National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug met with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and shared his knowledge on South Korea’s experience on building an administrative capital, and discussed ways for the two countries to enhance bilateral cooperation, Sunday.

Their meeting came during Park’s trip to Bali, Indonesia to attend the 144th Inter-Parliamentary Union General Assembly, which kicked off Sunday and runs to Tuesday.

As Indonesia is currently preparing to relocate its capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan, Park explained his experience as a lawmaker to realize South Korea’s goal to build an administrative capital in the centrally located city of Sejong.

“Korea’s decision was based on the rationale to reduce the population density in the capital and to drive a balanced national growth,” Park said.

“I have devoted more than half of my services at the parliament, where I worked for more than 20 years, to building the administrative capital. After taking on the office as the speaker of the National Assembly, I continue to engage myself in the relocation of public institutions to noncapital regions.”

Indonesia recently passed a capital relocation bill as it seeks to resolve problems caused by the high population density and environmental pollution in the current capital city Jakarta. The opening ceremony of the new, relocated capital building of Indonesia is planned for August 2024.

In response, Jokowi said he would like to send an envoy to learn from Korea’s experience.

“I hope to visit Sejong city and meet with the speaker once again,” Jokowi said.

In discussing the measures to stabilize the global supply chain, Park requested Indonesia‘s support.

“Indonesia was quick to help when Korea experienced a shortage in urea fluid for our diesel vehicles,” Park said. “We hope the two nations can continue to strengthen cooperation to manage a stable global supply chain.”

Park also mentioned Indonesia’s investment in electric cars from Hyundai Motor Group, petrochemicals of Lotte Chemical and Posco’s steel products, and asked for “keen interest” in these industries, according to the speaker’s office.

“I am grateful for much of the investment made by Korean businesses in Indonesia. Our government and the parliament will collaborate and support Korean companies, including Lotte, Posco and LG, for them to continue investing in Indonesia,” Jokowi responded.

Park also promoted South Korea’s bid to host the World Expo in Busan.

“I understand that President Jokowi has been to Busan. Thus, I would also like to ask for your interest for us to become the host of the Busan World Expo,” Park said.

“We would like to congratulate Indonesia for hosting the G-20 Summit. The Korean government and parliament will collaborate and support with much interest.”

According to the speaker’s office, Park was the only parliamentary leader to hold a bilateral talk with Jokowi, among the delegations from 110 countries that took part in the IPU General Assembly.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)