Learn from Indonesia

Upon the invitation from the Egyptian Government, the State Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises of Indonesia, Mr. Suryadharma Ali, visited Egypt on 1-3 July 2007. The visit was a follow up of the talks between Minister Suryadharma Ali and Dr. Fayza Aboulnaga, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, during the Fifth Indonesia-Egypt Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) held in last April in Jakarta.

The talks were mainly on strengthening bilateral relations through cooperation in the utilization of water hyacinth (popularly known in Indonesia as “eceng gondok”) as a means to boost people’s income by way of SMEs empowerment.

In Egypt, water hyacinth is considered as a nuisance because it contributes to shallow the river and the decrease of water quality, and it poses as hindrance to irrigation and water transportation. For that reason, the Egyptian Government has long been treating water hyacinth as any other waste that needs to be removed. On the other side, the Indonesian people are able to utilize water hyacinth to manufacture quality products such as furniture, footwear, bags and hats. Being aware of this Indonesian experience, the Egyptian Government is eager to learn from Indonesia how to turn the nuisance into a commodity with high economic potentials.

In the visit, Minister Suryadharma Ali met in separate occasions with Minister Fayza Aboul Naga, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, Minister of Investment, and Dr. Mahmoud Abou Zeid, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, to discuss ways to realize the cooperation. The three Egyptian Ministers were instructed by the Prime Minister of Egypt, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, to follow up the report given by Minister Fayza Aboulnaga after her return from the JCM.

Among the things agreed upon during the visit, the most important of all is the setting up of a task force that is responsible to discuss in details technical requirements needed to be taken in order for the cooperation to materialize. The first assignment of the task force will be to discuss a concept of agreement for the cooperation.

Minister Suryadharma Ali hopes that the cooperation will not only cover production of manufacturing aspects, but also the aspects of marketing and labor. He also suggested that the first meeting of the task force could be held in Jakarta so as to provide the chance for officials of the Egyptian Government to experience first hand the production process of water hyacinth in Indonesia.