Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR RI) Puan Maharani hopes that the Indonesian parliament and Uzbekistan strengthen cooperation in order to increase women’s leadership capacity and promote gender equality.
“This collaboration is to encourage women to be involved in politics and policy making. As a fellow female parliament speaker, I appreciate Her Majesty’s leadership at this Women’s Speaker Summit,” said Puan in a statement received in Jakarta, Saturday.
Puan said this during a bilateral meeting with the Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbaeva, Friday (9/9).
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 14th Women Speakers Summit Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Gender equality, continued Puan, is the main issue that she always fights for in Indonesia and at the global level. Therefore, she said she was interested in participating in The 14th Women Speakers Summit Inter-Parliamentary Unio.
During the meeting, Puan also told Tanzila that she was happy to be able to visit Uzbekistan and assess the country as having historical value.
This historical value is when his grandfather, the first President of the Republic of Indonesia Soekarno, visited Uzbekistan in 1956 and asked the Government of the Soviet Union to find and restore the tomb of Imam Al-Bhukari.
“So my visit to Uzbekistan is a trace. The close relationship between the two countries can be seen from the many Uzbek people who know Bung Karno,” she explained.
Puan also appreciated the good relations between Indonesia and Uzbekistan which had reached 30 years, so that the meeting became a momentum to discuss increasing various cooperations between Indonesia and Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is a strategic trading partner for Indonesia in Central Asia, so Puan appreciates Uzbekistan’s trust in Indonesian companies for investment cooperation.
“The cooperation includes Uzbekistan’s investment in Indonesia in the telecommunications sector and the signing of a cooperation in the field of tourism and hotel management in the Imam Al-Bukhari mausoleum area in Samarkand. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage business missions and promotion of the two countries,” she added.
Regarding education, social and cultural fields, Puan appreciated the formation of the Uzbekistan-Indonesia Friendship Society which is a forum for the dharmasiswa program provided by Indonesia for students from Uzbekistan.
She also appreciated Indonesian language teaching activities at various universities in Uzbekistan, including at Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies and Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Language.
“There needs to be increased cooperation in the tourism sector. As countries that both have a Muslim majority population, Indonesia (NTB Province) and Uzbekistan (Bukhara) already have halal tourism cooperation,” said Puan.
She assessed the urgency of bilateral and multilateral parliamentary diplomacy, especially the Indonesian Parliament and the Uzbekistan Parliament, so far they have interacted in parliamentary forums such as the IPU and the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).
In addition, according to him, the DPR has formed a Bilateral Cooperation Group (GKSB) with 102 parliaments of friendly countries, including the Uzbekistan Parliament, as a manifestation of its desire to build and strengthen relations between the two countries’ parliaments.
Meanwhile, Tanzila Narbaeva said Puan’s visit was an important and historic moment for Indonesia’s relations with Uzbekistan. He alluded to Bung Karno’s service to the people and his country because the proclaimer had helped find and encourage the restoration of the tomb of Imam Al-Bukhari, an Islamic figure in Uzbekistan.
“Bung Karno was also instrumental because he was the first group of state leaders to visit Uzbekistan, during the Soviet Union; and President Soekarno was the first world leader to make a pilgrimage to Imam Al-Bukhari’s tomb,” said Tanzila.
Tanzila suggested that there should be a deeper relationship between Indonesia and Uzbekistan, starting from improving economic, tourism, social and inter-parliamentary relations. (mhn/bbs)
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