Ambassador of Indonesia to Qatar, H E Ridwan Hassan
Ambassador of Indonesia to Qatar, H E Ridwan Hassan, has said a new hotel and resort developed by Qatar will be opened in Indonesia in 2024.
The Ambassador made this statement at the Indonesian Cultural Event held at Education City recently to mark Indonesia’s 77th Independence Day.
Ambassador Hassan said Indonesia and Qatar are working together in building the upcoming resort which will be operational in two years. The new project is located at Labuan Bajo, in the Nusa Tenggara area of eastern Indonesia at the western tip of the island of Flores.
Though there is no direct international flight to the island, Hassan said getting to Labuan Bajo would be easy through an efficient road network.
The new endeavour will also contribute to strengthening ties between the two countries. He said Indonesia has benefited from years of investment by Qatar, boosting their economic ties. Ooredoo, Nebras Power, and Qatar National Bank are among Qatari companies with operations in Jakarta.
Moreover, the envoy highlighted that the new project will promote the Indonesian tourism industry. “Indonesia is very famous for tourism, especially if you’re talking about the island of Bali. Indonesia consists of thousands of islands and if we are just focusing on Bali itself, it is not enough, because Bali is not really big to accommodate all the foreign tourists coming to Indonesia. For that reason, the government introduced the new policy, among others. We call it 10 New Balis. We copy Bali as the basis and then we develop it into other islands, with some modification.”
The “10 New Balis” project identifies 10 locations in Indonesia as “the next Bali.” Similar to Bali, which draws four million visitors, these locations are anticipated to draw a sizable number of tourists. The new hotel and resort is located in Labuan Bajo, one of the 10 'New Balis'. Other locations include Borobudur Temple (Central Java), Belitung (Sumatra), and Mount Bromo (East Java).
They also include Lake Toba (North Sumatra), Thousand Islands (Jakarta), Mandalika (West Nusa Tenggara), Wakatobi (Southeast Sulawesi), Tanjung Lesung (Banten), and Morotai (North Maluku).
The Ambassador also stressed that relations between Indonesia and Qatar are “going strong, and hopefully stronger”. Total trade between the two countries in 2021 reached $893m.
