Indonesia and Germany on the way to increase cooperation in the defence area 1007125.

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economy Hatta Rajasa said that both countries aimed at boosting trade volume from 7 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 to 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2012.

One of the ways to achieve the goal was that the governments of the two countries would ease regulations, he said.

During the meeting, President Yudhoyono said that in the next 15 years, Indonesia would speed up building a massive infrastructure to spur economic growth and hoped Germany could take part in the projects.

Merkel said that Germany has many advantages in infrastructure construction and could offer a lot in the cooperation in the sector.

On defense, President Yudhoyono said that the two countries could cooperate in industry, education, research and development, among others.

Indonesia has bought 100 Leopard 2A6 tanks from Germany and they would arrive before Oct. 5 this year.

Germany ranked the 10th biggest investor in Indonesia with a direct investment of 158.1 million U.S. dollars in 2011.

Indonesia imports from Germany mainly include machinery, communications technology, chemical products, electricity generation and distribution equipment, electronic components, metals, motor vehicles and pharmaceutical products.

Its main exports to Germany include vegetable oils and fats, agricultural products, electronics devises, textiles, footwear and ores.