REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Five ministers have met to discuss a plan to set up Lake Toba Tourism Authority to improve the management of the tourism destination in North Sumatra.

The meeting held at Del Institute of Technology in Laguboti, Toba Samosir on Saturday was led by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli.

In a press statement received here on Sunday four ministers attending the meeting included Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimulyono, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Panjaitan and Minister of Forestry and Environment Siti Nurbaya.

It was also attended by acting governor of North Sumatra, Tengku Erry Nuradi, North Sumatra police command chief and seven heads of districts located around Lake Toba.

Rizal said he has full commitment to set up the agency to assure better coordination in the management of Lake Toba so that it would become a "Monaco of Asia" or an international standard tourism destination and attract more foreign tourists.

He appealed to the people of North Sumatra as well as regional administrations to support the governments to make it the icon of Indonesian tourism.

Luhut Panjaitan hailed the initiative to develop Lake Toba tourism destination saying that it had been awaited for tens of years by the indigenous Batak community.

"I have also reported it to President Jokowi (Joko Widodo) and he welcomed it. He said that it was part of the most important government's programs," Luhut who hails from the Batak community said.

He said besides Lake Toba the government also plans to set up tourism authorities in nine main other tourist destinations in the country this year, namely Tanjung Kelayang, Tanjung Lesung, Kepulauan Seribu, Borobudur Temple, Mt Bromo, Mandalika, Komodo Island, Wakatobi, and Morotai.

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