JAKARTA: The UAE is going to develop several major infrastructure projects in Indonesia, including a million-dollar tourism resort in the westernmost province of Aceh, the top emirates of Indonesia and Indonesia have confirmed.
A series of business agreements were signed by the two countries during a visit to Jakarta by the UAE, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Suhail Al-Mazroui, on Friday. The agreements are part of a $ 22.9 billion deal signed during the visit to Abu Dhabi in Indonesia by President Joko Widodo in January last year. The investment transaction, which also covers energy, infrastructure and mining, is considered the largest in Indonesia’s history.
The tourism resort development project, which is valued at between $ 300 million and $ 500 million, according to the coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment of Indonesia, Luhut Pandjaitan, is expected to start in May in Aceh Singkil district.
Aceh, a semi-autonomous province at the northwestern tip of the island of Sumatra, is the only region in the Muslim-majority Indonesia that imposes Shariah.
“I think within two months we can see the progress of the project in the Singkil area,” Pandjaitan said during a joint conference with Al-Mazroui.
Although authorities did not release more details, al-Mazroui said in response to a question from Arab News that some islands on the main coast of Aceh had been identified for the resort.
“Hopefully the team will finalize it and then we’ll go to the next stage to have final agreements,” he said.
The project agreement was signed by the governor of Aceh Nova Iriansyah and Amine Abide, executive director of Murban Energy, a UAE company whose investment portfolio includes the development of luxury resorts in the Maldives and Seychelles.
According to a statement by the Indonesian ambassador to the UAE, Husin Bagis, one of the considerations for the development of the project in Aceh is that it is only five hours by plane from the UAE. He said Abide had visited nine islands in the Aceh Singkil district that were shortlisted for the project.
Among the agreements tainted in Jakarta, which Al-Mazroui said was the follow-up to those signed in Abu Dhabi last year, is a $ 1.2 billion deal between the UAE’s logistics company Dubai Port (DP). ) World and the Maspion Group of Indonesia around a port and industrial zone in Gresik, East Java.
Panjaitan said an agreement had been signed between Indonesia’s state arms manufacturer Pindad and the United Arab Emirates’ small arms manufacturer, Caracal, to develop assault rifles, drones and defense system technologies.
LuLu Group International is also expected to enter the country in Southeast Asia, as the president’s director also signed a lease agreement on Friday to open a hypermarket on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Minister Al-Mazroui has indicated that other transactions could also follow the newly forged economic ties between the UAE and Indonesia.
“There have been some new deals being considered that have not been discussed before, and that’s the nature of the relationship,” he said.
Al-Mazroui is the first high-level UAE government official to visit Indonesia since signing a bilateral agreement on safe travel in July last year.
He and members of his delegation are in Indonesia to attend a series of events during the Indonesian-Emirati Amazing Week, held on March 1-8 in Jakarta, Solo, Bandung and Surabaya.