Istana Merdeka, Jakarta, 29-3-2007

Joint Press with Norway Prime Minister

 

TRANSKIPSI
KETERANGAN PERS BERSAMA
PRESIDEN REPUBLIK INDONESIA DAN
PERDANA MENTERI NORWEGIA
ISTANA MERDEKA, 29 MARET 2007


<b>Presiden Republik Indonesia</b>

<i>Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,</i>
Yang Mulia Perdana Menteri Norwegia,
Para Wartawan yang saya cintai,
Saya akan menyampaikan penjelasan pers dalam Bahasa Indonesia, dan kemudian Yang Mulia Perdana Menteri Stoltenberg dari Norwegia akan juga menyampaikan penjelasan beliau, dan nanti ada satu, dua, tiga pertanyaan yang barangkali para wartawan akan sampaikan.

Saudara-saudara,
Hari ini saya menerima kunjungan Perdana Menteri Norwegia dan dilanjutkan dengan pertemuan bilateral, sebagai kunjungan balasan beliau setelah saya berkunjung ke Norwegia pada bulan September tahun lalu. Dan ini kunjungan Perdana Menteri Norwegia yang kedua ke Indonesia. Mudah-mudahan merupakan tonggak baru untuk lebih meningkatkan lagi kerjasama antara Indonesia dan Norwegia.

Sebelum berkunjung ke Jakarta, Yang Mulia Perdana Menteri kemarin berkunjung ke Aceh. Dan saya mengucapkan terima kasih karena Norwegia membantu Indonesia pada saat Aceh terkena tsunami dan juga Norwegia membantu dalam <i>peace process</i>, yang alhamdulillah sekarang berlangsung dengan baik di Aceh.

Hubungan bilateral Indonesia dan Norwegia baik, kuat, dan makin hari makin bertambah luas dan konstruktif. Di bidang perdagangan dan investasi juga terus mengalami peningkatan, terutama investasi di bidang energi, utamanya minyak dan gas dan listrik. Kerjasama teknis juga berlangsung dengan baik, terutama di bidang energi, perikanan dan kelautan dan juga di bidang kehutanan.

Di bidang <i>climate change</i>, kita sepakat untuk meningkatkan kerjasama kami, karena ini menjadi tugas seluruh negara di dunia untuk menyelamatkan dunia kita, untuk mengelola pemanasan global atau <i>climate change</i>, dan dalam pembicaraan tadi kita sepakat untuk terus dengan intensif melaksanakan kerjasama bilateral dalam bidang ini, sekaligus menghadapi konferensi PBB tentang <i>climate change</i> yang akan dilaksanakan di Denpasar pada bulan Desember tahun ini.

Indonesia dan Norwegia juga melaksanakan kerjasama yang baik di bidang penghormatan hak-hak asasi manusia, Indonesia berterima kasih untuk itu. Dan juga kerjasama di bidang <i>inter-faith dialogue</i> dan <i>inter-media dialogue</i>. Untuk Saudara ketahui, pada bulan Desember tahun lalu, Norwegia dan Indonesia menjadi <i>co-sponsored</i>, menjadi penyelenggara bersama untuk global intermedia dialogue, dan ini akan kita lanjutkan tahun ini di Oslo, Norwegia dan ternyata mendapatkan dukungan yang luas dari kalangan media massa sedunia.

Masalah bilateral yang juga kita bahas tadi, kerjasama di bidang kesehatan dan pencapaian dari MIllenium Development Goals. Ini penting dan kita berharap makin ke depan makin kuat dan baik kerjasama kita ini, mudah-mudahan juga menjadi bagian dari tanggung jawab global untuk pencapaian MDGs dan bagi Indonesia sangat penting mencapai MDGs karena kita ingin mengurangi kemiskinan dan meningkatkan standar hidup rakyat kita. Kita berterima kasih atas kerjasam di bidang MDGs dan kesehatan ini.

