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epresentatives of 16 countries from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific are sharing experiences and best practice in democracy and good governance in a week-long international workshop hosted by the Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said the Workshop on Democracy and Innovation in Good Governance held in Jakarta and Bandung from June 7 to 13 was Indonesia'€™s response to technical assistance requests submitted by several developing countries in part of their efforts to improve their good governance capacity.

'€œI encourage you all to benefit from this forum to exchange constructive thoughts and opinions on the successes and challenges that might emerge in the country'€™s development process,'€ she said as quoted by Antara news agency at the opening of the workshop attended by 21 participants from the 16 countries, on Monday.

Retno said she was certain that the workshop could provide an opportunity to create a general, but deep illustration of democracy and innovation in good governance in Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the Middle East.

She further said that developing countries must strive to understand the best ways they could take to ensure their ongoing democratic processes could bring positive impacts on their countries and people.

'€œA question for a country with a '€˜young age democracy'€™ such as Indonesia is how to make democracy run well, especially how to make democracy useful for its economy and prosperity,'€ she said in the workshop, held in cooperation with the National Institute of Administration (LAN) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Meanwhile, Indonesia and Iran recently completed a second human rights dialogue in Jakarta. During the two-day dialogue, lasting from June 3 to 4, both Indonesia and Iran agreed to continue sharing experiences and best practices on human rights and to explore a more concrete cooperation that was more mutually beneficial for the people in both countries.

The Indonesian delegation was chaired by the Foreign Ministry'€™s director for human rights and humanitarian affairs, Dicky Komar, while the Iranian delegation was lead by Iran'€™s Foreign Ministry director general for human rights and women, Mansureh Sharifi Sadr,

Both sides also agreed to continue cooperating closely in international institutions dealing with human rights, particularly strengthening the impartiality and independence of UN Human Rights mechanisms.

On the sidelines of the forum, officials paid a field visit to the Vocational Rehabilitation Center for Children, widely known as Panti Sosial Bina Remaja, and the Social Development Center for Children (Panti Sosial Marsudi Putra Handayani) in Jakarta. The next dialogue will be held in Tehran in 2016. (ebf)