President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) yesterday, Monday, July 23, 2018, invited mayors throughout Indonesia to the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java. President Jokowi wanted to hear directly about the problems at the city level so that solutions could be sought together.
"I have indeed scheduled a special meeting like this so that all the problems in the city can be conveyed to us in detail, so that we can immediately resolve the problems in the field," he said.
One of the things the President wants to hear directly is about the economic activity in each city and the obstacles faced. Regarding this, President Jokowi said that currently almost all countries are experiencing the same thing, namely global economic pressure due to the US-China trade war, as well as the increase in interest rates by the US central bank.
"I don't think we need to worry too much. But the most important thing I think is that we know what's going on," he said.
In addition, on this occasion, President Jokowi also reminded the mayors to prepare to face rapid changes coming through the fourth industrial revolution.
According to him, one of the efforts to anticipate this is to prepare the human resources available early.
"We must be fully aware that there will be major changes very quickly so that cities must also prepare themselves, anticipate, and prepare human resources in order to face very rapid changes," said the President.
He emphasized that the next government work program will be more focused on human resources. Because, as repeatedly conveyed, in order to compete with other countries in this era of global change, Indonesia needs many superior human resources in their respective fields.
"What we are preparing in my opinion now is our human resources. If in the last four years we have concentrated on infrastructure, the next big stage is the preparation of human resources," said the seventh President of the Republic of Indonesia.
For information, President Joko Widodo's meeting with the mayors this time was divided into three sessions. The first session started at around 09.00 WIB and was attended by 32 mayors.
Meanwhile, the second session started after duhur time and was attended by 31 mayors or their representatives. Meanwhile, the last session was attended by approximately 13 mayors.
In each meeting session, the President was accompanied by Minister of State Secretary Pratikno and Chairperson of the Association of Indonesian City Governments (APEKSI) Airin Rachmi. (Bey/em/say/yon)
