REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON -- British businessmen part of the UK-ASEAN Business Council have expressed their readiness to help Mayor Ridwan Kamil develop Bandung.

They conveyed their willingness following the mayor's presentation in a business forum organized by the UK-ASEAN Business Council in London, the Indonesian Embassy in London said in a statement on Tuesday.

The roundtable presentation was also attended by Indonesian Ambassador to the Great Britain and Ireland Hamzah Thayeb.

Kamil invited British businessmen to invest in Bandung, particularly in transportation safety.

He plans to build a world-class concert hall as well as a monorail network in Bandung in the next five years and also intends to transform Bandung into a smart city.

With a population of 2.7 million, the economic growth rate of Bandung is 9 percent, and 55 percent of the contribution is from small- and middle-scale businesses.

In addition, some six million domestic and foreign tourists visit Bandung annually.

Also, the duration of the journey from Jakarta to Bandung is expected to drop from three hours to half an hour with the planned construction of a new railway network.

Mayor of Bandung Ridwan Kamil and Co-founder of the Bandung Strategic Leadership Forum Ridwansyah Yusuf Achmad are on a working visit to Britain from June 22 to 28 to attend a number of business meetings, according to Hastin Aristya Bakti Dumadi of the Indonesian Embassy.

"There are some 15 meetings on the agenda that I have to attend," Kamil, who is also the chairman of the Association of the Mayors of Java's Cities, pointed out.

His agenda includes giving a lecture at Goldsmiths College, a visit to Tech Innovation Hub and Nottingham, a meeting with the mayor of Nottingham, a visit to the Express Transport Project and Tramlink Depot, and a visit to Oxford.

"I also plan to explore the possibility of establishing cooperation as a sister city with Oxford," the mayor noted.

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