U.S. Consul for Sumatra Speech at the Opening of South Sumatra Investment Forum 2015

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U.S. Consul for Sumatra Y. Robert Ewing (fourth from right) and U.S. social entrepreneur Adnan Mahmud (far right) in the opening of South Sumatra Investment Forum 2015, today December 1, 2015 in Palembang


 U.S. Consul for Sumatra Speech at the Opening of South Sumatra Investment Forum 2015 


Medan, (Mimbar) - First, I want to extend a huge thanks to South Sumatra for our long partnership with the Government and businesses here. We are pleased to be a part of the South Sumatra Investment Forum.  

Thank you to the Governor and Vice Governor for putting together such a wonderful event.  

A particularly warm thanks to Adnan Mahmud who so kindly agreed to fly from the US to talk about entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship - the Consulate has a long history of inviting innovative speakers on development and I think you will enjoy Adnan’s thought provoking presentation, ask him a lot of questions.

Ladies and gentleman, Medan and the entire Sumatra are of growing strategic importance to the United States so we are upgrading our diplomatic presence here. For many years we operated as a presence post with just a small footprint of two officers.

But this was not enough given our growing scope of engagement in Sumatra. We upgraded Medan to a full Consulate prior to my arrival in May 2014. We are and expect to further expand staffing and further deepen our cooperation with Sumatra, an island that is bigger in size and population than many countries.

U.S.-Indonesia cooperation spans a huge range of areas such as partnering to improve security, to increasing exchanges and cooperation in education and scientific research, to working together to mitigate global challenges such as deforestation and climate change.  One important area that we are talking about today is expanding trade and investment ties and developing entrepreneurs.

Sumatra, with its 55 million people and major agricultural and industrial contributions to Indonesia’s economy, is a major focus of this cooperation. On the economic and business side, we work to support U.S. businesses operating in Sumatra. We also work with prospective U.S. businesses to help them better understand the opportunities and the operating and legal environment.

This event is timely following the recent meeting between Presidents Obama and Widodo in Washington. President Obama remarked during that meeting that both leaders inherited difficult economic circumstances as they took office. Jokowi made increasing growth and reducing poverty his top priorities and noted he prioritized opening Indonesia’s economy and improving Indonesia’s business climate to attract the foreign investment Indonesia needs including to help finance its infrastructure development program.

Now a focus again on this meeting as the one thing I have heard – and especially from the local officials in this room, who are some of Sumatra’s growth leaders -- is that they welcomed a meeting with American firms in the region and would like to see more U.S. businesses investing in Sumatra's future, providing the high levels of technical capacity and know how that they offer in an effective, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective way.  I am pleased we have IBM here.

Under Indonesian autonomy provisions, they have long told me they are open for business and have the power to act. Those officials have also told me they want to expand entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship and increase social involvement. It is why we invited Adnan here.

Recently the Consulate offered an innovative seminar to senior Sumatran officials on “smart cities” planning solutions. That seminar, and subsequent efforts, have spurred the interest of several firms who are now exploring and/or working on opportunities in Sumatra.    

More recently, we were pleased to host, with the American Chamber Conference in Singapore, a venue for four Sumatran provinces to meet with multiple American firms in Singapore. This was led by Governor Noerdin as four provinces joined together to present their investment potential.  

We are pleased to continue our ties with Sumatra and the Province of South Sumatra.

For more information on this program or covering the events, please contact U.S. Consulate PAS/ Econ Staff Honey Prescillia (HP 0811652780) or
email: PrescilliaHM@state.gov , Sumatra@state.gov

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