Indonesia to open more diplomatic missions

Lilian Budianto, ,  The Jakarta Post, Jakarta   |  Wed, 01/07/2009

Indonesia plans to open representative offices in Bahrain and Oman very soon in an effort to protect Indonesian citizens, mainly migrant workers, says Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda.

Besides these two countries, the Foreign Ministry also has plans to open more offices in Africa, the Balkans and Latin America.

"We plan to open representative offices in Bahrain and Oman because we have tens of thousands Indonesian migrant workers there. We also plan to open one in Mozambique and in several other countries in West Africa, which has been developing quickly in recent years," Hassan said.

He added the plan had been discussed at Cabinet meetings and would be submitted to the House of Representatives for further deliberation and approval.

Neither Bahrain nor Oman have embassies in Jakarta.

The Indonesian Embassy in Zimbabwe currently covers Mozambique, which has had a full-pledged embassy in Jakarta for several years now.

Countries such as Azerbaijan, Panama and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which opened embassies in Jakarta in recent years, have been looking for reciprocation from the Indonesian government.

Tuesday's announcement came just a week after Ecuador closed its embassy in Jakarta on Dec. 31, 2008, for as-yet unclear reasons. Speculation abounds that Ecuador is dissatisfied over the cancellation of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to that country last year.

However, the Foreign Ministry insists the closure is probably because of the global financial crisis.

Hassan also said the new representative offices were part of the working plan for 2009 that would see the continuation of internal ministry reforms that began in late 2001.

He added his ministry had reduced the number of staff from 4,200 to 3,600, with more now in charge of professional duties rather than administrative ones.

"We used to have more staff for administrative jobs than for professional duties, with a ratio of two to one. Now we have more professional staff," he said.

The Foreign Ministry will recruit 400 more staff to gradually fill the new vacancies, especially at the level of head of section.