President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened on Thursday morning the 4th Bali Democracy Forum (BDF) at the Bali International Convention Centre in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The forum has drawn participants from a number of countries, and they are set to talk about and discuss the development of democracy from various perspectives.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia, which initiated and has been organizing the forum, would continue to develop it and make it a prominent forum to discuss the development of democracy.

“This is the only forum solely devoted to issues concerning democracy,” Marty said on Wednesday as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said Indonesia had organized the forum four times already because the country wanted to be a leading promoter of democracy.

Marty added that the number of participants who attended this year’s forum had increased to eight heads of state, 25 minister-level officials, as well as delegates from three observer states, compared to last year’s forum which was attended only by three heads of state.

“There are about 80 country delegates. This indicates that BDF is part of democracy’s architecture,” he said.

In the previous years, Indonesia invited Japan, Australia and South Korea as co-chairs of BDF. This year, Indonesia invited Bangladesh to become the co-chair.

“We can see that Bangladesh is one of the countries in South Asia that can make an important contribution,” Marty said.


Source The Jakarta Post, Thu, 12/08/2011