Jakarta, Dec. 18 (CNA) Taiwan is fast improving relations with Indonesia after an eight-year lag that resulted from the loss of trust between Jakarta and Taipei due mainly to former President Chen Shui-bian’s ill-advised diplomatic sally.

That trust is being restored, said Taiwan’s top representative to Indonesia Andrew Hsia, who assumed his post as head of Taiwan’s Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta, Indonesia two weeks ago.

Relations between Taiwan and Indonesia were on course before Taiwan’s former President Chen Shui-bian began adopting “checkbook diplomacy,” in which he tried to expand Taiwan’s diplomatic activities and overseas visits.

Chen’s stopover in the Indonesian island of Batam under the pretext of making his journey more “comfortable” on his way back from his Latin American tour in 2006 was actually politically motivated and had shattered any trust Jakarta had ever had in Taipei.

With the change of government in Taiwan in 2008, relations between the two sides began to change, Hsia told the Central News Agency in an interview.

Since taking up his new post, Hsia has met with Indonesian lawmakers and top government officials for talks on how to promote cultural, educational and economic exchanges between the two countries.



“We have so much to talk about after that long delay,” said Hsia, who had previously served as deputy foreign minister.

Hsia succeeded Timothy C. T. Yang, who was recalled to Taipei as foreign minister a little more than a month ago due to a Cabinet reshuffle that occurred in the wake of Typhoon Morakot.

Indonesia is one of Taiwan most important trade partners.

In the first three quarters of this year, trade between the two nations totaled US$3.95 billion.



Taiwan’s aggregate investments in Indonesia as of the end of September had hit US$13.94 billion, its third highest after China and Vietnam.

“Our foreign direct investment is expected to create at least one million jobs for Indonesians,” Hsia said Sunday, speaking in Bali at a conference of Taiwan chambers of commerce in Indonesia.

The conference was held to help the Taiwanese business community learn more about investment potential in Indonesia.

Indonesia needs investment in agriculture, aquaculture and IT (information technology) industries to expedite economic growth and employment, according to Hsia.

“We are helping Indonesia to attract our entrepreneurs,” Hsia added.

One of them is Taiwan’s CPC petroleum company, which is interested in producing biofuel in Indonesia, Hsia said.

Meanwhile, cultural and educational exchanges are also being promoted. For one thing, Hsia has helped Radio Taiwan International and the Central News Agency sign memorandums of understanding on news exchanges with Indonesia’s Antara News Agency.

RTI has a Bahasa Indonesian service for more than 130,000 Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan. Antara and the CNA will organize photo exhibitions in each other’s country as a starter for closer partnership.

“I’ve received three university presidents from Taiwan, and all of them look forward to student and faculty exchanges with Indonesia,” Hsia said.

As the largest member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with a population of over 200 million, Indonesia must enhance its higher education to train its people to be scientists, engineers, doctors and other professionals, Hsia said.

There is no doubt that Taiwan can be of help to Indonesia in this field, particularly in the training of personnel for medical service, Hsia said.

“Taiwan has top-rate hospitals where more Indonesians may go to get treatment that is unavailable here,” Hsia said, adding that the hospitals offer better and cheaper treatment than their counterparts in advanced countries in Asia.

Taiwan’s medical service could also greatly boost tourist arrivals from Indonesia, according to Hsia. Hsia’s office is Taiwan’s busiest consular office abroad. It has a dozen consular officers to handle visa applications from migrant workers from Indonesia. Staff at the office have to take care of the workers as well as an influx of tourists from Taiwan, who keep the China Airlines and EVA Airway as well as Garuda airline of Indonesia busy year round.

All of this will strengthen Taiwan’s relations with Indonesia, according to Hsia, who added that Indonesia will play a major role in the emerging free trade zone in Asia, known popularly as Ten-plus-One.



The grouping is made up of the 10 ASEAN members and the People’s Republic of China. The new Asian trade bloc comes into being on January 1.

One thing that surprised Hsia most was the popularity in Indonesia of Taiwan’s Tzu Chi Foundation. The Buddhist organization made great contributions to the relief of victims of last year’s tsunami, which killed thousands of people in Indonesia.

“Indonesians know that and are ever thankful,” Hsia said, “but I was truly surprised to find the Da Ai Drama, offered by Da Ai TV, winning an increasingly large number of fans in Indonesia.”

Da Ai, which means Great Love, is operated by the Tzu Chi Foundation.

One of the fans is the wife of a deputy minister Hsia met last week.

“She told me she loves the TV series for they are true stories of moving love and friendship,” he said, noting that they are not cheap soap opera churned out by commercial TV networks to boost their ratings for advertising income.



The belief among Indonesian people that Taiwan is extending its friendship and assistance to their country the way Tzu Chi is giving its help to the tsunami victims, could make Hsia’s challenging work in Jakarta a little easier. (By Joe Hung)

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