August 19, 2021 – Page 2 – Indonesia News Gazette

August 19, 2021

Expert urges complete television signal coverage nationwide

The government must ensure terrestrial television broadcasting is accessible to all viewers after phasing out the analog system, dean of the Faculty of Communication Studies of the Padjadjaran University, Dadang Rahmat Hidayat, has said.

“We should ensure after the analog switch-off, the digital television broadcast would be accessible to all television viewers regardless of their location,” he stressed during a webinar on the planned analog switch-off on Thursday.

He made the remarks in response to a statement issued by West Java regional TVRI Station head Asep Suhendar explaining the probability of several regions in West Java becoming black spots due to lack of digital television signal received there.

Suhendar had pointed out that two mountainous regions within Cianjur and Garut districts had a high probability of becoming black spots with no digital signal received in the region.

He said he had reported the issue to the central government and a follow-up survey had been conducted with assistance from the Communications and Informatics Ministry. A proposal to construct signal receiver infrastructure for the region had also been submitted, he added.

The authority should also prepare a backup plan to address potential failure to receive digital signals in rural areas, as Suhendar has pointed out, Hidayat said.

“With the existing mapping, we need to create a backup plan to address transition issues. The Communication and Informatics Ministry should create the plan with assistance from the Telecommunications and Informatics Accessibility Agency and the regional government,” he advised.

The main goal of broadcasting digitization is to provide better signal quality as viewers will have more choice of television channels, he noted. It is therefore essential to ensure no viewers are left behind by the digital transition, he added.

The dean said he was optimistic that the transition to digital transmission would be successful and reminded television viewers to purchase the necessary devices so their televisions could receive digital signals.

The government has planned to switch off analog signals from April 2022, when the first transition phase will commence. The final phase is expected to conclude by the end of 2022.

Source: Antara News

August 19, 2021

APEC ministers launch food security roadmap

Agriculture and food ministers from APEC’s 21 member economies have reaffirmed their commitment to an open, transparent, productive, sustainable, and resilient APEC food system by launching a new 10-year food security roadmap.

A World Bank policy brief has shown that nearly 2.37 billion people lacked access to adequate food in 2020, an increase of 320 million in just one year, according to a press release issued by the 6th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security and received here on Thursday.

A report by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) has found that the number of people facing acute food insecurity who need urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance hit a five-year high in 2020.

It was against this backdrop that APEC ministers convened their annual APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security on Thursday. The meeting, which was chaired by New Zealand’s Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, adopted the APEC Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030.

The roadmap details goals and key action areas where APEC is well-placed to help ensure people always have access to sufficient, safe, affordable, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. “While food security was already a challenge, COVID-19 showed us that there are vulnerabilities in our food systems and in our economies, and that our food systems need improvement, especially to deliver on the APEC 2040 vision of an open, dynamic, peaceful, and resilient region,” Minister O’Connor highlighted in his opening remarks.

The roadmap, which is aligned with New Zealand’s APEC 2021 priorities as well as the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040, incorporates four key areas of focus, he added.

First, digitalization and innovation in terms of using digital levers to drive food sustainability; second, productivity in term of prioritizing systems that are fit for purpose; third, inclusivity in term of ensuring that underrepresented groups are set up to thrive; fourth, sustainability in term of tackling climate change and environmental challenges, he informed. “Besides our effort to address the challenges of food security, the roadmap also emphasizes efforts in increasing productivity and efficiency, minimizing food waste, mitigating and adapting to climate change as well as reducing costs and facilitating food trade,” said Philip Houlding, chair of the APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security Group.

The group spearheaded the development of the roadmap and drives public-private sector engagement on all aspects of food security in the region.

At the meeting, APEC ministers acknowledged the benefits of digitalization and discussed measures to promote innovation and improve the use of digital technology to ensure food security as the region recovers from COVID-19. “The pandemic accelerated digital transformation and highlighted the abilities of an innovative digitally enabled economy to better recover and thrive,” said Minister O’Connor.

