Philippines President Bongbong Marcos Visits Indonesia

TheIndonesia.id - Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Johnny G Plate welcomed the President of the Philippines H.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos JR at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. This marked the first visit of the President of the archipelagic nation to Indonesia.

"I was assigned to welcome Mr. President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos JR. His visit is certainly an honor for Indonesia," said Minister of Communications and Information at the VVIP Building Terminal 3 Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, after receiving the state visit of the President of the Philippines, Sunday, September 4, 2022.

According to Plate, the visit of the President of the Philippines, who is usually called Bongbong Marcos, puts Indonesia in a strategic position as a neighboring country to the archipelago. He also hopes that the visit of the Philippines leader will create more cooperation that can be enhanced between Indonesia and the Philippines, including in the digital and telecommunications sectors.

"We certainly hope that there will be a lot of bilateral cooperation that we can do, considering the geographical conditions of the Philippines and Indonesia in the ICT sector are almost similar. Indonesia is an archipelagic country, the Philippines is also an archipelagic country, almost the same," he said.

One possible cooperation is on using Indonesian satellites for the Philippines. Plate also said that the plan was being drawn up between telecommunications companies from the two countries.

"Next year we will launch two High Throughput Satellites (HTS), with a capacity of 300 Gigabytes per second, some of which have the potential to be used by the Philippines," he explained.

If this cooperation can be achieved, it will create more equal access for many people considering that telecommunication connectivity is currently an important requirement in developing countries. He also assessed that the cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines in the digital sector would be able to reach remote communities of the two countries.

"We can share these experiences on how to reach the frontier, outermost, underdeveloped areas, both Indonesia and the Philippines," said Plate.

When welcoming President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos JR, Minister of Communications and Information Johnny G. Plate was accompanied by Secretary General of the Ministry of Communications and Information Mira Tayyiba.