This was stated by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release received by ANTARA here on Tuesday.
The cooperation between Indonesia and Peru, as the host and chair of APEC 2016, in preparing the RDPA document received a positive response from all the APEC members at the APEC high-ranking officials meeting on May 14-15 in Arequipa, Peru.
"Peru greatly appreciates the cooperation with Indonesia as a co-drafter for the document that seeks to promote RDPAs efforts in the APEC region," the Director of Intra-Regional Cooperation of Asia Pacific and Africa, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Benjamin S. Carnadi, said.
According to him, Indonesia pays a lot of attention to push for rural development and poverty alleviation.
This is reflected development programs for rural and remote areas, put in place by the government of Indonesia. The country has been raising these issues at the APEC forum since 2013, Benjamin noted.
The preparation of the RDPA document was a follow-up effort after Indonesia made a presentation, entitled, "Advancing Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Agenda in the APEC Region," which was delivered at the APEC meeting in March 2016.
The Peruvian government hoped that the initiatives related to rural communities development would be clinched through a final document, agreed upon by the leaders at the APEC summit in November 2016.
According to Benjamin, Indonesia will continue to promote the RDPA issues as one of the APECs main agenda.
Indonesia will cooperate with Vietnam, which will be the chairman and the host of APEC 2017, and Papua New Guinea, which will be the chairman and the host of APEC 2018, in preparing an RDPA roadmap. The roadmap will include more holistic, more comprehensive, and action-oriented aspects.
Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and several APEC developed economy members support the RDPA agenda and would like to cooperate with Indonesia in developing such issues at APEC 2017 and APEC 2018.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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