Indonesian Minister of Industry, Airlangga Hartarto said on Monday that the government has offered three industrial estates to Singapore in North Kalimantan, North Sumatra and North Sulawesi to contribute in the development process of the country.
Hartarto said that the concept is similar to the development of other industrial estates, such as Central Java based Kendal Industrial Estate (KIK).
According to Kompas.com, the 55-year-old minister said: "Singapore is a neighbouring country that has a strategic role in the interests of Indonesia and the region."
In the past week, Airlangga met with Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and discussed to cooperate in various sectors.
The Indonesian government has shown its interest and offered the development of Bitung Industrial Estate in North Sulawesi, Tanah Tuning Industrial Estate in North Kalimantan and Kuala Tanjung Industrial Estate in North Sulawesi.
Apart from the corporate industry, both the countries have agreed to a new development programme in the education sector to improve the vocational education in Indonesia.
Airlangga said, the development of Polytechnic of Furniture and Wood Processing Industry in KIK which is planned this year to accept new students as many as 96 people for three study program."
"The move is in accordance with the direction of President Jokowi to encourage every new industrial area equipped with vocational education facilities," he further added.
In addition to that, he mentioned that 25 principals of vocational senior high schools across the country will take part in the leadership training program at Singapore's Institute of Technical Education (ITE) from February 19 to March 3.
According to reports, the South-East Asian country Singapore is the main contributor of foreign investment in Indonesia in 2017, as the country invested US$8.4b a total of foreign investment in Indonesia.
