Prime Minister Suga arrives in Indonesia To summit meeting with President Joko Widodo October 20, 16:09
Prime Minister Suga, who is visiting a foreign country for the first time since taking office, arrived in Indonesia, the next country to visit, on the afternoon of the 20th.
At the summit meeting with President Joko Widodo, which will be held later, in addition to aiming to strengthen cooperation in the security field, financial support based on the impact of the new coronavirus and a policy to ease immigration restrictions for nurses etc. will be announced. I have decided.
Prime Minister Suga arrived in Indonesia, the next country to visit, after 3:00 pm on the 20th of Japan time after finishing the schedule in Vietnam.
After this, Prime Minister Suga will hold a summit meeting with President Joko Widodo.
Indonesia, which is a major power of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a strategic partner that shares basic values, and at the meeting, we would like to confirm that we will take measures in cooperation with various regional issues such as China's advance into the ocean.
Furthermore, we will confirm the early holding of foreign affairs and defense ministerial talks, so-called 2 + 2, and aim to strengthen cooperation in the security field by accelerating talks for the transfer of defense equipment.
On the other hand, Indonesia has the highest cumulative number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Southeast Asia, which has a great impact on the economy, so in addition to informing the policy of providing tens of billions of yen in yen loans, nurses and nursing care We would like to agree on the direction of relaxing the restrictions on entry into Japan for nursing care workers.
Japan and Indonesia
Indonesia, which has the world's fourth largest population of 270 million, has strong economic growth and is one of the important investment destinations for Japan. It is economical through high-level exchanges including leaders. We have strengthened our ties.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the amount of investment from Japan in Indonesia has been around $ 5 billion since 2016, and last year it was about $ 4.3 billion, making it the third largest investor after Singapore and China. I will.
In addition, Japan is the largest donor of ODA = Official Development Assistance, and has supported Indonesia's economic growth by providing a cumulative total of approximately 5 trillion yen in yen loans up to FY2018.
From the perspective of Indonesia, Japan has the third largest exports after China and the United States, and the second largest imports after China, making it an important trading partner.
On the other hand, in Indonesia, which is a traditional pro-Japanese country, the number of people learning Japanese is about 700,000, which is the second largest in the world, and Japan is with nurses based on the EPA = Economic Partnership Agreement that came into effect in 2008. By last year, we had accepted 2,780 caregiver candidates.
However, due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, this has never been accepted.