Indonesia needs to look into developing closer diplomatic ties with African countries to benefit from their untapped rich resources in the way China and Japan have begun doing, a former Indonesian ambassador said.
Launching his book about the development of international relations in Africa recently, Abdul Hadi Adnan, former ambassador to Sudan, said bilateral relations between Indonesia and countries in Africa were still dismal although Indonesia could learn a lot from the conflict-torn continent.
"A number of African countries that are very rich in natural resources are falling apart because of the greed of their leaders," the Jakarta Post daily on Tuesday quoted Abdul as saying.
In 1955, Indonesia hosted the Bandung Asian-African Conference that gathered prominent leaders from the two continents. Countries from the two continents signed the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership in 2005.
He said, China and Japan have been significantly upgrading their presence in Africa with increased amount of aid and investment.
But, many people in Indonesia only think of poverty, colonization and war when it comes to Africa. That was then, and times have changed, Abdul added.
Abdul, who was ambassador to Sudan between 1999 and 2002, said in his book the reasons Africa was lagging behind were economic dependency on developed nations, mounting debts, widespread corruption and capitalism.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article