REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia and Maldives seek to strengthen bilateral cooperation especially in the tourism sector following the visit of Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Asim to Jakarta on Wednesday.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi received the visit of her counterpart from Maldives at the Pancasila Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Wednesday.

"Maldives is famous of its tourism and Indonesia also has a huge potential in tourism sector," Minister Marsudi said.

Becoming archipelagic countries, both Indonesia and Maldives will share their experience in developing the tourism sector and its promotion strategy, Marsudi said.

Maldives, which has become world's tourism destination, has been developing hotels, in which most of the decorating furniture came from Indonesia, the minister said.

Moreover, around 1,400 Indonesian citizen are working in Maldives, most of them are working in the tourism industry.

Meanwhile, statistic showed that 3,452 Indonesian tourists had visited Maldives in 2015, whereas 1,907 Maldivians had come to Indonesia in the same year.

During the bilateral meeting, both ministers also discussed their commitment in the context of the Paris Agreement to counter climate change. As archipelagic countries, Indonesia and Maldives are prone to the climate change that might affect its environment, people's livelihood as well as its tourism industry.

Both ministers also discussed the opportunity in improving cooperation in connectivity.

Maldives, a country in the Indian Ocean, comprises around 1,200 islands and requires to improve connectivity among its islands.

Foreign Minister Asim was scheduled to visit PT DI to see what the Indonesian state-owned aircraft maker has to help improving connectivity in Maldives.

The Maldivian minister was also scheduled to meet Indonesian Minister of Maritime and Fishery Susi Pudjiastuti to discuss cooperation in marine and fishery sector.

Maldives has become one of Indonesia's important trade partners.

Indonesia's export commodity to Maldives are among other construction material, sports equipment, perfumes, glassware, food products, and handicrafts.

Whereas Maldives mostly exports its fish to Indonesia.

In 2016, trade volume between Indonesia and Maldives reached US$ 39.3 million.

Statistic showed that during 2010-2016 period, the trade volume between the two countries has experience an increase of around 12.21 percent each year.

Indonesia and Maldive have also agreed to increase cooperation in technical cooperation in several sectors such as in disaster management, fishery,democracy, good governance and television.

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