‘Indonesian Muslims to stage Ramayana next month’

With tourist population from India to Indonesia growing substantially in the last one year, the consulate general of Indonesia in India, Saut Siringoringo, tells Adarsh Jain about Indonesia’s plans to introduce air connectivity from Coimbatore, the business and trade prospects from Tamil Nadu and attempts to revive cultural links between the two countries.Excerpts:
The rate at which tourists from India is growing tremendously. Could you give us reasons behind this trend?
The number of tourists’ has grown by more than 1lakh in the last one year because of the introduction of free visa facility. There are three major locations from where we get the most number of tourists- Mumbai, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.
Air connectivity to Indonesia has been a problem for people from Coimbatore. Are there plans to introducing new flights?
We have been visiting some of the small cities and are amazed by the response they have given towards business, trade and tourism tie-ups. I have told the transportation ministry to look for possible flight operations from prospective cities like Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and Pune. There are about 10 such cities in our mind where we are exploring ideas of introducing flights.
The prospects are vice-versa too. Recently when I visited Trichy, I met 27 students from Indonesia. While they were of Indian origin, they came from Indonesia to study here. When I asked them why they chose India, the students said education facilities were good here.
What are the trade prospects between India and Indonesia?
The two important commodities’ that Indonesia trades is palm and coal. We have severely dropped coal trade due to stringent regulations. Recently, we had a group of industrialists from Gujarat who wanted to explore opportunities for trading textiles. Indonesian government organised the entire trip for them and helped them find potential buyers in that area. Similarly, India is interested in trading furniture from Indonesia. Last month I was in Kerala where a furniture dealer had procured 97 containers of furniture from Indonesia in one month.
Which states in India are keen on trade with Indonesia?
States like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat stand ahead when it comes to exploring business opportunities in Indonesia. The largest delegation comes from China (200), Singapore and Malaysia, and India’s delegation has nearly 150 businesspersons. But, the largest business transaction is made by India. In this Indian delegation nearly one-third of businessmen are from Tamil Nadu.
Are you planning to meet industrialists as a part of this visit?
This visit is to promote tourism in Indonesia. But last year when I visited Coimbatore, I addressed the industrialists at the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICCIC) and also met the management of Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) which is one of the largest Indian business houses working with Indonesia.
India and Indonesia are linked culturally too. Are there plans to revive such links?
There is immense cultural link between the two countries. I wanted to stage Ramayana from Indonesia’s perspective in India. After two years of dialogue with the Indonesian government I have been given permission to organise it this year. Ramayana will be performed in Ahmedabad and Mumbai in the last week of September and first week of October respectively. The unique thing about this performance will be the dancers. They will be Muslims from West Java.