PUDUCHERRY: A memorandum of understanding signed between India and Indonesia to achieve sustained progress and prosperity prompted the visit of Indonesia’s ambassador to India Lt Gen (Ret) Andi M Ghalib to Puducherry on Friday.Speaking to mediapersons and members of the Confederation of Indian Industry, the ambassador said that he was in Puducherry to explore possible links in education, trade, tourism and IT. Stating that Indonesia was just behind India in terms of economic growth with Indonesia registering 6.7 per cent growth and India 8.6 per cent and with both boasting of being the second largest and the largest democracies respectively, he said both countries could emerge stronger by strengthening ties between them.Ghalib who called on Chief minister N Rangasamy, Lieutenant Governor Iqbal Singh and transport and education minister PML Kalyanasundaram and discussed areas of cooperation, invited them to visit Indonesia. “They can get a glimpse of our expertise and what could be suitable areas for mutual cooperation,” said Ghalib. With a commitment by Indonesian president Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to take bilateral trade to the level of 25 billion US dollars, several areas could be explored, he said.Puducherry had a strong presence in education, information technology, fisheries and food programme.Stating that the UT offered high quality education, especially in the medical education sector, he said that Indonesia was exploring ways to benefit from it. Though Indonesia (24 per cent) had a higher Gross Enrollment Ratio than India (13 per cent) in education, the latter scored by having a definite qualitative edge over Indonesia. Pursuing this line of thought, he said that in Indonesia, college and university faculty members were graduates, but in India faculty members were Ph D holders. Son Kuswadi Dr Eng, education attaché, Indonesian embassy, said that Indonesia was looking at JIPMER for twinning programmes with medical colleges in Indonesia for student exchange and faculty training programme. Towards this, a preliminary discussion was held with JIPMER on Friday. Referring to Bali, he said that Indonesia had immense potential in tourism. He invited people in industry and others to visit the country (Bali) for the CEO Summit being held between December 8 and 9 and the International Expo at Jakarta from October 13 to 17. Tata has already invested five million dollars in Indonesia for rolling out one of its brands - Nano. Returning the favour was an Indonesian company which was promoting real estate in Kolkata and Orissa.
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