Foreign ministry launches website for Indonesians abroad

Jakarta, NU Online
The Foreign Affairs Ministry on Tuesday launched a website for the benefit of Indonesians living abroad.
 
"Indonesians can report themselves online when staying in a foreign country. They can also access the website when facing a problem abroad. Our operator will connect them to the relevant unit in the department," the ministry`s director general for information and media affairs, Suharjono Sastrowiharjo, said at the website`s opening.<>

He said the websites of all Indonesian representative offices abroad would eventually be integrated into the ministry`s website.

"Of the 119 existing Indonesian representative offices abroad, 10 are already connected to the main website. We are expecting more of the representative offices to follow suit in the near future," Suharjono said, adding the remaining 109 representative offices abroad had yet to be connected to the ministry`s main website because of technical problems.

The ministry had allocated Rp 1.9 billion in budget funds to set up the new website, he said.

Among the Indonesian representative offices abroad which were already linked to the ministry`s website were the embassies in Wellington (New Zealand), in Geneve (Switzerland) and the consulate general in Perth (Australia) as well as the embassies or consulates general in Cairo (Egypt), Los Angeles (USA), Pretoria (South Africa), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Yangon (Myanmar).

Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda in remarks at the web`s launching said, in the present era of rapidly advancing technology, his ministry was under constant pressure to be able to provide the public with the information they need in the shortest possible time.

Negative rumors which could cause insecurity among people, he said, could also be neutralized by sharing the right information immediately through the ministry`s website. (ant)