JAKARTA: Indonesia’s oldest women’s group is seeking to form new collaborations and increase cultural exchanges with Saudi Arabia, its chairwoman told Arab News following a meeting with the Kingdom’s envoy in Jakarta.
Founded in 1928, the Indonesian Women’s Congress — known as Kowani — is the largest and oldest federation of women’s organizations in the country, representing more than 80 million Indonesian women.
Earlier this month, chairwoman Yenny Wahid led a delegation comprising Kowani members to meet with Faisal Abdullah Amodi, the Saudi ambassador to Indonesia, to discuss ways to further cooperation, especially in women’s empowerment.
The meeting served as a “momentum to strengthen relations and open up opportunities for strategic collaboration in boosting women’s roles at the national and global level,” the group said in a statement.
According to Wahid, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 transformation strategy has opened up opportunities for both closer and wider range of cooperation.
“With Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, he wants women to take up a greater role in society. This is really attractive for us. Throughout Indonesian history, in our culture women have been quite progressive. So, in this regard, we can conduct people-to-people cultural exchanges and form various collaborations,” she said.
Kowani is keen to explore women’s empowerment in the economy, technology and politics. It envisions exchanges in the form of a high-level conference involving Indonesian and Saudi women, where both sides can share lessons learned across different topics and also hold sessions on more practical subjects, covering investment know-how and business matching opportunities.
Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have also been exploring commercial opportunities between the two countries, a sector where women can take a key role.
“This means that many products from Indonesia’s small and medium enterprises can be channeled to the Saudi market … There are so, so many opportunities,” Wahid said.
With the majority of the population in Indonesia being Muslim, Saudi and Indonesian women can make the most of their common values and forge closer connections.
“There is a similarity in culture and religious background and also this will create a bonding,” she said. “And Indonesians in general have such a high respect towards Saudis.”
