TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) highlighted the issue of educational access and women's empowerment during the second session of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit held in Osaka, Japan, Saturday. "We all realize that educational access and women's empowerment are important elements to achieve the target of Sustainable Development Goals. And that requires cooperation among us," he said before the leaders of the G20 member states.

In the session themed "Addressing Inequalities and Realizing an Inclusive and Sustainable World”, Jokowi underscored the importance of adjusting the current educational system which he said still follows the old educational pattern.

In fact, in the current digital era there has been a change in the mental pattern and association pattern among children in the 21st century, he said.

The children now live in the era of YouTube Videos, which has an average duration of 12 minutes, and in the era of Instagram Video or Twitter Video which has an average duration of five minutes or even shorter at one minute, he said.

"In the past, children associated with one another, for instance, by cycling together. But now our children associate with one another by playing video games and 'Massive Multi-Player Online Game' such as i Fortnite and Minecraft," he said as quoted by the Presidential Secretariat's Deputy for Protocol, Press and Media, Bey Machmudin.

The woman's role in the economic, political, and social fields is still far from the existing potential, the president further said.

In fact, women may excel against men in the era of digitalization and globalization, he said.

"Women are more diligent, patient and eager to work in a team than us. Since e-commerce and technology need such characters, improving women's participation in business, economy and politics will increase the national economic growth and competitiveness in the digital era," he said.

Looking ahead, he said his government will focus on developing human resources. Nearly 68.6 percent or 181.3 million of the Indonesian population are at a productive age.

"To make the population in the productive age a demography bonus, we need quality and competitive human resources," he said.

At a regional level, ASEAN leaders have just adopted the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific, which contains the attitude, outlook and preparedness of ASEAN to cooperate with any other parties, the president stated.

This is ASEAN's contribution to maintaining stability and peace and creating inclusive and sustainable development, he said.

ANTARA

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