The Ethiopian Herald has just sat with Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia Al Busyra Basnur for today’s edition of in the spheres of diplomacy column. Herald has skimmed far to the East Asian country, a big economy in the region and member of the G-20 to look at the background of the diplomatic relations, current level of cooperation and future areas of cooperation with Ethiopia, Africa and beyond. Excerpts!
Backdrop
Ambassador Al Busyra Basnur: All right, first of all, I would like to inform The Ethiopian Herald, its readers and the Ethiopian people that the relationship between Indonesia and Ethiopia is picking steam. But before that I would like to say few words about the background. The clicking was officially started in the 1961. This shows that the tie has sent deeper roots. Six years before the beginning of our official relationship, a delegation from Ethiopia had visited Indonesia in 1955. That was a delegation from Ethiopia to attend the Asia-Africa Conference.
That forum was a very historical and very important forum for our continents and respective countries, African and Asian, because through this conference, after this conference and from this conference, more than 60 countries, new countries were born in our two continents. The conference was permeated by sentiments against colonialism.
So, during that time, there were lots of countries in Africa and Asian continents suffering the brunt of colonialism. So, that was the beginning of our relationship. The building of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia was officially opened by the then Emperor Haile Salassie I, right in 1968. So this is very good because the Emperor, he himself obviously opened this building.
And at the same time the Emperor visited Indonesia in 1968 and met with our President. And after that, you know, there were a lot of exchange visits, not only at the presidential level, but also at business-to-business and people- to-people levels. Contact youth and many others are also entailed in the list. And now I can describe that our relation is increasing in all aspects.
Personally, I had never been here before assigned as Ambassador, even not in any of the African countries. I never visited other countries. But this is the first country I visited. It is
here I set foot on the continent. So, I was very excited when the President appointed me to come to Ethiopia a year ago. I was shocked at that. You know, I said “Oh thanks God!”
After I came to Ethiopia, I found that Ethiopia is a beautiful country, having great climate and nice people. And we already have good relations. So, as I mentioned earlier, during the Asia-Africa conference, Indonesia opened Embassy. And it is the only Embassy out the other countries taken part in the conference. From the African side, only four countries including Ethiopia had taken part in the conference held in Indonesia. This was purely Indonesia’s initiation. So, we can see the close link emotionally and also basically between our two countries.
So starting from that point, the priorities of my mission here in Addis Ababa is as follows. First one is economy, second social and culture, and the third is a cooperation, not only bilaterally, but also regionally, especially in Africa. We know that there is an African Union headquarters here. So, there are four priorities that I am going to pursue and achieve during my tenure here as Ambassador of Indonesia.
So secondly, if I have to talk about the economy as a first priority, the relationship and cooperation between Ethiopia and Indonesia, is one about trade. And the second is about investment. So first I would like to talk about the trade; their number and the development of trade cooperations between Ethiopia and Indonesia have been increasing every year. In 2015, the trade volume of the two
countries was only US $56 million. That has increased in the following year 2016 by ten percent to 66 million. And the following year, 2017 up to 68 million. In 2018, it has reached US $85 millions. Thus, this is a direct trade to Indonesia and Ethiopia. But the indirect trade through Saudi Arabia and Dubai. So the number of the volumes, you know, really amazing because they said that in 2015, the up of our bilateral trade was US $420 million.
However, there are also significant challenges that I would tell frankly which are hindering our trade relations such as; hard currency shortage. Many Indonesian businessmen and big companies ask me always to come and do business in Ethiopia. But due to the fact that there are shortages of foreign currency, they have still kept doing at home.
I think once that is solved, it will open up and increase the cooperation of the two countries. Some people told me that these days there is a little bit improvement in doing trade with Ethiopia. This is not only Indonesian experience. There are also others businessmen who faced a similar challenge. Indonesian businessman and traders still keep looking the opportunity to do.
With regard to investments, Ethiopia is one of the very important and strategic countries for Indonesian investors. The first Indonesian company to invest in Ethiopia in 2002 was the soap manufacturer called B-29. Currently, this factory does not only produce soap but also a skin lotion.
And the second company is the Indomy Food Manufacturer which entered into operation in 2014 at the town of Bishoftu. And, currently, there are three big Indonesian textile industries at Hawassa Industrial Park. So, Indonesia has five industries here and I am communicating many Indonesian business people to come here again to invest in Ethiopia. I know that the government of Ethiopia will open many more industrial parks to attract foreign investors and also to increase its national economy.
Indonesian business people will also benefit from the conducive environments here and at the same time, Indonesia is also looking for incoming investments to Indonesia. The government of Indonesia also encourages its business people to invest in overseas. It stresses Ethiopia is a very good strategy. In addition, Ethiopian Airlines has direct flights from Addis to Jakarta. This is great opportunity to do business between our two countries.
