Wed, June 27, 2012
JAKARTA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The governments of Indonesia and Iraq on Wednesday agreed to cooperate on energy sector.
The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Indonesian Energy Minister Jero Wacik and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Ibrahim Saleh Al Shahristani.
"The signing is an evidence of the seriousness of both governments of Indonesia and Iraq to materialize a real cooperation on economy," Minister Wacik said.
The minister expected that the signing would be followed up by a support of the Iraqi government on Indonesian investors in the Middle East country.
He said that both countries had had long relationships. "Both countries have many similarity, particularly in potential of oil and gas," he said.
The minister said that Indonesia insisted to be involved in rebuilding Iraq which had been hit by war.
"As we know that Iraq is conducting a huge work of reconstruction to restore economy and infrastructure, therefore Indonesia is ready to cooperate with Iraq in resbuilding the country," said Wacik.
On Monday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Ibrahim Saleh Al Shahristani met with Indonesian Vice President Boediono at the Vice Presidential office and called on Indonesian firms to invest in oil and gas exploration and development in Iraq.
The deputy was certain that Indonesian firms had strong competitiveness against other firms from some foreign countries.
Indonesia has struggled to boost its dwindling oil production to 1 million barrel per day by 2015 from the current level of around 930,000 barrel per day.
