Jokowi, EU Envoy Meet To Discuss Urban Issues

Jakarta, Nov 13 (Antara) - Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, and a number of ambassadors from countries that are part of the European Union (EU) met to discuss urban issues in Jakarta on Tuesday. Jokowi and the EU envoys exchanged their views and experiences about the steps being taken to deal with various city problems in their respective countries. "The envoys from the EU countries and I exchanged views and experiences concerning waste management, e-governance and traffic congestion," Jokowi said after the meeting at Pullman Hotel. Following the significant rise in the number of vehicles coupled with an unequal increase in the rate of street width in Jakarta, the traffic jams in the city have always been a big problem for the government. But Governor Jokowi noted that Jakarta had a great opportunity to move forward and be at par with cities in Europe, and therefore he would like to establish cooperation with the EU envoys. "We are yet to have the experience of building a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and other fields, so we need to exchange views and experiences with them in our bid to slowly make Jakarta look like the cities in Europe," Jokowi noted. Meanwhile, the EU Ambassador to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and ASEAN, Olof Skoog, stated on the occasion that he was ready to help Jakarta's city administration develop the city of Jakarta. "We have a lot of experience in various fields, such as waste, flooding and traffic jam management and thus we are ready to help Jakarta overcome these issues," Skoog said. But he added that to date a concrete plan of cooperation had not been established between Jakarta and the EU. "We have just exchanged views and experiences with Mister Governor (Jokowi) but we are yet to have a concrete collaboration," Skoog said, adding that there would probably be a follow-up meeting to further discuss the matter.