Jokowi invited South Korea to revitalize rivers

JAKARTA. During his three-day visit to Busan, South Korea, on Dec. 10-12 to attend the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-South Korea Dialogue, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he was impressed by the South Korean government’s success in revitalizing rivers in Seoul, prompting him to invite the South Korean government to work together to develop rivers in Indonesia’s capital city.

He said that based on the information he had, Seoul’s rivers were once similar to the rivers in Jakarta today.

President Jokowi also met with South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of the event, during which he expressed his hope to boost bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

When addressing the forestry ministerial level meeting, the President said that forestry development and preservation must go hand-in-hand.

"It is impossible for us to talk environment without touching upon its economic role. Also we cannot talk economic development at the expense of forests," he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Jokowi noted that industrial forests could boost economic growth and improve the welfare of those living around them, making them aware of the importance of forest preservation.

Hence, he said, the Indonesian government would introduce a pilot project under which a rice field, a plantation of medicinal herbs or an animal husbandry farm would be developed within an industrial forest.

He said that if the effort proved successful, more areas would be brought under the project to boost economic growth as well as forest preservation.

Jokowi’s visit to South Korea is his first to that country since being installed as Indonesia’s seventh president in October.