Bekasi Mayor Mandates ASN Meetings in English During WFH to Attract Foreign Investment

Bekasi Mayor Tri Adhianto is preparing several measures to enhance the readiness of the Bekasi City Government towards becoming an international-class city. One of them is mandating heads of regional device organisations (OPD) to use English in online meetings during the work-from-home (WFH) policy starting Friday (17/4/2026). According to Tri, this effort is part of preparations to face increasing foreign investment and strengthen international cooperation. Tri revealed that the Bekasi City Government has established cooperation with two cities abroad, namely Izumisano in Japan and Seongnam in South Korea. That collaboration, according to him, serves as a learning medium to adopt best practices in city management and public services. “This further motivates us to continue learning and implementing positive aspects from that cooperation,” he said. As an initial step towards an international city, Tri asked all OPD heads to use English when attending online meetings via Zoom during the WFH period. This policy is also expected to increase the productivity of civil servants (ASN). “We want to practise and prepare to become an international city. And also the WFH discourse to become more productive, that’s why it’s well prepared,” said Tri. He explained that the use of English in meetings is a strategy to enhance ASN capacity so they are more ready to interact with international partners or foreign investors. In addition to improving language capacity, Tri emphasised that all OPD ranks down to staff level must remain alert during the implementation of WFH. Every department head is asked to provide directions, evaluations, and daily work targets to their subordinates. Those performance reports will be entered into the E-Kinerja (Ekin) system to ensure alignment between given instructions and achieved work results. To ensure the effectiveness of the policy, the Bekasi City Government also plans to involve universities as evaluators in assessing the English language proficiency of OPD heads. “If the universities are indeed ready, they will be the judges. So that all department heads have the same understanding,” he added. Tri also mentioned that every meeting must be prepared, recorded, and reported in stages to the Regional Assistant (Asda) and expert staff as part of the performance evaluation mechanism. This policy is expected not only to increase ASN productivity during WFH but also to strengthen Bekasi City’s readiness in facing global dynamics and attracting more international investment.