The Jakarta governor discusses his plans for his upcoming visit to Moscow, potential areas of cooperation between the cities, and his meeting with Yury Luzhkov.
Q: Mr. Bowo, what will be the main focus of your visit to Moscow this October?
A: Both our capitals are seeking inter-city cooperation. Last year we signed a memorandum of understanding on partnership between Moscow and Jakarta, and now we have to draft a close cooperation program for the next three years. This is what I will sign with Mayor Luzhkov during my visit to Moscow.
We don't want to just continue discussions, we want things to become reality, and we want to take practical steps. I think that Mayor Luzhkov is also a man of action.
I am very pleased to be able to respond to his invitation to come to Moscow. I certainly hope that my visit will be of benefit not only to both our cities, but also to both our countries.
Q: What will you be discussing with the Moscow mayor?
A: There are a lot of areas. We are thinking of developing an extensive exchange in the cultural and sports spheres. We also know that Russia has a very advanced program of preservation management for the cultural heritage of its old cities, and we would like to learn more about this.
The partner city of Moscow has also a very extensive program for emergency response to any disasters. So this is one more area in which we should learn from Moscow.
Besides this, we will also focus on small and medium business improvement activities. We know that many things have been transformed to meet the electronic era in Moscow. And we are about to start this in Jakarta. So we will also learn from Moscow's experience in this field.
Public transport is another area. We really admire those beautiful Metro stations that you have in Moscow. And not only the Metro - it also applies to some aspects of rail and bus transport.
One more area is open-space town planning. Moscow has been enjoying tremendous growth in the past few years due to the economic boom. We want to learn more about how to control the negative impacts of this urban growth.
This is a basic program we had agreed upon, and we are going to sign what we call a Program of Cooperation between the city of Jakarta and the city of Moscow for 2009-2010.
Q: This is quite an extensive program. Could you single out the three main priorities in it for Jakarta?
A: The most important thing for us is a disaster management plan. Jakarta, whose population is so large, lacks a strong plan on how to react if a disaster were to hit the city. And Moscow is very good at this, so we want to learn more.
The second point is that as we plan to start the construction of our subway next year, I think we can learn from Moscow's experience in this as well. I will ask Mayor Luzhkov for some experts to assist us in planning our subway.
We would also like to conduct an exchange in the sports and education sphere, as to how to build a system to recruit talented sportsmen at a very young age. In Russia this is done systematically, and the result is very positive.
These are the areas in which we want to start cooperation immediately.
Q: Outside the program, what will be the other points of discussion?
A: Well, water purification is also a subject for discussion, in addition to those I've mentioned, although it is not included in the official agenda.
Another thing is that we want to know is how Mayor Luzhkov deals with the problem of housing for low-income residents.
We will be talking about participating next year in the ‘Moscow days' - these big festivities in Moscow. And we would also appreciate it if Moscow's basketball team were to join our inter-city tournament during Jakarta's anniversary celebrations.
We also believe that since Moscow is the financial capital of Russia and Jakarta is the financial capital of Indonesia, there are plenty of areas - economically speaking - in which we can boost ties.
One day I would like to send a group of people to improve cooperation between the chambers of commerce and business in Moscow and Jakarta, because once you give them the facilities they will be able to grow by themselves. And I hope that business relations between Moscow and Jakarta will grow in the future.
Also, we definitely need to talk about having direct flights between Moscow and Indonesia.
Q: Besides meeting with Mayor Luzhkov, what are your other plans?
A: Besides meeting with Mayor Luzhkov, there are also several places to be visited.
I was informed that Mayor Luzhkov will be playing soccer on the Saturday morning and I will try to join him. This will be a challenge for me, because the temperature in Moscow is already very low. I will present Mayor Luzhkov with my local team's T-shirt with his name on it - Luzhkov.
My time is very limited, but there are so many things to be seen in Moscow, and I am also very excited about visiting some of the main sights in Moscow.
Q: What are your main expectations from your visit?
A: Moscow is a big city and the capital of a very powerful country. And we have good relations between the Republic of Indonesia and the Russian Federation. I think we both see this inter-city cooperation meeting as a channel to increase understanding between the governments of the two countries. We will be moving to practical things for the benefit of our people, which on the whole can bring us closer to achieving more important things for both our countries.
By RIA Novosti's Ekaterina Kuznetsova in Jakarta
