Malaysia, One of Five Biggest Investors in Indonesia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - From 2005 to 2009 Malaysia was one of the five biggest investors in Indonesia with a total investment of US$1.2 billion.       "From the manpower point of view, Indonesia has 2 million workers and 13,000 students in Malaysia," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said at his office here on Thursday.       Therefore, he explained that there was no plan so far to review economic cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia.       "We have no plan to review our two countries’ economic cooperation whatsoever," the minister said, adding that the cooperation between the two countries of one family continued to make significant progress.       Meanwhile, Indonesia’s investment value in Malaysia from 2005 - 2009 reached about US$500 million. At present there are around 6,000 Malaysian students in Indonesia.

Asked for comment on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s official address at the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) headquarters in Cilangkap on Wednesday night, Hatta said the speech reflected Indonesia as a big nation.       "The important point in this matter is that we have no compromise to the issue of sovereignty, we want to overcome the border problem with Malaysia as soon as possible, and we want to develop healthy diplomacy between the two countries," Hatta said.       In his official address on Wednesday night, President Yudhoyono reaffirmed his attitude toward Malaysia in regard to the heightening of tension over the recent arrest by Malaysian police of three Indonesian maritime patrol officers in the Indonesian waters.       Yudhoyono said that even though the relations between Indonesia and Malaysia were very important, yet it did not mean that the government ignored national interest, let alone if it concerned sovereignty.       "Such an incident should not happen again and it should be prevented by way of dialogs and increased coordination between the two nations while we continue to maintain the good relationship," the head of state said.      He said that Indonesia was willing to accelerate negotiations between the two countries over their border issues.