Ambassador Niniek Kun NARYATIE: “Indonesia opens investment opportunities for Ukraine”
Diplomat says her native islands may soon host Ukrainian farmer’s “chocolate” plantation
The “Windows to Indonesia 2013” exhibition will be held at the Ukrainian Home in downtown Kyiv on May 24 through 26. In this way, the event’s actual organizer, the Republic of Indonesia’s Embassy aims to draw attention of ordinary Ukrainians and our business community to the island country’s culture and economy.
Despite the fact that Ukraine and Indonesia have been good partners for a long time, the Indonesian Ambassador to Ukraine Niniek Kun Naryatie notes that the Ukrainians still know little about the potential of this island country and the Indonesians are equally short of knowledge about Ukraine. “Everyone knows about Bali, but there are many more interesting places. Culture, cuisine, and traditions of Indonesia are all very rich,” she stresses.
The embassy plans to further simplify the visa regime between Ukraine and Indonesia. In particular, it has already reduced visa application processing time for Ukrainian citizens from five to three days. The ambassador adds her nation is considering the possibility of issuing visas on arrival to the country. Therefore, the embassy expects that the tourist flow from Ukraine, which amounted to 5,000 people in 2012, will increase.
However, even better than more tourists, the Indonesians would like to get the Ukrainian businesspeople to invest in infrastructure, industry and agriculture of the Southeast Asian nation. “Ukraine is our biggest trade partner among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe,” the ambassador remarked. Nonetheless, the diplomat is sure that these figures [1.3 billion dollars a year. – Author] have a space to grow further. “Indonesia opens investment opportunities for Ukraine,” she says and stresses that Indonesia has the world’s fourth-largest population, making it a huge potential market for Ukraine. Some Ukrainian businesspeople have already realized it. The ambassador tells The Day that even now, some Ukrainian businesses are interested in agricultural investments in Indonesia. To be more specific, they would like to buy a cocoa plantation. “Since Ukraine buys a lot of chocolate raw material in Indonesia, it is interested in establishing a cocoa plantation there,” the ambassador says. So far, no specifics have been disclosed, and we know neither the company’s name, nor how much it is going to invest in this project.
By the way, Naryatie arrived in Ukraine quite recently, in the late fall of 2012, replacing the previous ambassador Dru Nining Suningsih. Suningsih was well-known for traveling a lot around Ukraine with her family. Her travels resulted in a book about Ukraine’s rich and fascinating culture, which her husband authored and published in Indonesia.
