Recently, Indonesia's new President Prabowo arrived in Beijing and began his three-day trip to China. It is noteworthy that he began the visit just 11 days after he was elected. According to Indonesian practice, the new president should be sworn in in October this year before arranging a corresponding foreign trip. Prabowo, however, broke this rule and became the first Indonesian president to choose China as his first country to visit before he was sworn in. It is enough to see that he attaches great importance to China.
【Prabowo's visit to China】
In fact, during his election campaign, Prabowo repeatedly stressed the importance of establishing good relations with China, and believed that China is a worthy example for Indonesia. And he also defined himself as "Jokowi's successor", saying that he would continue to promote the policies of his predecessor, President Joko Widodo, after taking office. Against this backdrop, the objectives of Prabowo's visit to China are very clear: first, to show that he will continue Jokowi's friendly policy toward China, and second, to consolidate and strengthen the substantive cooperative relations established between Indonesia and China.
In recent years, the cooperation between China and Indonesia has been rich and wide-ranging: politically, the exchanges between the two countries have been frequent and deep. In the second half of 2023, Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited China twice in just three months, and successively participated in the Chengdu Universiade and the "Belt and Road" Summit Forum. In February, Prabowo met with the Chinese ambassador first after securing his election victory ahead of schedule.
Economically, China has been Indonesia's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years. One of the most important achievements of the cooperation between the two countries is undoubtedly the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway. According to official data, in the first 100 days of the opening of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, as many as 1.45 million passengers were carried, and the highest single-day seat utilization rate was close to 99.6%. After experiencing the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, Indonesia's high-level officials even put forward a proposal to China on the extension of the high-speed rail line.
[Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has become a golden signboard for China-Indonesia cooperation]
It is worth mentioning that learning from the Chinese side on the issue of poverty alleviation is also one of the important purposes of Prabowo's visit. Throughout his campaign, Prabowo repeatedly emphasized his commitment to grow the economy and eradicate poverty once he took office, setting himself the goal of boosting GDP growth to 8 percent or more over the next four to five years. In the past two years, Indonesia's economic growth rate has been around 5%, and on top of that, it is very difficult to increase the growth rate to 8%. China's experience in eradicating poverty over the past 40 years has become an effective recipe for Indonesia's economic growth.
In addition, Prabowo attaches so much importance to China because the top priority for the safety of Indonesia - the relocation of the new capital must have China's support.
As we all know, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is located on the island of Java, although this small island only occupies about 7% of Indonesia's land area, but it is responsible for the livelihood of more than half of the country's population, with a permanent population of more than 10 million, and if you add the surrounding towns, its population size has reached as much as 30 million. Due to its small size and large population, coupled with the lack of urban planning, Jakarta has been in an urban crisis since the beginning of the last century, with increasing problems such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution, land subsidence, and even flooding due to rising sea levels. According to projections, North Jakarta is even at risk of being inundated by 2050. These challenges have put significant pressure on Jakarta's living environment and economic development. Therefore, the relocation of the capital has become an urgent matter.
[Jakarta traffic jam is very serious]
In addition, the current economic development of Java Island is quite mature, and the population is over-concentrated and there is no room for further development, while other parts of Indonesia, such as Kalimantan, are relatively sparsely populated and have great potential for economic development. Therefore, moving the capital will also help to eliminate the uneven development between Indonesian cities.
First of all, the relocation plan requires a lot of financial support, according to Jokowi's plan, the total cost of moving the capital is expected to be 32 billion US dollars (about 203.3 billion yuan); secondly, in terms of infrastructure, the construction of a new capital requires a lot of technical and human resources, including various architectural design and construction techniques, as well as a large number of engineering construction personnel.
As one of Indonesia's close partners, China not only has rich economic strength, but also excellent infrastructure construction capabilities and abundant technical talents. Therefore, China is undoubtedly an ideal partner for Indonesia's capital relocation plan. The successful opening of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway is a testament to this. Naturally, Indonesia would like to see China's help. In addition, it is worth mentioning that there is no political burden for cooperation with China, which is an important reason why Indonesia prefers China.
[China-ASEAN Cooperation to Promote Dispute Settlement in the South China Sea]
As far as China is concerned, Indonesia is an important partner of ours on the one hand, and on the other hand, Indonesia, as the founding member of ASEAN and the largest country in ASEAN, can also play a leading and exemplary role in ASEAN by cooperating with it, thereby promoting the resolution of the South China Sea issue. Therefore, we naturally welcome Prabowo's visit.
At the same time, however, Prabowo's China policy after taking office is still worthy of in-depth observation, so we also need to be appropriately vigilant when promoting China-Indonesia cooperation projects, and we should gradually move forward at a steady pace to avoid over-expecting results.