Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi opened the Regional Conference on Digital Diplomacy (RCDD) to be held in Jakarta on September 10-11, 2019.

"This conference is a new initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is a follow-up to the earlier discussion last year in June 2018," Marsudi remarked in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The RCDD is the first conference related to the field of digital diplomacy organized in the region. Representatives from 16 countries comprising 10 ASEAN member nations and six ASEAN's dialogue partners, including Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand were attendees at the conference.

Minister Marsudi reiterated the significance of the implementation of RCDD that can be a forum for relevant stakeholders in the region to discuss opportunities and challenges in the path to conducting diplomacy in the digital era and ways to optimally utilize information and communication technology in diplomacy towards realizing progress and mutual prosperity.

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The RCDD is also projected to encourage future cooperation in reducing the technological and digital divide in the region. This activity is also expected to offer an opportunity for all parties, including the private sector, to develop opportunities for cooperation in the field of digital technology.

The regional conference will agree on the document "The Jakarta Message on Regional Cooperation on Digital Diplomacy" that contains the recognition of the importance of digital diplomacy, joint commitment in building messages, and digital diplomacy cooperation between relevant stakeholders, including an appeal for building a community that is free from false information.

The results document will be supplemented by an action plan for ongoing cooperation between the government, private sector, and other stakeholders in building regional networks to step up the utilization of digital technology for diplomacy.

On the sidelines of the conference, a digital technology exhibition will be held on September 10-11, 2019. Indonesia's unicorns, start-ups, and other potential partners will take part in the exhibition that is open to the public.

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Translator: Yuni Arisandy, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Azizah Fitriyanti
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