Jeddah — The Indonesian Language Course for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) program organized by the General Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia (KJRI) Jeddah is increasingly in demand by Saudi citizens and expatriates living in Jeddah and the surrounding cities.
It is proven that the number of applicants who are interested in following the BIPA program from year to year is increasing. This program was previously held once a year. Participants reasoned learning Indonesian because they worked in muassasah that served pilgrims. Some claim need to master Indonesian because they serve pilgrims from Indonesia at the immigration and security counters at the airport. Others claim they work in a number of importing companies and companies that market Indonesian products in Saudi Arabia.
“Usually BIPA is only held once a year for three months. But this year we added it to twice because of the many requests from the people here who want to learn Indonesian, “said Jeddah’s Consul General (Consul), Mohamad Hery Saripudin.
To answer the public interest, added the Consul General, the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah held a second wave of Indonesian Language Course Program for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) which was officially opened by the Indonesian Consul General on Monday (15/10).
The opening of the BIPA Course II program which was attended by 62 participants took place Monday night (15/10) local time in the Main Lobby of the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah. Participants consisted of 50 Saudis, 8 Yemeni citizens, 1 Jordanian national, 1 US citizen, and two participants, each of whom were Mauritanian and Pakistani citizens.
According to the committee, within two weeks, as many as 107 people filed registration files including completed forms, photocopies of passports, identity cards, photo passages, written information about the purpose of learning Indonesian and a permit from sponsors for non-Saudis.
The BIPA lecturer in wave II was Hasan Busri MSI from the Arab Language Education study program Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) as a result of the collaborative effort initiated by the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah with the universities in the Central Java Capital City.
In front of the participants who attended the opening, the Consul said, the BIPA course program was a form of support from the Government of Indonesia in the vision of the 2030 Government of Saudi Arabia, one of which was the development of the tourism sector as part of the economic diversification policy.
This is also in line with the stipulation of Madinah as the “Islamic Tourism Capital of 2017” in a ministerial meeting of OIC member states in 2015 in Niamey, the capital of Nigeria.
The Consul added, the number of Indonesian pilgrims and umrah pilgrims reached more than 1.2 million people with a concentration of their movements in three cities: Jeddah, Mecca and Medina.
“Moreover, the Saudi Government has launched a new tourist destination in other cities that are open to public visitors, of course this will bring economic impact,” concluded the Consul General.
The second wave BIPA course program is scheduled to take place until December.
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