Country hopes to support Kingdom’s tourism push through scheme Course set to begin in July to help traveling pilgrims JAKARTA: Indonesia is hoping to expand its cultural reach in Saudi Arabia through the first university-level Indonesian language program in the Kingdom. Officials have told Arab News that the new initiative will begin next month at Majmaah University in the Riyadh region. The Indonesian language program for foreign speakers starts in July and is part of Jakarta’s efforts to globalize the language to serve citizens who visit Saudi Arabia for pilgrimages. Badrus Sholeh, the education and cultural attache at the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News: “The program is supported by the strength of friendly relations between the governments and people of the two countries. “As many more Umrah pilgrims visit Saudi Arabia, including from Indonesia, the need for the Indonesian language becomes more important. It will not only mean more people getting to know (Indonesian) culture, but also strengthen potential economic and trade cooperation.” The world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia is sending the largest Hajj contingent to Saudi Arabia — around 229,000 pilgrims — while another 3 million are expected to travel for Umrah this year. Indonesian officials are hoping the program can support tourism in the Kingdom, a sector booming under its Vision 2030 diversification plan. Sholeh added: “Hopefully the Indonesian language can be one of the global languages supporting the tourism push by the Saudi government.” The language program was funded and developed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, which also trained tutors to instruct the course. Iyus Yusuf, an official from the ministry’s language department, told Arab News: “At the higher education level, this is the first time we have opened an Indonesian language program for foreign speakers at a university in Saudi Arabia. “This program is an effort to expand the reach of the Indonesian language abroad. We are doing this to make Indonesian an international language.” Yusuf added that the government was also hoping to facilitate Indonesian pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia, in the hope that the program "will make it easier for Saudi citizens to learn Indonesian.” Yusuf said: “Immigration and airport officers will be able to serve Indonesian pilgrims by using the Indonesian language. This is because the average pilgrims from Indonesia are seniors and unable to speak Arabic.” Indonesia is hoping to expand the programs across Saudi Arabia — including at the Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah — and develop a bigger language study program at Saudi universities, the Indonesian Embassy said in a statement. Yusuf added: “We continue to coordinate with the Indonesian mission in Saudi Arabia... Hopefully other universities will soon open the Indonesian language program.”