VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A number of foreign tourists learn to make batik at Mahkota Batik Laweyan in Solo, Central Java, on May 5, 2024. ANTARAFOTO/Maulana Surya/nym

VOINews, Jakarta:  Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim has invited the public to support the internationalization of the Indonesian language.

He made this call at the Festival Handai Indonesia (FHI) in Bali on Friday, noting the growing interest among foreigners in learning Indonesian.

"I urge the public to support and continue our efforts to internationalize the Indonesian language. We are committed to advancing the esteemed Indonesian civilization on the global stage," he said, referring to the Indonesian Language Courses for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) program.

As quoted by Antara News Agency on Friday (30/8), the program, initiated by his ministry and carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to promote the language internationally.

FHI 2024 attracted participants from 78 countries, despite BIPA institutions being present in only 55 countries.

"The establishment of FHI since 2020 has been a strategic move to encourage foreign speakers to engage more enthusiastically with our language. I am proud to witness the growing global interest in studying Indonesian over the past five years," the minister conveyed.

He further noted that there are currently more than 173 thousand foreign speakers learning Indonesian at 543 institutions offering BIPA.

A series of efforts to internationalize Indonesian have also yielded results with the inclusion of Indonesian as one of the 10 official languages at the UNESCO General Assembly.

"This is the only Southeast Asian language (represented at the assembly). This recognition is a crucial moment for Indonesian to evolve into a global language," Makarim said.

According to him, Bahasa Indonesia has the potential to become a global language, bridging people across the world and serving as a language of science and technology, while also adapting to the changes brought by time.