Bekasi Civil Servants Required to Use English in Online Meetings During WFH on Fridays

Bekasi civil servants are required to use English when attending online meetings via Zoom during the implementation of work from home (WFH). This policy will begin on Friday (17 April 2026) as part of efforts to improve the capacity of civil servants while preparing Bekasi City to become an international-class city. “We want to practise and prepare to become an international city. Also, the discourse on WFH is to make it more productive, so we are preparing it thoroughly,” said Bekasi Mayor Tri Adhianto when met at the Bekasi City Government Plaza on Thursday (16 April 2026). “If it’s an international city, more people will come. Currently, for example, investment from China has already entered,” he added. He further mentioned that the Bekasi City Government has established cooperation with two cities in the world, namely Izumisano in Japan and Seongnam in South Korea. According to him, this collaboration serves as motivation for the local government to continue learning and implementing best practices from international partners. “This further motivates us to keep learning and implementing positive aspects from that cooperation,” he said. Each department head is asked to provide guidance, evaluation, and daily work targets to their subordinates. According to Tri, every staff member is required to prepare a daily performance report that will be entered into the E-Kinerja (Ekin) system to ensure alignment between the instructions given and the work results achieved. “Later, we will see the correlation between what is instructed and what is done. Now, we are trying the instructions in English, one day English,” he said. To ensure the effectiveness of this policy, the Bekasi City Government plans to involve universities as assessors or judges in evaluating the English language skills of the heads of Regional Work Units (OPD). “If the universities are ready, they will be the judges. So that all department heads have the same understanding,” Tri added. The evaluation results will be stored first, and only the OPD with the best performance will be publicised through the official social media of the Bekasi City Government by the Communication and Informatics Department (Diskominfo). This policy is expected not only to increase the productivity of civil servants during WFH but also to strengthen Bekasi City’s readiness to face global dynamics and attract more international investment.