"When I spoke with Swedish business delegation during a visit to Jakarta last year I felt their strong spirit to invest in Indonesia," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said.
Stockholm (ANTARA News) - The number of Swedish companies in Indonesia has increased by 50 percent in the past two years, showing the Swedish investors` great interests in Southeast Asia`s largest economy, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said.

"When I spoke with Swedish business delegation during a visit to Jakarta last year I felt their strong spirit to invest in Indonesia," he said at a joint press conference with visiting Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at his office on Tuesday.

He said Indonesia is the world`s third biggest democratic country with a fantastic economic growth of six percent a year.

He said the growth opened potential trade between the two countries moreover now when economic growth in the European region was still around one percent.

On the occasion, President Yudhoyono invited Swedish businessmen to invest in Indonesia and he was open to discuss regulations considered still hindering them.

"I invite Swedish businessmen to cooperate with their Indonesian counterparts in investment. I have conveyed to Prime Minister Fredrick Reinfeldt that in case regulatory problems arise we could talk to discuss them," he said.

President Yudhoyono said during Prime Minister Reinfeldt`s visit to Jakarta in November 2012 the two countries agreed to increase cooperation mainly in the fields of investment, trade, education, environment, climate change and tourism.

He further said that Indonesia wished to learn more from Swedish experience in maintaining its environment.

"Sweden`s environment management concept has been recognized in the world and so Indonesia hopes it can learn its experience," Yudhoyono said referring to Sweden`s success in reducing the use of fossil fuel by up to 50 percent and exchange it with renewable energy sources.

The two leaders on the occasion also witnessed the signing of memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the fields of sustainable city development using green city and city symbiosis concepts by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Bjorling.

Sweden is Indonesia`s important partner and its bilateral trade with Indonesia is the highest among Scandinavian countries.

In the past five years the two countries` trade had continued to grow by up to 6.91 percent.

Total bilateral trade between the two countries in 2012 reached US$1.46 billion, up 28 percent from the year before when it was US$1.05 billion.

Swedish investment in Indonesia in 2012 reached US$5.2 million in 11 projects, rising four times from the year before recorded at US$916,000 in nine projects.

President Yudhoyono is the second Indonesian president to visit Sweden after the late president Soekarno on May 3-5, 1959.

President Yudhoyono visited Sweden at the invitation of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf.

He was accompanied by First Lady Any Yudhoyono, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, Minister/State Secretary Sudi Silalahi and Industry Minister MS Hidayat. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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