JAKARTA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Maritime safety, facilitating trade and investment are among six major topics at the upcoming 20th Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Summit to be held this weekend in Jakarta, Indonesian officials said Friday.
The three-day summit, which starts Sunday, will also tackle disaster mitigation management, fishery management, science and knowledge sharing, tourism and cultural exchange, as other important issues.
Indonesia, which holds the current rotating chair of IORA, views the summit as an important platform to further promote stability, welfare and bolstering economy potentialities in the region, President Joko Widodo said.
"In general we want to see stability and welfare are well-addressed in the region," the president said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Delegations from 21 IORA member countries will participate the meeting, with 16 state leaders and senior government officials having confirmed to attend.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that the Summit would also be attended by representatives of seven dialogue partner countries, of which most of them were members of G20.
Indonesia would seize the occasion to promote investment in its tourism sector, which has been set as the nation's core business in place of oil and gas, coal and palm oil sectors.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya is scheduled to deliver a speech themed "Enhancing Tourism and Connectivity through Improvement in Infrastructure" during the summit.
Indonesia requires huge investments to develop 10 new tour destinations across the country to address its rapid-growing new core business.
Indonesia received 12 million foreign visitors last year. The government has set targets to welcome 15 million and 20 million ones this year and 2019 respectively, earning more than 24 billion U.S. Dollars from the sector by 2019.
