Search

Indian Ocean to Become New Economic Power

Indian Ocean to Become New Economic Power
Indian Ocean Trade Route © Haiku Deck

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has said that fast economic growth in countries bordering the Indian Ocean could turn the region into an economic force to be reckoned with.

Jokowi said East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia had shown robust growth amid a slowdown in the global economy.

"We believe the Indian Ocean is growing to be a key region in the world economy. For a thousand years, the Atlantic Ocean has dominated the world," Jokowi said during his opening speech at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) leaders’ summit in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He further explained that East Africa’s GDP was growing at a rate of 6 percent, while that of South and Southeast Asia was soaring at 7 and 5 percent, respectively, and Australia’s at 3 percent.

However, to become the next economic power, the President said, the IORA member countries had to solve their problems, including economic disparities between developing countries and the least developed countries.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo delivers his speech at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) leaders' summit in Jakarta on Tuesday. Image: Courtesy of Presidential Office/Wahyu Putro A
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo delivers his speech at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) leaders' summit in Jakarta on Tuesday. Image: Courtesy of Presidential Office/Wahyu Putro A

 

"The IORA community is unique. It is rich, but at the same time pockets of poverty still exist. We have to admit that we need modernization in a lot of aspects," he said.

The IORA leaders’ summit is the first after the organization was established in 1997. Previous meetings of the group of 21 countries were only attended by officials at the ministerial level. Indonesia hosted IORA meetings in Padang in 2015 and in Bali in 2016.

IORA members comprise South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Comoro, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Yemen.

The seven dialogue partners are China, France, Japan, the United States, Egypt, Germany and the United Kingdom.

 

Source : The Jakarta Post

Indah Gilang Pusparani

Indah is a researcher at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Kota Cirebon (Regional Development Planning and Research Agency of Cirebon Municipality). She covers More international relations, tourism, and startups in Southeast Asia region and beyond. Indah graduated from MSc Development Administration and Planning from University College London, United Kingdom in 2015. She finished bachelor degree from International Relations from University of Indonesia in 2014, with two exchange programs in Political Science at National University of Singapore and New Media in Journalism at Ball State University, USA. She was awarded Diplomacy Award at Harvard World Model United Nations and named as Indonesian Gifted Researcher by Australian National University. She is Researcher at Regional Planning Board in Cirebon, West Java. She previously worked as Editor in Bening Communication, the Commonwealth Parliament Association UK, and diplomacy consulting firm Best Delegate LLC in USA. Less
View all posts

Thank you for reading until here