"The three countries are economically very dynamic and Indonesia has the interest to increase cooperation and expand bilateral ties with them," the foreign minister said in Beijing on Saturday.

He said that Indonesia would increase cooperation with the three Central Asian nations not only in the political field but also in the economic, trade, investment, tourism, social and cultural sectors, ANTARA News reported.

The foreign minister made the remarks during his stop over here after visiting the three Central Asian nations. During the visit, he was accompanied by 17 national businessmen.

Hassan Wirajuda after the stop over continued his trip to Singapore where he would attend an ASEAN foreign ministerial meeting to discuss humanitarian aid for Myanmar.

The 17 business makers who joined the foreign minister during his visit to the three nations were doing business, among others, in the energy, oil, gas, telecommunications, general trade and banking sectors.

The minister said his visit to the three countries was strategic and was important for expanding diplomatic ties which had been running well so far.

He said that the visit was welcome by the governments of the three states and the respective parties saw big potentials on which they could establish mutually beneficial cooperation.

"The three countries have gained progresses with an economic growth ranging from 10 to 30 percent," the foreign minister said.

He said that Kazakhstan, for example, could be said as the `Emirate` of Central Asia as it kept a large oil reserve and it had transformed a number of its cities to become modern ones.

The minister said that the constraint faced so far in the tourism sector between them was the inexistence of direct flights from those countries to Jakarta.

The three cities are so far covered by flights from Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. "I hope that the flights would be connected to Jakarta so that tourists from the Central Asian countries would be visiting Indonesia," he added.