SEOUL – November 23, 2015 – The Royal Norwegian Government and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) today signed an agreement to further support Indonesia efforts to achieve socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable development through green growth.

As part of the agreement Norway will contribute a USD 19 million grant to the GGGI-Indonesia Green Growth Program, which has been driven by GGGI and Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS) since 2013.

“This new agreement is a testament to the green growth results that have been achieved in Indonesia, and is a strong reaffirmation of Norway’s commitment to partnering with GGGI and Indonesian stakeholders to secure an inclusive and sustainable future for all in Indonesia,” said Yvo de Boer, Director-General of GGGI.

Building on the results of Phase I of the Indonesia Green Growth Program, the agreement will fund Phase II efforts to foster suitable green investment conditions in Indonesia’s renewable energy sector, special economic zones, and forestry and other land-use sectors.

The agreement will further enable national level ministries, provincial and district-level governments to continue to demonstrate strong ownership in the development and implementation of green growth strategies that achieve identified targets.

“We are encouraged by the leadership shown by the government in choosing green growth to achieve economic growth and to solve environment and climate challenges affecting the Indonesian people. Recently a large number of people have suffered from forest and peat fires. Green growth offers good solutions to this problem. Together, GGGI and the government, through both BAPPENAS and the Ministry of Environment and Forest, can continue to build and strengthen green partnerships between communities, government, civil society and the business community,” said Stig Traavik, Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia.

With strong commitment by Indonesia, GGGI will continue to support the Indonesian government at all levels to develop and implement cross-sectoral green growth plans related to energy, special economic zones, and forest and land-based mitigation, as well as providing support for relevant government authorities to take a systematic enabling approach to encourage green investment.

The agreement was signed by the Norwegian Ambassador to Jakarta on behalf of the Ministry of Climate and Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.

Norway and Indonesia are both member countries of GGGI.