Oct 27 Declared National Bloggers Day In Indonesia

By Mohd Nasir Yusoff 

JAKARTA, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- In line with its aim to bring its people up to speed in the digital age, Indonesia has declared Oct 27 as National Bloggers Day, the republic's Information and Communications Ministry announced in conjunction with the Bloggers Carnival 2008 here Saturday. 

The ministry's director-general for applications, Cahyana Ahmadijaya said blogs in Indonesia were mushrooming not only for fun (blogfun) but also for business (blogpreneurs) and that the trend would continue exponentially in future. 

Indonesia's Culture and Tourism Ministry also wanted bloggers help promote tourism to the country. 

"This carnival provides and excellent networking opportunity to promote tourism effectively," said its minister Jero Wacik. The text of his speech was read out by the ministry's director-general for tourism destinations development, Firmansyah Rahim. 

Meanwhile, Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman assured bloggers that government would not restrict their freedom but they must not flout the republic's laws. 

Some 1,000 bloggers turned up for the carnival including Jeff Ooi of Malaysia , who is also the Member of Parliament for Jelutong in Penang, and Singapore's Mr Brown. 

-- BERNAMA

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