Di bidang kerjasama regional, kami membahas dengan Perdana Menteri Norwegia, cukup mendalam, tentang perkembangan situasi di Timur Tengah. Kita ingin keadaan di Timur Tengah makin baik, karena kekerasan dan tragegi kemanusiaan masih terjadi di Timur Tengah, misalnya di Irak, di Gaza, kemudian beberapa, dalam skala tertentu Libanon, maupun di tempat-tempat lain. Kita ingin betul ada suatu upaya besar agar bisa mencari solusi terhadap konflik ini, mencegah <i>the innocent people</i> menjadi korban dalam berbagai kekerasan di Timur Tengah.

Saya juga menyampaikan kepada Perdana Menteri Norwegia ketegangan baru di sekitar Teluk. Sebagai contoh, ada semacam latihan perang-perangan di Teluk, kemudian yang dilaksanakan oleh Amerika dan beberapa saat yang lalu oleh Iran. Kita juga melihat ada keteganganan antara Inggris dengan Iran, masalah anggota dari angkatan laut ataupun marinir Inggris. Kita berharap semua dapat dilselesaikan secara damai, dan saya berharap dalam pertemuan ini, saya sampaikan kepada beliau, untuk jangan sampai terjadi konflik baru di Timur Tengah atau di kawasan itu, karena akan menambah rumitnya keadaan dan akan mengancam sesungguhnya <i>international peace and security</i>.

Saya juga menyampaikan permasalahan di Palestina, kita memiliki beberapa kesamaan pandangan bahwa permasalahan di Palestina, <i>peace negotiation</i> harus dilanjutkan sampai terjadi solusi damai, solusi yang adil, sehingga dengan demikian tidak ada lagi konflik yang berkepanjangan di Palestina. Kita juga berharap, agar, paling tidak dari pandangan saya, <i>the Unity Government of Palestine</i> itu bisa mendapatkan ruang untuk bisa melanjutkan <i>peace process</i> yang ada di negara itu, yang selama ini relatif terhenti. Dan kita juga berharap juga negara-negara lain juga bisa memberikan kesempatan kepada <i>the Unity Government</i>, memberikan dukungan agar mereka bisa menjalankan tugasnya dengan baik.

Saya juga menyampaikan pada Perdana Menteri Norwegia tentang Irak, dengan harapan betul-betul bisa tidak terus terjadi korban-korban yang berjatuhan dan saya sampaikan juga saya pernah menyampaikan proposal kepada Amerika Serikat untuk menuju ke rekonsilisiasi di Irak, kemunduran dari pasukan koalisi dari Irak dan kemudian dilanjutkan dengan pembangunan Irak. Ini saya sampaikan kepada beliau bahwa Indonesia pun memiliki pandangan bagaimana betul-betul bisa menyelesaikan konflik yang ada di Irak.

Yang terakhir masalah <i>international issue</i>, saya mengangkat dua isu kepada beliau. Yang pertama WTO dan yang kedua adalah <i>UN Reform</i>. Atas nama negara berkembang dan sebagai koordinator dari G-33, saya sampaikan kepada Yang Mulia Perdana Menteri Norwegia perlunya ada satu kelanjutan negosiasi menyangkut perdagangan internasional, agar akses barang atau produksi, utamanya produk pertanian negara berkembang di pasar-pasar negara maju dibuka. Dengan demikian negara berkembang bisa lebih membiayai pembangunannya, mengurangi kemiskinan dan mencapai MDGs.

Ini sangat penting, dengan formula <i>win-win situation</i>, kita berharap negara maju, Amerika Serikat, Eropa, Jepang dan lain-lain betul-betul bisa bersama-sama memiliki <i>fair multilateral trading system</i>.

Poin terakhir adalah masalah UN Reform dan setelah ini kami berdua akan membuka <i>regional dialogue</i> tentang <i>UN-System Wide Coherence,</i> yang intinya kita ingin Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa betul-betul menjadi organisasi yang efisien, efektif untuk mengemban tugas-tugasnya. Dengan demikian permasalah yang sering terjadi di lapangan, duplikasi, kurangnya koordinasi, pembiayaannya yang kadang-kadang boros dan tidak tepat harus bisa dikurangi. Dengan demikian misi dari PBB, utamanya untuk membantu pembangunan, <i>humanitarian assistance, the environment,</i> itu betul-betul bisa berjalan dengan baik.

