom on a state visit, congratulated his Indonesian counterpart on his Facebook page. 

“Singapore and Indonesia have developed a strong partnership across a wide range of sectors. I look forward to working with President Jokowi and Indonesia to bring our bilateral ties to the next level,” he wrote. CHANNEL NEWSASIA