REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President's Special Envoy to the Middle East and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Alwi Shihab has urged Indonesian entrepreneurs to seize business opportunities with Middle Eastern countries.

"Middle East's investment in Indonesia is still far from what we are hoping for. The United Arab Emirates continues to be the leading investor in 2016, with investment valued at US$55 million," Shihab had remarked in Jakarta, Monday (Oct 30).

Indonesia is currently accelerating infrastructure development, with 225 projects across the country covering 14 sectors.

The infrastructure budget plan for 2017 is valued at Rp500 trillion, of which 31 percent came from private sectors, Shihab stated during a seminar titled "Investment and Cooperation Improvement between Indonesia, Middle East and OIC member states."

Shihab noted that the seminar was held to promote projects in the infrastructure, energy, and commerce sectors to Middle Eastern and OIC member nations to boost investment and commercial volume.

Shihab stated that the door for cooperation with Middle Eastern countries, including institutions, such as the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), is wide open.

"Right now, in accordance with the recommendation, IDB's funds are widely being used to build universities and schools. As long as it is a people's welfare project, they will be interested in it," Shihab explained.

Shihab added that the projects should be affiliated by banks to comply with IDB's requirements, so that they will have the government's guarantee as well as receive training and information.

Vice President Director of Katama. Inc, Carmeida Tjokrosoewarno, who also attended the seminar to promote his company's quake-proof construction product, said his firm is offering a quake-proof foundation that will be useful for vulnerable Middle Eastern countries.

On the occasion, Tjokrosoewarno shared the images of buildings in West Sumatra and Aceh that were still intact after the earthquake.

"On that occasion, we offered two technologies, the first being the spiderweb foundation for buildings and the spiderweb system for roads, taxiways, and container depots, among others," Tjokrosoewarno said.

Tjokrosoewarno also remarked that spiderweb construction is also applied widely in various extreme terrains in the Middle East.

"We have applied road technology having a maintenance span of 25 years, as compared to the conventional one that lasts 10 years, and the cost is not far from the current one being used," he pointed out.

Tjokrosoewarno said Katama had established cooperation with IDB to build the Kendari University, North Sumatra University, Padang National University, and various schools in Aceh.

"We are not connected directly with IDB. Usually in a project, we were just part of their foundation work or act as the sub-contractor," he said.

In the Middle East, Katama offers various cooperation alternatives, with one of them being technology selling. On its part, Katama only acted as the supervisor, so that all technological specifications are in line with the requirements.

Tjokrosoewarno revealed that the next cooperation they will forge was for building another factory to produce large volume of material for road construction.

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