“The cooperation between China and Indonesia in building the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway will be conducive for the two sides to strengthen their collaboration in infrastructure construction and boost the development of the two countries’ strategic partnership”.
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Indonesian Police Chief Badrodin Haiti told Reuters in an interview on Monday that the country was bracing for the return of these more experienced fighters, who may be capable of carrying out far more sophisticated operations than last week’s attack, which was hampered by poor training and weapons.
The groundbreaking ceremony was presided over by Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who signed an inscription on a large stone in Walini, a West Java town and location of one of the railway’s eight stations.
China won the contract to build the $5.6 billion, 99.4-mile project between Jakarta and Bandung in September, days after Indonesia said it was studying whether to change its specifications or even proceed with the project, prompting Japan to complain about the fairness and transparency of the process.
The Rp 70 trillion project, undertaken in collaboration with China, will span the 142 kilometers from Jakarta to Bandung and is expected to be completed by 2019. “Countries that have good competitiveness, that are efficient and do their development fast will be the winners”.
The 150-kilometer Jakarta-Bandung link, given its length and complexity, is expected to create more than 41,000 jobs a year during construction, he said.
Construction on Indonesia’s first bullet train started Thursday, months after a controversial bidding war that pitted China against Japan. Surabaya, East Java’s capital and Indonesia’s second city, has requested central government funding for its LRT.
Jokowi said not using the state budget for the rail project in heavily populated Java meant money wasn’t taken away from infrastructure projects in other parts of Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago.
“We’ve agreed to review the terrorism law to focus on prevention”, parliamentary speaker Zulkifli Hasan said. “Many people have left for Syria or returned”, he said, but did not say when a decision would be made.
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The Indonesian consortium holds 60 percent of the shares, while the remaining part belong to the Chinese counterpart.
