"It is very important for Victoria, Australia, as a growing economy, to develop a long relationship with Indonesia that can provide a mutual benefit to both countries," Premier of Victoria, Denis Napthine, said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Australian state of Victoria opened its government business office in Jakarta on Tuesday as part of efforts to develop and widen bilateral relationship with Indonesia.

The Premier of Victoria, Denis Napthine, said having the Victorian Government Business Office (VGBO) in Jakarta was a great pleasure for Victoria to engage a long term commitment to Indonesia to work with the Australian embassy in Indonesia and all sides to continue developing relationship in the trade, business and cultural sectors.

"It is very important for Victoria, Australia, as a growing economy, to develop a long relationship with Indonesia that can provide a mutual benefit to both countries," he said.

In Victoria`s view, Napthine said, Indonesia has many strong potentials to become one of the world`s largest economies in 2015 thanks to its big population, strong economic growth and the rise of middle class people expected to grow by 15 million in the middle of this century.

"Indonesia certainly is an extremely important nation, important partner and important good friend for Victoria and Australia. And that`s why we, Victoria, should enhance our cooperation with Indonesia," he said.

Moreover, with its stable economic growth, Indonesia is a strong economic potential and very significant to the Southeast Asia region and probably will be a trade hub for ASEAN, Napthine said.

On the other hand, he noted that some of Australia`s strength to develop relationship with Indonesia are the number of Australians who live, work for the government, do business or study in Indonesia and vice versa. There are a huge number of Indonesians living in Australia, and about five thousands of them study in Victoria.

Hence, Napthine said this relationship will give mutual benefits to infrastructure, subway investments and other developments, as well as to the service sector, such as tourism.

"We believe that our expectations and your expectations can help each other," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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