Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr Usra Harahap, says deepening bilateral relations between the two countries to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is critical to engendering their future economic growth.
Harahap gave this insight in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the ambassador, it is for this reason that he explored numerous investment opportunities for both Nigerian and Indonesian businessmen for the past five years and nine months,
Harahap said he made specific efforts to encourage Indonesian businessmen to invest in Nigeria, and vice versa, with significant achievements in this regard.
He affirmed that such investments include, but are not limited to agricultural inputs, coal-based fertiliser, manufacturing, bilateral trading deals, artificial insemination of livestock, fishery technology programmes, cultural relations, education, and technology transfer.
The envoy disclosed that the bilateral trade between Nigeria and Indonesia recently witnessed an impressive growth of about 80 per cent, that is, about four billion dollars in volume.
“Investment opportunities will help towards promoting the future of Nigeria-Indonesia relations.
“Indonesia and Nigeria must set an even higher ambition in our bilateral cooperation.
“You know, we know, that not only me and not only Indonesia, but the whole world knows that Nigeria is a huge market,” he said.
Amb. Harahap said that the Indonesian embassy and government had taken some deliberate steps toward facilitating investment opportunities from businessmen across both sides.
For instance, he said the Indonesian government decided to ease the visa process for Nigerian businessmen, who are interested in attending their annual Trade Expos in Indonesia.
“We encourage the businessmen to come together, to visit each other, to have business meetings, and so on.
“So, during my tenure of duty, I’ve tried to encourage these by solving, especially the problem of visa.
“Every time we have a big event in Indonesia, we encourage the Indonesian Immigration to make the visa easier because we present the ambassador as a guarantor,” he said.
The ambassador said that he also encouraged business-to-business contact among the businessmen.
“I open my telephone number to call the businessmen who already know me. They come to me, and explain what they need to connect with Indonesian businessmen. I just facilitate. No problem.
“I will just call Indonesia to tell them that somebody would like to do business with them. What do you have? What do you need? And what is your preparation for that?
“And, finally, we just make the communication by Zoom meeting.
It’s our system. Every Zoom meeting, I already make a conclusion. Oh, this Zoom meeting is very fruitful and flourish. Let’s start.
“We also have the WhatsApp. group chat. And after that is done, they try to communicate. Finally, one of them will visit Nigeria or the Nigerian will visit Indonesia for factory visit,” he said.
The Indonesian envoy added that through such deliberate efforts, in 2024 alone, more than 170 Nigerian entrepreneurs travelled to the Southeast Asia and Oceania country to take advantage of the huge investment opportunities available there. (NAN)
