Jakarta (27/05) Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA), Bintang Puspayoga appreciated companies in Indonesia that have been committed and with good practices in providing capacity building, policy making, addressing the issue of women employment, and facilitating the representation of women as leaders in the company.
“The commitment of company leaders to provide an equal place for women is an important thing to strive for. It is certainly something that we should strive for together, not only across sectors in the country, but also internationally. Therefore, the G20 Empower becomes a very strategic forum to unify the international strength for promoting women in the world, particularly in the economic, leadership, and public sector. I also appreciate the commitment of company leaders who joined the G20 Empower Indonesia in relation to the issues of women’s workers, especially in their commitment and synergy to realize 5 (five) priority program of the Ministry of PPPA,” said Minister of PPPA, Bintang Puspayoga in front of the representatives of the 27 member companies of the G20 Empower Indonesia from various sectors. These companies, besides contributing to the issue of women employment, are also synergizing to support Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (SMES) that are managed by women.
Ministry of PPPA has 5 priority issues based on the direction of the President, one of them is the entrepreneurship with gender perspective, that focus on pre-prosperous family, female as the head of family, and female survivors. It is expected there will be cooperation and collaboration with the business community to support the realization of these 5 priority issues.
“A lot of things needs to be done to create empowered women. Hopefully good practice implemented by companies that are women-friendly can be replicated in other companies. The commitment delivered by companies is our strength in our strive to empower women and Indonesia’s advancement.
Ministry of PPPA as one of the focal point of the G20 Empowerment Indonesia held a Seniors Leaders’ Meeting today on Women Empowerment in order to unify the commitment to materealize women empowerment. Minister Bintang also said that a meeting such as this can be carried out periodically in the smaller scope to allow discussion that is more intensive related to women empowerment and child protection.
The representative of UN Women, Dwi Yuliawati Faiz said based on the UN Women research, 84 percent of companies in Indonesia stated there are at least 1 (one) women in the board of directors. Indonesia is trying to encourage women’s representation in company leadership, but there are still challenges to be faced.
“The challenge we face this time is how to shorten the process that women go through to occupy leadership positions. While the process to occupy leadership positions is long, at the same time in the midst of the process women still have dual roles as mother and caregiver. Another obstacle is that many companies have provided equal opportunities to male and female workers, but do not carry out other proactive activities. If companies take more active steps to have women occupy leadership positions, there will be more women that can be inspired to take leadership positions or decision makers,” Dwi explained.
Chief Financial Officer Telkomtelstra, Ernest Hutagalung who attended the event stated that some efforts have been implemented by his company to encourage women representation in the company leadership. According to him, besides making policies that encourage women representation in the company leadership, the company must also look for solutions for these women to be able to remain in the leadership position while at the same time having a dual role in her family, one of which is by providing a policy of Work from Home (WFH) that has already been implemented by Telkomtelstra since 2017.
“There are several efforts that we have implemented to encourage women representation in the company’s leadership. First, during the recruitment or promotion process, we make sure that male and female candidates are balanced. The more candidates we have in the promotion process, the higher the chances of having more female candidates. Companies must also be able to adjust to policies that support women at the company leadership level, because there are female employees who have multiple roles and responsibilities in the family. Therefore, companies must also be able to find solutions to accommodate this,” explained Ernest.
Representative of Srikandi for State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) as well as BRI’s Consumer Director, Handayani said that by 2025 it is targeted that 30 percent of BUMN Board of Directors (BOD) will be women. At BRI, currently the composition of BOD and female Supervisors has reached 22 percent.
“Strengthening the role of women is very important, it is women who can lift women. To overcome the stereotypes that have been attached to women, women must be able to prove themselves that we play an important role in every process and activity that is entrusted to us,” said Handayani.
G20 Empower is an alliance launched at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan in 2019. G20 Empower itself aims to build and support private sector networks in G20 member countries in identifying challenges and supporting the advancement of women’s leadership in the private sector. The current membership of the G20 Empower Indonesia is represented by a focal point, consisting of representatives from the Ministry of PPPA, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN), the Indonesian Association of Women Entrepreneurs (IWAPI), and PT. XL Axiata.
In 2022, Indonesia gets the honor to host the G20. As one of the preparations for Indonesia’s chairmanship, Ministry of PPPA will increase the active participation of all parties, through the involvement of Indonesian Women Top Leaders from various large companies to join as Advocates Indonesia representatives on the Alliance of G20 Empower.
About Telkomtelstra
Telkomtelstra is a joint venture between PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom Indonesia), which is the largest telecommunications company in Indonesia, with Telstra Corporation Limited (Telstra) which is the leading telecommunications and information services company in Australia. Telkomtelstra provides a portfolio of leading technology products and solutions such as Managed Network Services, Managed Security Services, and Managed Cloud Services to help increase digital transformation in Indonesia. Through an understanding of the local market and also the experience of providing world-class managed solutions services, Telkomtelstra has succeeded in supporting Indonesian companies to take advantage of managed solution services to increase business efficiency and productivity.
Media Contacts
Rey Sihotang, Head of CEO Office and Corporate Secretary, VP
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Email: rey.sihotang@telkomtelstra.co.id