Indonesia: Visit by Boris Johnson
Published 14 January 2015
© Crown copyright 2015
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1. Summary
GREAT takes over central Jakarta as thousands of people flock to see President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson cycle on ‘Car Free Day’. A high-impact visit including substantive discussions with the President, the Governor of Jakarta, and opportunities to promote London to a business audience and high net worth individuals. Over 400 articles produced by more than a hundred media outlets, with a combined audience of 150m people in Indonesia alone.
2. Detail
Mayor of London Boris Johnson visited Jakarta on 29-30 November as part of a wider visit to Singapore, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. He was accompanied by a business delegation spanning architecture, investment, technology, construction and city development and six British journalists.
The Mayor’s visit focused heavily on opening up commercial opportunities for London and the UK. With the Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (‘Ahok’), the Mayor covered potential partnerships in transport infrastructure, the 2018 Asian Games, flood defences and double decker buses. The Mayor and Ahok’s Deputy set out their ambitions for London and Jakarta to 120 British and Indonesian businesses at a reception hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce. A dinner with high net worth individuals allowed the Mayor to promote London as investment destination and the business delegation to make contacts with heavy-hitters in the Indonesian business world.
Jakarta has a ‘car free day’ every Sunday, throwing open its central arteries to people to cycle, walk, exercise, and hang out. President Jokowi agreed to meet the Mayor at Jakarta’s central roundabout and to cycle back together to the Presidential Palace. En route, the Mayor - wearing a ‘London is GREAT’ t-shirt and Union Jack helmet – handed over 12 GREAT-branded bikes to Ahok to be used to promote tourism in Jakarta. Thousands of Jakartans and dozens of journalists thronged the President, Ahok and the Mayor, clamouring for photos and impromptu interviews – and then cycled with and waved madly as the President and Mayor’s parties rode to the Palace.
Over breakfast, President Jokowi, Ahok, and the Mayor were joined by the new Chair of Indonesia’s Investment Board, the Deputy Foreign Minister, and our business delegation. Jokowi said how pleased he had been to meet the Prime Minister at the G20 and to discuss the potential for investment. He set out his plans to raise growth to 7% through investments in maritime infrastructure, energy and supply side reform. The subsequent discussion covered:
- economic regulation and Jokowi’s plan to simplify and create one-stop licensing - a top ask for British businesses
- sharing UK experience in public private partnerships to accelerate infrastructure investments
- partnership in the financial sector
- 2018 Asian Games - we co-chaired a roundtable with the Indonesian Olympic Committee for nine British businesses to showcase their experience in November and will host more detailed discussions in early 2015
- the UK education offer – the number of Indonesian students has increased by 29% from a low base but there is potential for rapid growth, including with funding from the Indonesian Government
- deepening UK-Indonesia trade relations.
The media impact was beyond expectations. Over 400 articles by more than 100 media outlets covered the car free day, as did all 15 Indonesian national TV channels and the BBC. Articles celebrated the links between London-Jakarta, and took pride in the readiness of their new President and the Mayor to engage in ‘bicycle diplomacy’. Social media activity was enormous: Jokowi (5.2m Facebook fans; 2.6m on Twitter), the Mayor of London (1m on Twitter), Ahok (1.9m on Twitter) were joined by pop stars, famous actors and even Jakarta’s traffic police (2m followers) and thousands of others. One Facebook post by the President received 120,000 likes alone. For a whole day, GREAT Britain was the talking point for the Indonesian media. Early analysis indicates a combined reach of 150m people, plus 5m unique impressions on social media.
3. Disclaimer
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