Before the meeting began, Hatta led joint prayers for those falling victim to last Friday`s massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastating northeast Japan.
In his address to the meeting, Hatta expressed great sorrow over the huge casualties in Japan`s worst ever disaster.
He also highly appreciated the Japanese government for its commitment to sending its delegation to the meeting while the nation was struggling to mitigate the catastrophe.
"The commitment surely shows how great is the Japanese government`s attention and wish to make the program a success," he said.
He said the meeting was a follow-up to a memorandum of cooperation the two countries signed on December 10, 2010 on the occasion of the Bali Democracy Forum.
He told Makiko that there were three main issues to be discussed at the meeting, namely endorsement of a fast-track project list, implementation of a master plan for the development of MPA project and high-level consultations to promote investment.
"The Indonesian government is preparing a master plan to speed up the expansion of Indonesian economic development which refers to six economic corridors," he said.
He made it clear that both nations had agreed on a study of the master plan for the MPA project to be started in May 2011. It will take one year to conduct the study.
The study would cover not only the substance of the master plan but also financing scheme which will involve private sectors in the two countries, he said.
Indonesia and Japan signed a memorandum of cooperation on the development of the Metropolitan Priority Area (MPA) worth Rp2 trillion (US$24.42 billion) last year. In the deal, the Japanese government and private companies would finance the construction of infrastructure in and around Jakarta. The project was scheduled to commence in 2013.
The Japanese deputy foreign minister was during the meeting accompanied by Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Kojiro Shiojiri and embassy official Toru Maeda.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
