Indonesian national airline Garuda’s first Chennai-Jakarta flight is likely to start by this year end, a top envoy of that country said here today.
Currently, passengers to Indonesia have to fly via Singapore or Malaysia.
“We have been discussing it many times. Our plan was to connect the cities of Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. My first preference is to have connectivity between Chennai and Jakarta”, Indonesian Ambassador to India, Mr Andi M. Ghalib said here.
Addressing members at a luncheon meeting organised by the CII here, Mr Ghalib, a retired Lt General, said the plan for direct connectivity between the two nations did not fructify due to various reasons.
He replied in the affirmative when later asked whether it would be launched by this year end, saying Indonesian President (Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) had spoken to Garuda (officials) in this regard.
Bilateral trade
Mr Ghalib said Indonesia needs more investments in sectors like minerals, infrastructure and logistics and urged Indian investors to look beyond coal for investments, as his country was rich in many other natural resources.
He said bilateral trade between India and Indonesia had crossed the $ 10 billion target set for 2010 in 2008 itself, two years ahead of schedule “Already our trade is around $13 billion. Now we need another $12 billion investment to reach the target of $25 billion by 2015”, he said.
The Indonesian envoy said talks on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two nations were also progressing well.
On the progress of ‘Eminent Persons Group’, formulated between the two nations under “Vision Statement 2025” for Indonesia-India Strategic partnership, he said deliberations were on.
The EPG was announced by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and Indonesia President Dr Yudhoyono when the two leaders met early this year in Delhi.
The deliberations of EPG will help prepare a blueprint of Indonesia-India relations over the next 15 years.
Keywords: Jakarta, direct flight, Garuda airline, bilateral trade
