IORA Summit expected to embody the Idea of Indonesia Becoming the World Maritime Axis

JAKARTA, IORA - Besides improving the cooperation among the members of the Indian Ocean, this summit is expected to be able to embody the strategic idea of Indonesia becoming the world maritime axis. "The purpose of IORA is to improve the cooperation between Indonesia and 21 IORA members. Internally, this summit is intended to improve the awareness of the people about the priority program of the president, that is to make Indonesia as the world maritime axis," said the Director General of Public Information and Communication, Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemkominfo), Rosarita Niken Widiastuti, in Jakarta, Thursday (2/3). The summit which will be held at 5-7 of March 2017 contains many cooperation programs between partner and member countries of IORA. These programs will be socialized by the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo) who also acts as the head of media center and public relations as well. "So, the role of Kominfo is as the head of of media center and public relations. We have the responsibility to socialize any programs or activities of IORA. At the moment we are running the media center, mediacenteriora.go.id, so any information related to IORA can be found in our media center," she said. Beside that, Kemenkominfo also coordinates printed and electronic journalists from Indonesia or other countries who will cover any activities of IORA Summit. At the moment, Niken said there have been 209 registered journalists. "We coordinate all the journalists coming from 21 countries. Up to this morning, there are 209 journalists from Indonesia and all IORA country members who have registered," she said. As has been informed, Indonesia becomes the host of the first IORA Summit that wil last at 5-7 of March 2017 Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) Senayan, Jakarta with the theme "Empowering the Maritime Cooperation for peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indian Ocean Region". IORA consists of 21 country members, among of those are South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagaskar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Unie Emirates Arab, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Yaman. IORA also has seven dialogue partner countries, they are USA, UK, Japan, Germany, Egypt, France, and People Republic of China. President and some country leaders are scheduled to attend the Summit. President Joko WIdodo is confirmed to attend and open the summit. Beside that, other country leaders who are already confirmed to attend are the president of South Africa, Jakob Zuma, the president of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena and some foreign ministers of IORA country members. In this year summit, IORA country members will ratify and sign IORA Concord as the form of the political commitment of IORA country members in encouraging the empowerment of the regional cooperation in Indian Ocean region. IORA Summit will be a milestone of the first meeting of world country leaders. (Wawan Budiyanto/Juliyah)