21 October

VICE President U Henry Van Thio  attended  the  inauguration ceremony of the Indonesian  government  yesterday  at  3:30 pm local time as President Joko Widodo was sworn in for a second and final term in office.

The  oath-taking  ceremony  was  held  at  the  People’s  Consultative Assembly at the Parliament building in Jakarta. 

President Joko Widodo and new Vice-President Ma’ruf Amin recited  their  oaths  of  office  in  front  of  the  Speaker  and  members of the People’s Consultative Assembly. 

The President then made an inauguration address.

The President and the Vice President  greeted  the  heads  of  ASEAN  member  countries,  senior government officials and the  leaders  of  ASEAN  partner  countries. 

Vice  President  U  Henry  Van  Thio  made  congratulatory  remarks to both President and Vice President of Indonesia. 

The  oath-taking  ceremony  was  also  attended  by  Hassan  al  Bolkiah  Mu’izzaddin  Wadd-aulah  of  Brunei  Darussalam,  Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien  Loong,  Prime  Minister  of  Malaysia  Mahathir  Mohamad, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech  Hun  Sen,  Australian  Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Vice President of PR China Mr Wang Qishan, Vice President of Viet  Nam  Mrs  Dang  Thi  Ngoc  Thinh,  Deputy  Prime  Minister  of  Thailand  Mr  Wissanu  Kreangam, the heads and representatives  of  ASEAN  and  partner  countries, ministers and deputy ministers of the bloc, senior officers,  international  diplomats,  parliamentarians  of  Indonesia,  officials and invited guests.

In the morning, Vice President U Henry Van Thio and party  visited  Taman  Mini  cultural  park  in  Jakarta.  After  looking  around  cultural  exhibitions  of  Indonesian  ethnic  people,  the  Vice  President  signed  the  visitors’  book  and  exchanged  gifts  with the officer of the park. 

The  Taman  Mini  cultural  park  was  first  established  in  1975  to  display  traditional  cultures,  dresses  and  musical  instruments of Indonesian ethnic people. 

They proceed to West Sumatra Museum, and viewed traditional items of ethnic people in Sumatra  and  their  traditional  dances. 

They  also  arrived  at  Aceh  Museum and looked around the Dakota  RI-001  Seulawah  plane  which  was  used  during  independence  efforts  of  Indonesia  before they exchanged gifts with museum officials.

The  Vice  President  also  enjoyed a lunch hosted by Permanent  Representative  of  Myanmar  to  ASEAN  Ambassador  U Min Lwin.

MNA(Translated by Aung Khin)