“To Face Big Challenges, We Must Do Complicated Works,” President Jokowi Says

President Joko Widodo delivers a remarks at WIEF Summit, Tuesday (2/8) morning, at Jakarta Convention Center

President Joko Widodo admitted that moslem community nowadays must face big challenges, for example, high rate of unemployment particularly in young people who cannot integrate with others.

“We are not strong enough in social media as well as technology, thus, we will not win perception competition,” the President said when delivering a remarks at the Opening of World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Jakarta, on Tuesday (2/8) morning.

Moslem communitymust be educated and trained so that they can win the competition, the President added.

“If we don’t educate our community, if we don’t train our community, the word will leave us behind,” the President firmly said.

The President also stated that at the moment, the world is in a situation where innovation is important. However, the world is also unstable; there are a lot of differences of opinion, weak economy, and vulnerable recovery. Nevertheless, the President believes innovation can fix it, but we must be careful and do not use innovation to satisfy our greed. It is only for the sake of people’s welfare.

“There is no shortcut, there is no miracle. We must do complicated and difficult works to build an industry that creates employment, to build an education system for our children, as well as to train the skills and attitude of young people that are needed in this 21^st century,” the President said.

He also said that for countries that are still facing poverty problems, they must overcome their basic problems, such as electricity, clean water, and transportation. “We must ensure that the people live in a clean and secure place. Moreover, food must also be available and affordable.

The most important and hardest thing is to build a culture of openness. A culture where we are not only tolerate differences but also respect them.

“How to do that? The answer is easy: one by one and step by step,” the President said.

In regards to WIEF, President Joko Widodo said that this Summit is beneficial for all participants.

A Challenging Year

Previously, the President explained that 2016 is a challenging year. This year, the world’s economy is on crisis, the world trade decreases to the lowest point since the Second World War, and acts of terror took place in several parts of the world.

“In this era, political situation in some parts of the world cannot be predicted. Therefore, moslem community around the world must use fundamental power,” the President firmly said.

The President said that moslem communities have the best demography compared to others, where the average age is 23 years old, while, other communities are 30 years old.

“Sharia finance now becomes an industry that worths millions of dollar, either from fashion, culinary, arts, and architecture sectors and it has the potential to create a new economy,” the President added.

The Opening of the 12th WIEF was attended by, among others, Prime Minister of Malaysia and Patron of WIEF Foundation Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak, President of Republic of Guinea Alpha Condé, Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe, Presidentof the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, DeputyPrime Ministerfor Economic Affairs and Minister ofIndustry, Trade, and Supply of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Dr. Jawad Al Anani, the Chairman of WIEF Tun Musa Hitam,  and the President of Islamic Development Bank Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali

The Opening was also attended by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Wiranto, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Commander of Indonesian National Defence Forces Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, Chief of Indonesian National Police Gen. Tito Karnavian, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, Minister of National Development Planning/Head of National Development Planning Agency Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Manpower Hanif Dhakiri, Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning Sofyan Djalil, Head of Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong, Minister of Youth and Sports Imam Nahrawi, and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Archandra Tahar. (FID/DID/ES)(MMB/YM/Naster)