The third priority is about the social and cultural exchanges. This is very important. Until now, we have a number of programs and corporations in this regard. There is scholarship opportunity in Indonesia for Ethiopian students. It has two kinds of schemes. One is about the cultural scholarship. This is a year program and it is not a B.A program. They learn about Indonesian language, art and culture. We have 25 alumni in this scheme.
The other program is that a master’s degree program in a number of Indonesia universities. Under this program, up to now, around 25 graduates are registered. So in total, now we have around a 50 alumni from Ethiopia. To further expand the educational exchange, Bahir Dar and Hawassa Universities have signed MoU with Indonesian Universities.
They have agreed to work together in various areas. Be it research, technological and exchange of students, the cooperation can be said increasing. Next month a delegation from an Indonesian University will come here to meet our friends and their counterparts at the Addis Ababa University.
They are going to establish many kinds of cooperation in research exchange, lecturers and exchange of students and so on. Indonesia and Ethiopia are going to have the interfaith dialogues. There is interfaith dialogue between the religious leaders. The first interfaith dialogue was already held in Indonesia in 2011. We are going to hold the dialogue here in Addis Ababa soon. We are still arranging the time. Similarly, we will have youth interfaith dialogue this year.
This is very good for youths from two the countries. Next year we are going to have new program that to organize a youth exchange program from and to Ethiopia and Indonesia. This in return will have great importance after 10 years or 50 years. Because through the exchange programs, people from our countries can understand and know each other much better.
The Embassy will take aboard some 10 or 15 Ethiopian youths. And the same number of youths from Indonesia will come to Ethiopia. So, we will let them to stay for weeks to work as internship at the number of Indonesian companies, media institutions. They will share experiences to fellow Ethiopians after they got back to Ethiopia.
We will bring young Indonesians here do what young Ethiopians do in Indonesia. We will also have journalists’ dialogues. This is a new program in Ethiopia. You know your task must not be confined to only writing news, through the printed and electronic media. They can cross-pollinate their thoughts and their ideas for the development of our countries.
This year, we are going to organize a bazaar. During the bazaar, there will be fashion shows, artistic presentations and music performance.
To support the Ethiopian government’s green growth, we had three planting events last week. Regional and global cooperation
As part of regional and international cooperation between Indonesia and Ethiopia, both Indonesia Ethiopia have the same commitment to make the world peaceful. Indonesia is now the third largest democracy in the world following the United States and India. Indonesia has a very great experience how to develop democracy because we are reforming our country in 1998. Before that it was under dictatorship. So, exactly what Ethiopia is experiencing now Indonesia had already experienced it in 1998. Thus, Indonesia would like to share its experiences with many other countries like Ethiopia.
We are not going to deliberate with Ethiopia about democracy. We are not going to teach other countries as well, but we are only going to share our experiences, how to transform from the old era in to fulfilled democracy. Indonesia is also member of the G-20. Thus, it has many things to share to Ethiopia.Indonesia is among the founding fathers of this organization. And in fact out of 10 countries of Asia-Africa conference from Southeast Asian region, only Indonesia has the resident embassy in Ethiopia. Even Malaysia and Singapore. Indonesia is accredited to them for updates.
And of course, on the international stage, Ethiopia and Indonesia have various issues in the international arena. The issue of peace and security among others is top area of cooperation. Ethiopia has contributed more than 8,000 UN peacekeepers to the different missions. Indonesia has also slowly increased the number of the UN peacekeepers to the UN missions including in South Sudan and up this year we are planning to send a 4,000 UN peacekeeping forces.
So, we are going to increase and tighten our cooperation in the global sphere. We shall keep moving on the correct directions. There are much progress, many commitments, and much homework that we are willing to do in the years to come. The other important area of cooperation is on matters concerning the African Union with the main focus on the areas of peace and security.
Not only in the African continent but also on matters that affect the other part of the world. This could be in terms of capacity building of the African Union, financial assistance and supporting its mission. Generally, my job here is to increase the business-to-business relationship. But more important is to heighten people-to-people diplomacy. Forward opportunities
Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with 108 plus million people. Indonesia’s population is more than 260 million people—it is twice as much the former. This creates a very good business-to -business opportunity for both countries. If we talk about the economy, Ethiopia is the 10th largest economy in Africa and number one in the eastern Africa region. Indonesia is a member of the G-20. I mean that there is ample chance to increase economic ties.
There is really great chance to connect our countries in term of economy, tourism, socio-cultural, businesses and so on. But the most important thing is that we have a historical background, emotional linkage between Ethiopian and Indonesia. However, that has its own challenges. Now, not many of them know things exactly and thoroughly. This is the situation of each other. Still many Indonesians perceive Ethiopia as it was in 1980s during the famine or the drought.
My colleague Prof. Admasu, Ethiopian Ambassador in Indonesia and me are working to change this circumstance. Ethiopia is now growing fast. My duty is to broaden the understanding of Ethiopians about Indonesia through people-to-people contact, journalistic activities, promotions, exhibitions and bazaars.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 28 July 2019
BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
