According to Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, bilateral cooperation in several areas was discussed during the meeting between the president and the Swiss minister lasting two and a half hours, including a follow up on the cooperation in vocational education and polytechnic.
"Switzerland holds high potential for (cooperation with) Indonesia. It can obviously be seen by the 283 percent increase in bilateral relations between the two countries in the past three years, and several leading Swiss companies are operating in Indonesia," he remarked.
Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, who accompanied President Jokowi to receive the Swiss delegation, said that in terms of vocational education, Switzerland and Germany are global leaders.
Revealing that the president had enthusiastically responded to the offer, he said a follow up on cooperation in vocational education will be made during the upcoming visit of President Jokowi to Switzerland, possibly by the end of this year.
Indonesia has several high-quality vocational academies, such as in Solo, Central Java, and Bandung, West Java, which have already been forging polytechnic cooperation with Switzerland.
"We want to replicate it in almost every city, so vocational education will be available across Indonesia, expectedly in every big city," Nasution noted.
The plan to cooperate with the Swiss government for developing vocational education in the country will be later coordinated with several related ministries, including industry, education, and culture, as well as labor.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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