Demikian Saudara-saudara
<i>And I would like to give the floor to His Excellency Prime Minister Stoltenberg.</i>

<b>The Prime Minister of Norway</b>

<i>Thank you very much Mr. President,
First of all, I would like to express my great gratitude for being able to meet you again here in Jakarta, Indonesia. We just, there was the meet in Oslo, and the visit you have to Oslo with your wife, and the visit I now with my wife to Jakarta is, I think this is very … of the close and very dynamic bilateral relationship between Indonesia and the Norway. And I appreciate very much this opportunity to develop further at the relationship between our two countries.

I appreciate to visit your country and to develop our relationship, both because I think our bilateral relationship cover so many different, important issues for both countries. So this important to develop, to discuss issues of how many interest our bilateral relation. But also because Indonesia is playing such an important role in regional politic and in global politic. Indonesia being member of the UN Security Council, being the country in the world with the largest the Moslem population, being the country which is playing such an important role in many different international matters. It is an important country for Norway to have a close relationship with and therefore I appreciate this opportunity.

You are mentioned of many of the issues we discussed and I would not repeat all of them, but I would just add some remarks on the some of the issues. First discussed our bilateral relations. And there is potential for developing the economic relationship between our two countries. And we discussed the World Trade Organization and the need for successful result of the … round that will also improve the framework for our bilateral regulation, so we have actually established the Oslo Group, where Indonesia participated, Norway participated, where we have take initiated to try to make progress in the round table World Trade Organization negotiation.

We also, on the line without we are now ready to start the negotiation on treaty, trade agreement between AFTA and Indonesia, but we also participate or contribute to bilateral economic relation. I am also glad to see that we have companies, that our investing in Indonesia. Particular I am glad to see that the Norwegian companies … are now have been able to work together with Pertamina to develop the petroleum resources of Indonesia, I think that’s great important for your country, for … and for the economic ties between our two countries.

I also believe that actually environment is an important part of our bilateral relationship. Because climate change is important for the world. But it is particularly important for … island state as Indonesia. Because the changes of the sea level, more storms will effect every country of the world, will effect the country like Indonesia, in particularly because you are one of the shore of raising sea level and changes in the weather.

Norway is also one of them and then for it is important to fight climate change and an important part of our bilateral relationship is and will even be more official in the future, cooperation within environment climate change. That’s why I am glad that I have been able to sign this joint declaration and that the lining both the need to develop common project lighting … in the region on investment in tropical the green, the clean development mechanism which allow Norwegian companies to invest in measure during this year in Indonesia, I think that would be key possibility or key measure to try to transfer technology, capital, knowledge from the rich world to the developing world and they are both can promoting development and the second line being able to reduce the use of the green gasses.

Also looking very much for working together with you on the multilateral climate change. And there will be very much looking forward to the next meeting of topic of the climate change in Bali on December this year, that would be the very important meeting, it would be possibility to really make progress in establishment toward global agreement including more countries making more ambitious target for reducing the emission of climate or green house gasses.

And therefore we appreciate that we now are in close contact that our expert will need in further discuss within issues, how we can make progress, how we can reach agreement in Bali to really come further in the national aware to reach agreement reducing the emission of green house gasses. So, we’ll looking forward both the bilateral and the multilateral cooperation on climate change.

And as you had mentioned that we visited Aceh yesterday, we were impressed by what we’re being showed both when it come to reduce to the resolve to the peace process, you personally were involved in peace process, your courage, your initiative, your willingness to make peace was a key factor for the success of the peace process in Aceh. And we will support the peace process, we will do anything which is possible for Norway to assist you and government of Aceh and the people of Aceh to maintain until the developed, until secured the peace process in Aceh.

We will also very glad to see that the reconstruction is going on. We have been assisting in the reconstruction in Aceh, we believe this is important to show that the international community is able to mobilized, assistance, when so many people are victim of such a big disaster, tsunami wave. We address also very … corruption. But I think that the problem of corruption, … corruption is not to stop assisting people that need help. But the … corruption is to fight corruption. the worse think we can do that to stop helping people that need help with show by our own eyes that actually how it should build in international assistance watch, actually watch is important for the reconstruction or it is important for the reconstruction. And then I will glad to be able to … by our own eyes.

