French Minister Visits Indonesia To Sign Railway Agreements

Jakarta, June 4 (Antara) - French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq is visiting Indonesia on June 4-5 this to sign some railway agreements. Accompanied by around 30 French businessmen grouped in MEDEF International Businessmen Association, the visiting French minister is slated to meet several Indonesian ministers such as Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik, Finance Minister M. Chatib, Chief of Indonesia`s Investment Coordinating Agency and Jakarta Governor Jokowi, a release from the French Embassy made available to Antara said here on Tuesday. She is also scheduled to make a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during her visit to Indonesia. The agreements to be signed by Nicole and her Indonesian counterparts have to do with the modernization of some railway corridors in Bandung, a soft loan through a protocol fund from the French Finance Ministry amounting to 80 millions of Euro and another 46 millions of Euro from the Agency of French Development (AFD). The visit is conducted in the framework of strategic partnership initiated by the French and Indonesian Presidents in December 2009, but it was then officiated in July 2011 on the occasion of the visit of the French President to Jakarta.