Diplomatic relationship between Indonesia and China has been established for 65 years. Along that time, Universitas Indonesia (UI) was the eyewitness and booster of this reciprocal fellowship. That thing was mentioned by Deputy Prime Minister of China, Y. M. Madam Liu Yandong while she delivered a public lecture at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of UI on Wednesday, May 27th 2015. Brought up “Strengthen exchange between society, together manage the friendship between China – Indonesia” theme, Liu emphasized the importance of improving cooperation between the two countries.
History has written that in 1990s era, UI cooperated with Peking University to compile and publish the Bahasa Indonesia-Mandarin dictionary as a culture understanding and communication tool between each other. “In this opportunity, I would like to sincerely thank to all lecturer and students of UI who has made effort to promote friendship between China and Indonesia for a long-term,” said Liu.
One of the recent cooperation that will be done between Indonesia and China is the maritime shaft development program which is related to Maritime Silk Route strategic idea of China. Moreover, President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo and President of China, Xi Jinping were also agreed to develop three cooperation mechanism on political security, economy and trade, and humanity sectors.
In order to actualize the mutual interest between Indonesia and China, Liu described four important things to do. First, Indonesia and China have to maintain the cooperation that has been established. It is because of the population of Indonesia and China are considered large, so the welfare that has been achieved by the two countries will importantly contribute for Asia, even the world.
Second thing that should be done is deepen the exchange between society to encourage citizen of the two countries to know each other. Besides that, cooperation improvement on educational sector is needed. One of cooperation form on educational sector could be achieved by translating classical literature of each country and also improving cooperation on language and culture teaching.
Furthermore, she hopes that Government of China expect for friendship between the young generation of Indonesia and China. “Government of China encourage young generation of China to study in Indonesia, and we also welcome Indonesia youth to study in China,” said her.
As the realization of cooperation improvement on educational sector, Liu as representative of China Government gave education funding total CNY 500,000 to UI. The funds transfer symbolically was accepted by The Rector of UI, Prof. Dr. Ir. Muhammad Anis, M.Met who was also attend the event.
Moreover, China will also add scholarship quota which will be given to Indonesia and also invite a hundred Indonesia students to join summer camp at Chinese Bridge this year. “I am sure that as long as we holding hands together, communication between the two countries will be improved to the next level so that the future of China and Indonesia will be even more further, “ said Liu as she ended the public lecturer session that day.
