Day: August 16, 2021

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stressed the importance of shifting to new and renewable energy and accelerating a green technology-based economy to spur national economic growth.

“Transformation towards new and renewable energy as well as acceleration of green technology-based economy will become a crucial change in our economy,” he noted during his state-of-the-nation address at the annual session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) and joint session of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representative Council (DPD) at the Parliamentary Complex here on Monday.

He said he believes the use of clean energy and green technology will have an impact on the creation of a more environmentally friendly economy.

Hence, efforts will be made to consolidate the strength of national research to align with the country’s development agenda, he added.

In the first half of 2021, the realization of investment in Indonesia, excluding that in the upstream oil and gas sector and the financial service sector, reached Rp442.8 trillion, he noted.

Nearly 51.5 percent of the investment was outside Java and 48.5 percent in Java, and absorbed more than 620 thousand local workers, Jokowi said.

He expressed the hope the realization of investment until December 2021 will reach the government-set target of Rp900 trillion, creating more jobs and boosting the economy significantly.

“The development of investment must be an integral part of just and inclusive economic growth,” he remarked.

The government is upbeat about contributing optimally to the settlement of its commitment to climate change adaptation in the Paris Agreement, he said. The accelerated energy transition from fossil fuels to new and renewable energy is expected to help cut greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent in 2030 and limit global warming by no less than 2 degrees Celsius.

According to data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, new and renewable energy has shown significant development in contributing to electrical power and fuel usage.

For instance, the use of biodiesel grew threefold in the past five years. The use of biodiesel started in 2008 when the government launched the 10-percent biodiesel (B10).

The production of B10 biodiesel reached a record 3.01 million kiloliters in 2015. The government later raised the biodiesel mix to 30 percent. The use of B30 biodiesel stood at 8.46 million kiloliters in 2020.

The success prompted other countries to reckon Indonesia as the world’s largest biodiesel producer ahead of the United States, Brazil, and Germany. As a result, Indonesia managed to save Rp38.31 trillion, or US$2.66 billion, in foreign exchange in 2020.

In terms of the electrical power mix, new and renewable energy has increased the capacity of power plants by two gigawatts in the past five years, Sadikin said.

By the end of 2022, the realization of new and renewable energy mix is expected to touch 11.31 percent, he added. The government is optimistic about answering the challenge to achieve the target of new and renewable energy mix of 23 percent by 2025.

 

Source: Antara News

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has assured that the health budget will be allocated uniformly to each region because it does not just rely on the state budget (APBN), but also the regional budget (APBD).

“The actual funds in the Ministry of Health for health spending are smaller than the health allocation funds distributed through the APBD because there is a rule that 10 percent of the APBD must be used for health,” Sadikin said at an online press conference on the Financial Note and the 2022 State Budget Draft here on Monday.

Therefore, according to him, budget equalization will automatically be achieved. In addition to the regional budget, each region can also use funds from the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) to improve public health, he said.

The budget in the Health Ministry is usually channeled to the regions to meet the needs of the health sector that the regional budget cannot meet, the minister informed.

Earlier, while presenting the 2022 State Budget draft, the government said it has allocated Rp255.3 trillion for the health sector, or 9.4 percent of the total planned state expenses.

Sadikin said he would focus on controlling the COVID-19 transmission rate in 2022 so that it stays below the capacity of the national health service by encouraging the implementation of health protocols, case detection, and vaccinations.

In addition, the transformation of the health sector will also be carried out using six pillars, namely primary services, secondary services, health resilience systems, financial or financing systems, human resources, as well as information technology, and biotechnology, he expounded.

He said he believes that Indonesia will be able to use the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to transform the health sector and make it better in the future.

 

Source: Antara News

Indonesia’s foreign debt fell 0.1 percent to US$415.1 billion in the second quarter of 2021 from US$415.3 billion the previous quarter, Bank Indonesia (BI) reported on Monday.

The growth of foreign debt also slowed to 1.9 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter of 2021 from 7.2 percent yoy in the previous quarter.

The drop was the result of the slow growth of the government’s foreign debt and the contraction of the private sector’s foreign debt, executive director/chief of BI’s communication department, Erwin Haryono. said in an official statement released in Jakarta on Monday.

The government’s foreign debt in the second quarter of 2021 reached US$205 billion, up 4.3 percent yoy and lower than 12.6 percent recorded in the previous quarter due to a decline in the amount of foreign debt along with the settlement of debts that fell due in the second quarter of 2021, he explained.

“The foreign debt repayment is an important part of efforts to maintain the government’s credibility in managing foreign debt,” Haryono said. Meanwhile, net capital inflows to the domestic market for state bonds increased compared to the previous quarter, along with investors’ improving confidence, thereby supporting liquidity in the domestic state bond market, he noted.

The positive trend also supported the government’s effort to manage financing in a cautious and measurable way, he said. The current financing also plays a big role in the handling of COVID-19 pandemic and implementation of the national economic recovery PEN program, he added.

The government’s foreign debts will be managed in a cautious, credible, and accountable way to support priority budgets, Haryono said.

The government’s foreign debt in the second quarter was relatively safe and controllable since 99.9 percent of the debt were long-term debt, he added.

 

Source: Antara News