Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape is leading a delegation to Indonesia tomorrow (Wednesday) for his first bilateral meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during a three-day visit.

Announcing his trip to the nation, PM Marape said his visit would be from 30 March to 1 April.

“The trip is to elevate the bilateral relationship between the two countries to another level where PNG and Indonesia can expand their trade and commerce even more,” he said in a media statement.

PM Marape said he is taking with him a delegation of people from key sectors of the country in Forestry, Fisheries, Energy, the Kumul companies, and Investment Promotion Authority, including people from within the business community.

“I am taking a business delegation with me on this trip – key people from the business community and our trade and investment sectors,” said PM Marape.

The Prime Minister and the President will meet for the formal discussions on 31 March during which PM Marape said PNG would be proposing for a tri-partite arrangements between PNG, Indonesia and Australia.

PM Marape said: “The tri-partite arrangements will be the key point among our discussions where we have the three nations interfacing on key matters such as mutual security, border protection, trade and others.

Indonesia is a big economy that we have been under-utilizing in the past. A nation of 270 million people in the top 15 economies globally speaking and very soon will be in the top 10 economies.

“It is forecasted that Indonesia will have a high growth rate. PNG cannot just have a stiff border against Indonesia. We are culturally linked, we are linked by landmass and by sea. Indonesia is amongst the closest neighbors we have.”