REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANGKOK - A new flight route Jakarta-Bangkok served by Mandala Airlines incorporated with Tiger Airways is expected to boost the cooperation between Indonesia and Thailand. "Currently, the bilateral cooperation, such as business, trade, and investment, is not balance," Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand Lutfi Rauf said on Friday.

The new flight route is expected to bring new opportunities on the cooperation along with Southeast Asia Community on 2015.

"We will be single market and single based production," he said in a press conference. The flight is also targeted to bring many tourists from Thailand to Indonesia and vice versa.

He said that the cooperation must be increased as the volume of trade balance on the last couple years was dominated by Thailand. "In 2010, the trade balance of both countries reached 14 billion USD and increased to 17.4 billion USD in 2011. But, the surplus is in Thailand side," he said.

However, Thailand investment in Indonesia has been increased 800 percent in the last three years. Thailand, among Southeast Asia countries, sits in number three after Malaysia and Singapore as the biggest countries investing in Indonesia.

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