Bintan, Batamnews - Governor of the Riau Islands, Ansar Ahmad, had an audience with the Minister of Trade Industry Singapore, Gan Kim Yong, at the Grand Lagoi Hotel, Bintan, yesterday. 

Both discussed the potential and plans for developing cooperation between Riau Islands and Singapore. 

Ansar said that previously he had also visited the Minister of Johor, who was also with Singapore, encouraging to revive the cooperation between Singapore, Johor, and Riau Islands (Sijori) in the past, which has been dim. 

The Sijori concept was first announced to the public in 1989 by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong. Through Sijori, Singapore can relocate labor-intensive industries that require a lot of workers to Johor or Riau Islands, where labor costs are cheaper. 

In the presence of Minister Gan Kim Yong, Ansar also conveyed several strategic programs and projects that are being rushed, such as the Batam-Bintan Bridge, Special Economic Zones such as Nongsa Digital Park, new renewable energy, to talk about cooperation regarding medical personnel such as nurses. 

"Hopefully, in the future, it can be realized. Later we will discuss technically further," he said. 

The Minister of Trade of Singapore welcomed this very well. So in the future, it will try to open 1 or 2 international classes at the Health Polytechnic. 

"This is, so our children get job opportunities abroad, including Singapore. Later with this Sijori scheme, the trainers could be 1 or 2 people from Singapore to motivate our children," he explained. 

One possible cooperation is the construction of the Batam-Bintan (Babin) bridge. According to him, if Singapore has investors, they can participate. Then the Singapore Polytechnic cooperation for the supply chain of several Kepri products is already ongoing. 
Cooperation in the field of governance will also be implemented. Regarding the issue of cooperation in providing clean water, Governor Ansar stated that currently, he is still waiting for the certainty of the construction of the dam by Bintan Resort. 

If it is continued, it will continue to be pushed, but if not, then the construction of the dam in Busung will be rushed. If the private sector can spend its investment on the project, then there is no need to carry out development through the state budget. 

"I think our pattern has become the best example in Indonesia because all infrastructure is built by the private sector. We only need to collect the tax," he said. 

(*)