And I also would like to command you, and to underline our important to this that we work together on the quest on the UN Reform. We want to address that later on, but we believe is Norway on the strong UN, … that it is very important to have reform to make UN more efficient, and better to fighting poverty and the in many other areas.

The last thing I would mention is that we also very glad of the have this inter-media dialogue. It is important of Indonesia being the country of largest Moslem population, and Norway are able to show how we can create the dialogue between countries of different religion, different culture. And thereby creating dialogue between culture and religion instead of conflict. And I think that is important both for contributing to peace, for reconciliation but also actually it is important to promote human rights and then we also discuss our human right dialogue which is very important, and I think an important part to our bilateral cooperation is also to promote human right and to promote the inter-media and inter-religious dialogue which Indonesia and Norway play such important role.

So, I am grateful to being able to visit you, to meet with you and your people and to continue our discussion when it comes to … the Millennium Goals and other issue, later on today. Thank you.</i>


<b>The President of the Republic of Indonesia</b>

<i>Thank you very much Mr. Prime Minister</i>. Saya persilahkan <i>member of the press</i> jika ada pertanyaan yang ingin disampaikan.


<b>The Indonesian Spoke Person</b>

<i>We will take two question from Indonesian journalist, and two question from Norwegian. We start from Indonesian journalist, Novi from</i> Investor Daily.


<b>Novi, Investor Daily</b>

<i>Thank you,
My name is Novi from</i> Investor Daily.
<i>My two question address to the Prime Minister of Norway.
What do you think about the taxation system applied by the Indonesian government to the mining companies during the exploration activities, because the existing system must be completed by foreign mining company.

And the second one, regarding to investment climate, Indonesian government is now opening widely to foreign investor to invest in the country. As one of the mining sector players in the world, is there any Norwegian company interest for doing business in downstream sector in Indonesia.

And the last one</i>, untuk Bapak Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Bapak Presiden, bagaimana pemerintah Indonesia memfasilitasi dan memberikan kemudahan-kemudahan dalam berinvestasi bagi perusahaan-perusahaan pertambangan asing di Indonesia. Terima kasih.


<b>The Prime Minister of Norway</b>

<i>Thank you very much. The first question, I understood what addressing the question of extractive industry, so mining, but also in our gas, in oil and gas industry. And then, the question of tax system. First of all I’d like to underline that it is a mutual benefit when Norwegian and other foreign companies invest in a country of Indonesia. We have long experience in Norway that we have been developing oil and gas industry by combination of a Norwegian and foreign companies and combination of state owned and private owned companies.

And I think this combination is important because we need national and state owned companies within oil and gas sector to pursue that this revenues, the technology, the competence is develop also within the national companies. But at the same time, we have been very grateful to have the foreign companies providing its capital, knowledge and competence which has been a key important to develop the Norwegian oil and gas industry.

And I believe it is in many ways a similar situation for Indonesia that you should off course has national control, you should has national companies, you should make rather revenues to the state of Indonesia. And at the same time, you should welcome foreign companies like … because … will able to provide you with technology, competence, capital which is widely just for the development of oil and gas industry. There is always a balance between foreign and national, private and state owned companies.

Regarding the tax system, I will leave it to the government and the national … Indonesia to decide the tax system of Indonesia. And Norwegian companies just have to accept the tax’s you decide. But I’ll give you one advice, that is the key issue is have to be predictable, transparence, and stable tax system. My experience is that oil company they can leave with, what I say, different kind of tax level, as long as they are predictable and stable. And now we were chosen to have very predictable and stable tax system of 7 to 9% tax. And I’d like to promise Indonesian companies that we would be very predictable, we would remain at this very high level, and they are still investing and I guess they’re still also invest in Indonesia as long as it is predictable, transparence, and stable. That the key issue. If it is that, you can leave it actually quite great taxes. But you decide.

And the other question was green enlightenment. Well, there are some companies in Norway, that many companies in Norway is interesting to invest in Indonesia. But again I think, the key is the need of stable, open framework, and the very important think we now developing is complete new mechanism. Green economy. Because we now trying to develop the Kyoto Mechanism, and most important this clean development mechanism which make possible for companies in the country like Norway to off set their own … emission by investment in sea or … reduction in Indonesia.

