"I invite Swedish businessmen to cooperate with their Indonesian counterparts in investment. I have told Prime Minister Fredrick Reinfeldt that in case of regulatory problems we can discuss them together," Yudhoyono said.
Stockholm (ANTARA News) - Visiting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has invited Swedish businessmen to invest in Indonesia, saying the Indonesian government is open to discuss any problematic regulations with foreign investors.

"I invite Swedish businessmen to cooperate with their Indonesian counterparts in investment. I have told Prime Minister Fredrick Reinfeldt that in case of regulatory problems we can discuss them together," he said in a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrick Reinfeldt at the latter`s office here on Tuesday.

The two heads of government called the press conference after they had led the delegations of the two countries to discuss investment and trade cooperation.

President Yudhoyono said during Prime Minister Reinfeldt`s visit to Jakarta in November 2012 the two countries agreed to increase cooperation mainly in the fields of investment, trade, education, environment, climate change and tourism.

He further said that Indonesia wished to learn more from the Swedish government`s experience in maintaining its environment.

"Sweden is known for its internationally-recognized environment management concept. Indonesia hopes it could learn from Sweden`s experience," Yudhoyono said referring to Sweden`s success in reducing the use of fossil fuel by up to 50 percent and replacing it with renewable energy sources.

On the occasion, the two leaders also witnessed the signing of memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the fields of sustainable city development using green city and city symbiosis concepts by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Bjorling.

Sweden is Indonesia`s important partner and its bilateral trade with Indonesia is the highest among Scandinavian countries.

In the past five years, the two countries` trade had continued to grow by up to 6.91 percent.

Total bilateral trade between the two countries in 2012 reached US$1.46 billion, a 28 percent surge compared with the year before when it was US$1.05 billion.

Swedish investment in Indonesia in 2012 reached US$5.2 million in 11 projects, a four-fold increase from US$916,000 in nine projects the year before.

President Yudhoyono is the second Indonesian president to visit Sweden after the late president Soekarno on May 3-5, 1959.

He visited Sweden at the invitation of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. He was accompanied by First Lady Any Yudhoyono, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, Minister/State Secretary Sudi Silalahi and Industry Minister MS Hidayat. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013