As the largest archipelagic country globally, Indonesia is rich in mineral and tourism resources, attracting more than 2 million trips from China every year. The China (Chongqing) - Indonesia Cooperation Forum on Investment, Trade, Culture, and Tourism was held in Nanan District on May 21. The meeting focused on the cooperation between Chongqing and Indonesia in economic and trade, tourism, culture, and other aspects.
In the afternoon of May 21, China (Chongqing) - Indonesia Cooperation Forum on Investment, Trade, Culture, and Tourism was held in Nanan District.
The participants included Djauhari Oratmangun, Ambassador of Indonesia to China, Tan Jialing, Vice Chairwoman of Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinse People's Political Consultative Conference, and representatives from the Indonesian Embassy in China, the Indonesian government and businesses.
"China and Indonesia, connected by the same mountains and rivers, share a longstanding friendship!" said Tan Jialing in her speech, adding that Chongqing is located at the junction of the areas participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and is an important strategic pivot point for the Western Development, and has obvious location advantages for economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN. From January to March 2021, the import and export volume between Chongqing and Indonesia reached RMB 2.602 billion, an increase of 76%. In May 2017, Chongqing and Indonesia's West Java province signed an agreement to establish friendly relations, further promoting long-term and in-depth cooperation between Chongqing and Indonesia in investment and trade, cultural tourism, and other areas. In recent years, the bilateral trade volume between Chongqing and Indonesia has been expanding. Chongqing enterprises have invested in Indonesia in the fields of automobiles, motorcycles, electronic information, pharmaceuticals, materials, etc.
Qin Dingbo, Deputy Director of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development, said that Chongqing ranked first in tourist cities' national tourist satisfaction rating in 2020 and was rated as one of the "top 10 tourist destinations in the world" by an international authoritative travel magazine. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic country, attracted up to 2 million trips from China a year until 2020.
Tourism exchanges between Chongqing and Indonesia are also very eye-catching: in 2018, 91,600 outbound trips emerged between the two sides; in 2019, there were 43,700 outbound trips between the two sides.
Qin Dingbo hoped that travel agencies and hotels in Chongqing would take the initiative to understand the future development needs of Indonesia's tourism industry and collect cooperation intentions at this WCIFIT to contribute to the rapid resumption of mutual visits between Chongqing and Indonesia and increase cultural and tourism exchanges in the post-COVID-19 era.