And … our own oil and gas industry, they are … for every emission they have on the … component to sell, they have to buy … for investing green development mechanism. So actually in Norwegian oil and gas industry, they now are looking for different project in country like Indonesia, where they can get certified emission reduction, so they can … reduction in Norway, and thereby I hope and believe that there … many countries are willing to invest in alignment project in Indonesia. And one of the purposes of the regulation, I just found for the first time was to facilitate this kind of green investment in a green commune develop between Norway and Indonesia.</i>


<b>The President of Indonesia</b>

<i>Yes, I am asked by the press on what is done by the Indonesian government in improving a better climate for investment. I would like to assure all friends and partners abroad that we are committed and we are working very hard to improve the overall climate of investment and of doing business in Indonesia.

It is actually for our own purposes. After all, Indonesian economies must grow, we are … to reduce our poverty, to improve the living standard of our people by having economic progress and development. We will be having more capacity to achieve our own objective. So, this cooperation between Indonesia and partners and investors from friendly nations must be put in this context that on the one hand, it contribute to the development of Indonesian economy, on the other hand they have a fair benefit for our partners abroad.

You know that we have done a lot in improving our climate. We have achieve many things, but we have to do more. We have revised many regulations, the investment law, and taxation law is about to be adopted by the parliament after we revised many things that can fulfill all interest, and mainly for the sake of Indonesia’s interest for improving the welfare of our people.

And off course we will do more in this arena by hoping that our partners abroad, the multinational companies can also do a good thing in Indonesia to protect the environment, if we are talking about oil and gas and mining type industry. They have to take care of local community, part of the social responsible of the business. To that kind of fairness, that kind of commitment among us, the Indonesian government and our partners are very important to ensure that this cooperation will benefit economically, but also we still protect the important of our environment.

I strongly support the idea of Prime Minister Stoltenberg that we have to take care of the environment. We have to start thinking about clean development mechanism, green growth, and others. This is our interest, this is an interest to safe our own motherland, our own environment. But without global cooperation, we can not do it alone. So, this is the spirit of us, I try to connect the environment with the sector of mining industry, here in Indonesia.</i>


<b>The Indonesian Spoke Person</b>

<i>We’ll take one final question from Norwegian journalist because we are the time now, I think we’ll take Tone Hertzberg from NTB.</i>


<b>Tone Hertzberg, NTB</b>

<i>Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, I would like to ask you question about how Indonesia as the world largest Moslem nation can contribute to diminish the conflict between the Islamic world and the West, and how to support …moment in the Moslem countries.</i>

<b>The President of the Republic of Indonesia</b>

<i>Yes, Indonesia will continue its role in reducing the gap and misunderstanding between the so called, the West and Islam. Dialogue is very important, meeting among religious leaders are also important. And we are glad that the government of Norway and the government of Indonesia are co-hosting event such a global inter-media dialogue, and we great to continue this cooperation to be part of interfaith dialogue, inter-religious dialogue, inter-media dialogue, and dialogue among civilization in general.

I believe very strongly, this miss-understanding can be reduced. The gap can be grossed. If we are able to achieve those objectives, then we could solve the problem peacefully, not necessarily that we have to use hard power in reducing the conflict in many global arenas. So, we will continue to play that kind of role, will continue to ensure that everybody will understand that the origin of the religion and we will continue to have a genuine and constructive communication among, say, the west and Islamic world. And off course we need we need kind of cooperation, close cooperation to address this issue.

And off course we practice democratize values, we respect freedom. And Indonesia is also as you are witness, now are becoming the third largest democrat in the world, by our population. And we are continuing our consolidation in the practice of democracy, but to be understood that freedom must be in tandem with rule of law, a freedom must be considering a tolerance as well.

So, if we could in one hand express our freedom, but on the other hand we also obey the rule of law, and we think about tolerance then we will have a democracy in harmony as environment. Democracy and harmony can not be separated. That’s the idea of us, specially for me, to faster our democratic values in practice here in Indonesia.


Thank you.</i>

* * * * *



Bureau for Press and Media Relations
The Presidential Household