"The major Indian company whom we have invited to come here today is very interested in capital investment in Surabaya," Indonesian ambassador to India Andi M Ghalib said here Tuesday.
In a business meeting with a number of Indian businessmen, Surabaya deputy mayor Bambang DH and chairman of the local chamber of commerce and industry (Kadin) Jamhadi said the Indian business entrepreneurs were also responding to the visit of the Surabaya city administration to India some time ago.
"We are happy with the visit of the Surabaya city administration to India, for which we are ready to work hard and quick in developing this business enterprise," he said.
In the meantime, the current business meeting was also a follow up on a cooperation agreement between Indonesia and India thanks to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s visit to India to meet the Indian Prime Minister in January 24 to 26, 2011.
"In the visit some 32 MoUs between the two countries had been reached both under business to business (B2B) and goverment to goverment (G2G) basis," he said.
Responding to the Indian businessmen`s interested in developing business in Surabaya, Kadin chairman Jamhadi confirmed that it was a `golden opportunity for the city.
"Especially that Surabaya was in need of assembling plants for electric products, for instance," he said.
Especially now that Surabaya`s balance of trade with some other countries like China and Australia has been increasingly negative as they had been handling the city only as their market.
"With more assembling plants here, we believe that many vocational graduates in Surabaya could be recruited," he said.
In addition, he said, the information technology (IT) industry in India had been growing positively, like the well-known Silicon Valley in the US.
"Today`s meeting also found out that several other sectors could be developed between India and Surabaya such as cooperation in clean water, power plants, education and trade," he said. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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