JAKARTA - Singapore Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong called in Jakarta on July 6 for more flight connections to Indonesian cities after carriers opened a Singapore-Pontianak route.
The remarks came during the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at the Merdeka Palace.
“We hope to see more flight connections to different parts of Indonesia,” Wong said at the joint press conference. He said wider air links would bring more tourists to Indonesia, support business travel and create more interaction between people in both countries.
The route already named by Wong is Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan. Scoot said in an April 9 release that it would operate Singapore-Pontianak flights three times weekly from June 29. Wong said Singapore carriers had just launched the direct flights the week before the retreat.
The Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wong and Prabowo noted stronger air connectivity through new city links. The leaders also witnessed exchanges of memoranda of understanding covering carbon credits, cross-border electricity trading, environmental cooperation, digital cooperation and nuclear information sharing.
BPS-Statistics Indonesia said in a July 1 release that international visitor arrivals reached 1.38 million in May, up 5.83 percent year on year. Domestic tourism trips reached 106.16 million in the same month, up 8.69 percent year on year
BPS’ passport-based tourism table recorded 136,740 visits by Singapore passport holders in May. The BPS infographic ranked Singapore third among passport groups that month with 9.89 percent of international visitor arrivals, after Malaysia and Australia.
“By working together, we can create many more opportunities for our peoples, strengthen our resilience, and make our two countries, as well as our region in ASEAN more competitive,” Wong said in his remarks.
