Indonesian Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and his Guinean counterpart, Felix Lamah, have signed a letter of intent (LOI) as an initial step for both nations’ commitment to explore cooperation in aviation.
“We open up the opportunity and are ready to cooperate with the Government of Guinea,” Sumadi said in his press statement on Thursday, when he received the visit of the Guinean transportation minister in Jakarta.
The initial agreement on the cooperation between Indonesia and the West African country will later be followed up at the technical level, according to the statement.
The visit of the Guinean minister is a follow-up to the meeting between the Indonesian Ambassador and the Government of Guinea in Dakar, Senegal, in September 2022.
Apart from expressing its need to modernize the transportation sector, the Guinean side also showed interest in cooperating in the transportation sector with Indonesia, especially in the air transportation sector.
During his visit to Indonesia, Lamah made several visits, one of which is to state-run aerospace company PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI). The Government of Guinea would establish a national airline (Guinea Air) and was interested in using aircraft made by DI, the statement said.
Sumadi said that DI is one of Indonesia’s strategic companies in the field of manufacturing aircraft and its components.
“PT DI has produced a number of aircraft, which, so far, have been used by various countries, both for passenger transportation and for military purposes,” he stated.
He noted that the sea and air transportation sectors have a vital role to realize connectivity in Indonesia as an archipelagic country.
“To this end, we have formed various strategic companies as a manufacturing industry to support the needs of the aviation industry, one of which is PT DI,” he said.
In addition, he stated that the cooperation opportunity is not limited to the air transportation sector but is also open to other sectors, such as land, sea, and railway.
Furthermore, the cooperation may include the fulfillment of human resources in the air transportation sector in accordance with the standard program and curriculum of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
“I will coordinate with the ambassador to facilitate the identification of more concrete (forms of) cooperation,” the minister stated.
