China announced $8bn in loans for infrastructure in Indonesia yesterday, during a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao which included a sing-along with local students. Not to be outdone by US President Barack Obama, Wen broke into song during a meeting with students at a university in Jakarta on the second day of his state visit. Obama wowed Indonesian students with flourishes of local language and reminiscences of his childhood days in Jakarta during a visit in November, earning rapturous applause from his star-struck audience. Going one better, Wen launched into a version of traditional Moluccan folk song Ayo Mama (Let’s Go Mama) which he said he remembered from his youth. “I had come to know this country when I was very young and could hum the tune of such famous Indonesian folk songs as Butet and Ayo Mama,” he told Indonesian reporters before the visit. “Contacts between our two countries date back to 2,000 years ago,” he added. At the business end of his visit, Wen held talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and inked four agreements to deepen social and economic ties. “I led a delegation for trade and investments which will sign commercial agreements worth $10bn,” Wen said without elaborating, in comments translated into Indonesian by an embassy official. A joint communique said the Indonesian side “welcomed the increased Chinese investment in the fields of manufacturing industries, high and new technologies, agriculture and forestry, fishery, clean energy and tourism”. Bilateral trade soared to $42.75bn in 2010, up 50.6% year-on-year, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The two leaders also said they would “strive” to reach a target of $80bn by 2015, but made no reference in their joint statement to a free trade pact which came into effect in January. Energy-hungry China needs Indonesian natural resources, particularly coal, while Indonesia needs Chinese direct investment in its crumbling infrastructure if it is to maintain its strong growth trajectory. China ranked 11th of foreign investors in Indonesia last year with investments worth $173mn, but Chinese firms are reportedly lining up to do business in the archipelago, withbns of dollars of deals on the table. Indonesian officials say Jakarta wants to renegotiate its part of the landmark free trade pact between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Indonesia is the biggest member. Yudhoyono said earlier this month he would seek “protection” for certain local industries that feel threatened by the Asean-China free trade pact (ACFTA). But Wen cited the pact as a key plank in Beijing’s plans to forge stronger economic links with Indonesia, a mainly Muslim population of 240mn people. “We should enhance economic cooperation and trade,” he told reporters in Beijing before the trip. “The two countries can make use of the China-Asean FTA and other mechanisms to intensify cooperation in energy, infrastructure development and such important sectors as manufacturing, agriculture and fishery.” University of Indonesia Centre for Chinese Studies analyst Natalia Soebagjo, writing in The Jakarta Post on Friday, said China was “pushing ahead” with the FTA while Indonesians were “arguing amongst ourselves”. Indonesia has traditionally followed a non-aligned foreign policy and is being courted both by Washington and Beijing as a major emerging market and potential strategic partner.