{"id":5542,"date":"2016-05-19T08:37:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T08:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/javafurniture.com\/news\/?p=5542"},"modified":"2016-05-19T08:37:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T08:37:13","slug":"norway-to-cooperate-with-indonesia-on-energy-and-climate-envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/norway-to-cooperate-with-indonesia-on-energy-and-climate-envoy\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway to cooperate with Indonesia on energy and climate: Envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Veeramalla Anjaiah<\/strong> ,\u00a0\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Jakarta Post<\/p>\n

In its quest for a stronger presence in Asia, Norway, a wealthy Nordic country, has recently begun showing a special interest in Indonesia, Southeast Asia\u2019s biggest economy.<\/p>\n

Like Indonesia, Norway is endowed with a wealth of natural resources including petroleum, natural gas, hydropower, fish, forests and minerals. On top of this, Norway has a US$375 billion oil fund, which invests in bonds, stocks and projects all over the world.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian interest comes at the right time for Indonesia, which is desperately looking for new markets and investments in the midst of the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an excellent relationship with Indonesia. Though we have a number of dimensions to it [the relationship], our main focus is on energy, climate and economic cooperation with regard to Indonesia,\u201d Norway\u2019s new Ambassador to Indonesia Eivind S. Homme told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview in Jakarta.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Homme, an adept career diplomat, submitted his credentials to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Aug. 12, 2015.<\/p>\n

Norway, which produces around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, is the leading country in deepwater oil exploration.<\/p>\n

In the energy sector, Homme said, the two countries have been working together for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state oil company StatoilHydro and its Indonesian counterpart PT Pertamina signed a memorandum of understanding in 2013 and a letter of intent in 2014 to cooperate in the energy sector,\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

StatoilHydro, which opened its office in Jakarta in 2014, has already acquired stakes in two oil and gas blocks in the Makassar Strait under production sharing contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Karama block, StatoilHydro has a 51 percent stake and a 40 percent stake in Kuma block, Homme said.<\/p>\n

StatoilHydro, which has operations in 40 countries, is also interested in developing the Natuna D-Alpha gas block in Riau, in cooperation with Pertamina.<\/p>\n

According to Homme, Statoil has advanced technology and experience in deep sea exploration.
\n\u201cNatuna has a high content of CO2 [70 percent]. It will be a challenging task technically and commercially. But Statoil has lot of experience in pumping out CO2,\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

Statoil is competing with other oil giants including ExxonMobil and Shell.<\/p>\n

In an effort to boost cooperation in the energy sector, Homme said, Norway has been organizing seminars as well as exchange and training programs in Indonesia and Norway.<\/p>\n

On the investment side, the Norwegian Government Pensiun Fund-Global invested $37. 42 million in Indonesia. The same fund had more than $1 billion invested in Indonesia through Rio Tinto until recently. Rio Tinto has a stake in Freeport McMoran, which operates the Grasberg gold and copper mine in Papua.<\/p>\n

Homme said that, after oil, the shipping industry is the biggest contributor to Norway\u2019s gross
\ndomestic product. Norway has the world\u2019s second biggest off shore fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur shipping companies gave orders to an Indonesian shipbuilder in Batam to build ships. It will be a huge project worth 4.3 billion Norwegian krone ($656 million) lasting for several years\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

At least 14 vessels will be built at the PT BATAMEC shipyard in Batam.<\/p>\n

Bilateral trade between Norway and Indonesia has been growing at a tremendous pace.<\/p>\n

In 2015, according to figures from the Indonesia\u2019s Central Statistics Agency, bilateral trade surged to $210.07 million, a 57.97 million increase from $132.98 million in 2014. In 2003, bilateral trade value stood just $84.40 million.<\/p>\n

Indonesia primarily exports furniture, textiles, shoes and telecommunications equipment to Norway. It imports fertilizers, industrial machinery and some oil (on the spot market).<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident the trade will grow significantly if we include the goods related to ship building in the future,\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

To address climate issues Norway and Indonesia recently participated in a bilateral energy dialogue in Oslo.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorway is financing the UN REDD program, one of the pilot projects on climate change, in Indonesia,\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian government will appoint a new counselor to its embassy in Jakarta to deal specifically with climate and forestry issues.<\/p>\n

Homme also said that Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has invited Indonesia to attend a high-level meeting on Carbon Capture and Storage, which will be held from May 27-28 in Bergen, Norway.<\/p>\n

Norway and Indonesia collaborate productively on good governance, democratization and human rights issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be spending $10 million on our development cooperation programs. We will be also helping Indonesia\u2019s new initiative, the Bali Democracy Forum, Homme said.<\/p>\n

To enhance mutual understanding and bilateral ties, Norway recently hosted the 8th round of the Indonesia-Norway Human Rights Dialogue in Oslo.<\/p>\n

Homme, a former officer in the Royal Norwegian Navy, is an explorer himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore joining the foreign service, I traveled by bicycle from Europe to Africa, Homme said.<\/p>\n

Homme joined the foreign service in 1984 and has worked in various positions for Norwegian diplomatic missions in Manila, Rome, Washington and Beijing.<\/p>\n

When asked about his hobbies, Homme said he can\u2019t play golf in Jakarta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to play golf but I can\u2019t play it here. I like to spend my spare time with my two young children,\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

He and his family are enjoying their stay in Indonesia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndonesian people are very kind and friendly. They have a very rich and diverse culture. I and my family like here very much,\u201d Homme said.<\/p>\n

Soure : http:\/\/www.thejakartapost.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Veeramalla Anjaiah ,\u00a0 The Jakarta Post In its quest for a stronger presence in Asia, Norway, a wealthy Nordic country, has recently begun showing a special interest in Indonesia, Southeast Asia\u2019s biggest economy. Like Indonesia, Norway is endowed with a wealth of natural resources including petroleum, natural gas, hydropower, fish, forests and minerals. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}