“But effective recovery also requires all elements of government to work together to deliver this transformation and enhance food security in the APEC region,” he added.

Ministers also highlighted the central role of the private sector throughout the food value chain with respect to production and processing, distribution, trade and investment, he said.

Furthermore, APEC ministers encouraged deeper collaboration between policymakers and the private sector to ensure an innovative, refreshed food system to meet the food security challenges of the future, he added.

“Without food security for all our people, we cannot achieve the other goals we have for our economies,” O’Connor remarked. (INE)

Source: Antara News

August 19, 2021

People aged above 12 can take Pfizer jab: spokesperson

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Pfizer vaccine can be used for citizens aged above 12 in the country, spokesperson for the COVID-19 Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, has said.

“The Pfizer vaccine can be used for people aged 12 years and over and local governments who will receive Pfizer vaccine allocations are asked to be able to administer them immediately so that people in their regions can be protected and increase the coverage of the vaccination program,” he said at an online press conference here on Thursday.

On Thursday (August 19), the Indonesian government received 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, Adisasmito said.

The Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) had issued Emergency-Use of Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer vaccine in July 2021.

According to BPOM, the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine is 100 percent for the 12-15 year age group and 95.5 percent for those aged 16 years and above.

“In addition to the Pfizer vaccines, today the government also received 450 thousand doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through a bilateral scheme,” Adisasmito informed on Thursday.

The spokesperson said he hoped that the arrival of the vaccines would accelerate the national vaccination program so more people in the country could get vaccinated.

In a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19 and build herd immunity, the Indonesian government had launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, with President Joko Widodo becoming the nation’s first vaccine recipient.

As of Thursday (August 19, 2021), 56,322,284 people (27.04 percent of the target population) have received the first vaccine dose and 30,590,045 people (14.69 percent of the target population) have received the second dose of the vaccine, according to data from the Ministry of Health. (

Source: Antara News

August 19, 2021

BIN starts vaccinating Islamic Boarding School students in Sleman

The State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Office in Yogyakarta province and the Sleman district government have launched a mass vaccination program for thousands of students of the Sunan Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

“The first is part of a series of implementations of Mr. President’s directive and the order of the Head of State Intelligence Agency to carry out vaccinations against specific targets by using specific methods,” Chief of the BIN Office in Yogyakarta Brigadier General Dr. Andry Wibowo said at the Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School on Thursday.

The specific target of the program was students, and the method used was door-to-door, he informed. The vaccination program was part of a series of programs implemented by the BIN Office in Yogyakarta since some time ago, he said.

“Today (vaccinations will be provided) at the Sunan Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School, then house-to-house in the surrounding community. If the activity plan here is (to inoculate) eight thousand students, today we aim for 500 people; (if we do it) two times it will be a thousand. (This is being done) while (we are) waiting for the distribution of vaccines through the State Intelligence Agency channel,” he added.

The BIN Office in Yogyakarta has inoculated 34 thousand students out of a total of 356 thousand students, as well as 10 percent of Indonesian students in Yogyakarta, he informed.

He said that Islamic boarding school students have been prioritized for vaccines because they are covered by two education dimensions, namely the national education dimension of elementary, junior high and high school, and the dimension of education under the Religious Affairs Ministry.

“Islamic boarding schools are part of our education cluster, where there are educators and students. So it is just the matter of title. In middle and high schools, there are students, but here, the (Islamic boarding schools) students study in special chambers, and general education just reinforces the religious values,” he said.

Head of the COVID-19 task force at Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School, Azka Syabana said that Islamic boarding schools were very grateful and welcomed the vaccination program hosted by State Intelligence Agency, as it was reviewed by President Joko Widodo in person.

“In addition to physical vaccination or injection, it also strengthens the children, support for children, because children during this pandemic are completely quarantined in Islamic boarding schools. They cannot be visited, cannot go out, cannot go home, except once every year for Eid. ” he informed.

Students of the Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School had been waiting for the vaccination program for some time amid ever-increasing cases of COVID-19, he added.

He said he expected all eight thousand students of the school to be vaccinated under the program.

Source: Antara News