Susilo Bambang ready for social networking

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has decided to launch a personal Twitter account in order to interact freely with the public, Indonesia's Antara reported, quoting one of his special officers as saying.

"This is part of his personality as a democrat who is involved in building citizenship," Presidential Special Staff for Political Communications Affairs Daniel Sparingga said here on Friday.

It was previously reported that the president would soon launch his personal twitter account to come closer to and interact intensively with the public.

Sparingga said that Susilo had decided to make this move to deepen and give more substance to true democracy and as part of building trust and cooperation among the Indonesian people and the international community.

His decision (to open a Twitter account) was in line with his desire to expand his public communications, Sparingga said.

He added that through the Twitter account approach, the president could also increase the effectiveness of his political leadership in navigating his government.

"I am confident that decisions of world leaders to join the cyber world are motivated by the conviction of the importance of social media as a public room which is strategic in forming public opinion," Sparingga said.