Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia's Transmigration Minister Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara was set to visit China on October 12-18 to explore modern agriculture, downstreaming, and industrialization cooperation to create jobs in transmigration areas.
Minister Suryanagara said the visit, as the invitation of Chinese government, aims to study the use of technology, investment, and human resource development to build new economic growth centers, especially outside Java.
"We need technology, investment, industry, and human resources capable of creating added value. Therefore, we want to learn from China's experience in building industry and developing rural economies," he said in an official statement received here on Sunday (Oct 11).
According to him, China's experience in integrating agriculture, infrastructure development, industrialization, and workforce quality improvement can serve as a reference for developing transmigration areas in Indonesia.
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He assessed transmigration areas need to be developed into centers of productive economic activity that can provide jobs and raise people's incomes, not merely places for population relocation and land provision.
Suryanagara is scheduled to meet China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Monday to discuss opportunities for cooperation in modern agriculture, production technology, agricultural product processing, and rural economic revitalization.
The meeting is also scheduled to involve the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China's Foreign Economic Cooperation Center to explore technology development and economic cooperation in the agricultural sector.
Several commodities from transmigration areas that could become the focus of the exploration include durian in Central Sulawesi, dwarf coconut in East Nusa Tenggara, coconut in North Maluku, as well as rice, cocoa, coffee, and sugarcane in Papua.
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Suryanagara stressed the hoped-for cooperation is not limited to raising commodity production, but also covers processing industries, wider market access, technology transfer, and preparation of local workers.
"We want more products to be processed in Indonesia, more added value to remain in the regions, and more people to get jobs," he said.
Besides meeting with Chinese government officials, Suryanagara is scheduled to give a public lecture at the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) at Peking University in Beijing on Monday.
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Translator: Aria, Kenzu
Editor: Fransiska Ninditya
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