JAKARTA, Indonesia—After meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. concluded on Tuesday that his first ever visit here was "more productive" than what he had expected.
Speaking before reporters before he departed at 10:12 a.m. local time (11:02 a.m. Philippine time) for Singapore for another state visit, Marcos Jr. said all issues initially expected to be talked about were raised. He said his discussions with Widodo "progressed so rapidly" that they "started talking about other things."
"And so I think I would describe the trip as extreme, more productive than we had expected," the President said.
Bilateral relations as well as military, economic, diplomatic and cultural cooperations were initially lined up for discussion.
But Marcos Jr. and Widodo's talks went beyond the intended scope, such that Marcos came up with an idea of following some initiatives of the Indonesian government, including building state-owned malls, as well as importing fertilizers and coal from here.
I think the most extensive subject matter was in fact, PPP, public-private partnership. Because nandito talaga tayo para i-encourage 'yung (we are here to encourage) PPPs with the Philippine government," Marcos said.
"Bukod sa PPP, pinagusapan namin 'yung mga joint venture ng mga negosyante dito. Pupunta sila sa Pilipinas, ang negosyanteng Pilipino pupunta rito sa Indonesia para makapag-joint venture (Aside from PPP, we also talked about joint venture with local businessmen. They will go to the Philippines. At the same time, the Filipino businessmen will go to Indonesia for a joint venture) but also with the government. The PPPs with the government," he added.
Aside from meeting the Indonesian president, Marcos met with Indonesian business leaders.
In those meetings, he said, they were able to kick off initiatives, including the signing of a memorandum of agreement.
" are only the beginning these things. But we are determined that it will not end there," he said.
"The experience, we are so close in many ways—geographically, ethnically, culturally. So madali talaga ang interaction namin (So we had a smooth interaction). So I think it went – I think that’s why it went very well and that we were as productive and we advanced the talks very, very quickly," he concluded.