Jakarta. The fifth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora, or CID-5, will open with a one-day conference on Aug. 10 at Kota Kasablanka, South Jakarta.

CID is a biannual event held by the Indonesian Diaspora Network Global (IDN-Global) to connect Indonesians living abroad and create a platform for them to contribute to national development.

"This event will be a platform for Indonesian diasporas to contribute to their homeland," the chairman of IDN-Global's board of trustees, Dino Patti Djalal, said at a press conference in Jakarta on Monday.

The conference will be attended by Indonesian diasporas from around the world, including government officials, religious figures, politicians, celebrities, artists, athletes, innovators, academics and youth leaders. All of them will be given time to express their ideas for development in a series of public discussions.

The theme of this year's conference is "Empowering Indonesia's Human Capital." The organizers hope the conference can provide a platform to discuss issues and challenges related to human resources in Indonesia and to find out in what fields the Indonesian diasporas can make their contributions.

"We chose this theme because human resource is the Indonesian diasporas' biggest strength. We believe human resource development is key to Indonesia's future," Gerald Eman, the president of IDN-Global Mark, said on Monday.

The head of CID-5's organizing committee, Iwan Sunito, said he sees a lot of potentials among Indonesia's millennials and hoped for new ways to empower them. 

"This is the moment for Indonesia to dig deeper into the potential of its diasporas, which in turn will help its human resource development. Now is the time to capitalize on Indonesia's human capital," Iwan said on Monday.

The conference is going to be the biggest Indonesian diaspora gathering in Indonesia. As many as 5,000 Indonesians based overseas are expected to attend the event.

A series of closed meetings will be held between the participants and various government ministries after the conference on Aug. 12-13 to discuss ways to empower Indonesia's human capital. There will be discussions on industry 4.0, city planning, access to health facilities, migrant worker protection and the thorny issue of dual citizenship, which was first raised during the 2014 CID.

Add as a preferred source on Google +