Day: August 30, 2021

Indonesia’s current challenge is to combine rebound and recovery of the national economy, which has experienced a downturn due to the impact of COVID-19, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.

“One of our challenges this year is that we can combine rebound and recovery,” she said during a working meeting with the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Monday.

Rebound itself means that the economy is growing at a high rate because of the low achievement in the previous quarter, she explained.

Indonesia’s economy managed to soar to 7.07 percent (yoy) in the second quarter of this year, and one of the factors was that in the second quarter of 2020, it had experienced a contraction of minus 5.32 percent (yoy), she further elaborated.

To create economy with quality, Indonesia must script an economic rebound as well as a recovery, as the two will serve as the driving forces for the improvement of the economy, Indrawati said.

“Rebound could be just because the base is low, but it doesn’t translate into recovery. People can rebound without recovery just because their pick-up base is low,” she pointed out.

She emphasized that the rebound-recovery combination is needed given that the community activity restriction policy had stunted almost all supporting aspects of the economy, after it experienced improvements.

“The third quarter has some correction from various indicators. We expect that, maybe, in September (we) can still catch up because in July we went through community activities restriction policy throughout the month, and in August for up to two weeks,” Indrawati added.

She said she also expected that the community activity restriction policy, under which some areas have begun to get downgraded from level 4 to level 3, especially in Java and Bali regions, to gradually restore people’s economic activities.

Indrawati said the growth outlook for the national economy for the whole year is in the range of 3.7 percent to 4.5 percent, noting that in the third quarter, especially September, the economy is projected to recover more and grow normally.

Following aggregate demand component, Indonesian consumption is estimated to only grow 2.2 percent to 2.8 percent because, in the second quarter of 2021, it jumped, but the fourth quarter was depressed due to community activities restriction policy, the minister said.

“In the fourth quarter, on Christmas and New Year, (the consumption) is usually quite increased again. If COVID-19 did not threaten us, we could fully capitalize or take advantage of the momentum of the fourth quarter,” she added.

Source: Antara News

Carbon tax can be a tool to realize Golden Indonesia before the goal year of 2045, deputy for economic affairs at the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Amalia Adininggar has said.

“The ministry hopes that the carbon tax can encourage the process of transition and transformation of the green and sustainable economy,” she said at a webinar on carbon tax organized by the University of Indonesia’s Tax Centre here on Monday.

“The tax is expected to be an instrument towards (realizing) Golden Indonesia before 2045,” she added.

According to Adininggar, the implementation of a greener circular economy, which can be driven by carbon tax, is expected to raise the gross domestic product (GDP) by around Rp593 trillion to Rp638 trillion by 2030.

The application of a circular economy can boost economic growth by up to 0.6 basis points, she observed. Thus, Indonesia’s economy, which averages growth of 4.9 percent per year, can achieve growth of 5.5 percent per year, she said.

“Carbon tax is also anticipated to escalate the competitiveness of Indonesian products in the global market. It is because of the current global trend of green-product-labeled goods that will be more marketable in the global market,” she informed.

In addition to collecting carbon tax from industry, other economic sectors can be taxed on their carbon output too, such as agriculture, settlements, and fisheries, she pointed out.

Policies for the green economy have been enforced more strictly in many countries, she added.

Germany is using 30-percent of its economic recovery stimulus to reduce carbon emissions, Adininggar said.

France has also allocated 30 billion euros for green economic recovery, which includes construction of public transport, incentives for cyclists, energy efficiency for public buildings, industrial transitions, and the greening of the food sector, she added.

“Meanwhile, South Korea invested US$138 in the Korean New Deal, which encompassed pushing electric vehicles production, building electric charging stations, and reducing as well as recycling energy use,” Adininggar said.

Source: Antara News

The development and execution of Indonesia’s national public communication system must be more swift in keeping pace with ongoing changes, Minister of Communication and Informatics Johnny G. Plate has said.

“We need to immediately upgrade the capabilities of the national public communication system so that it quickly follows the dynamics that are occurring,” the minister remarked in an official statement released here on Monday.

Indonesia must prepare to face the challenges of the geopolitical and global economic situation, as well as the advancement of communication and information technology (ICT), he said.

“This demand (of public communication development) becomes an urgency, as it is in line with the national goal through the realization of Golden Indonesia 2045 vision, which is sovereign, advanced, just, and prosperous Indonesia,” he remarked.

Plate said the government’s credibility also needs to be built through a holistic approach. Thus, public communication is not only about promoting government activities, he emphasized.

“We need to reach out to the public through various methods so that public participation in national development can be facilitated,” he highlighted.

To improve public participation, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics has made the Grand Design of the National Public Communication System for 2020-2045, he revealed.

“The year 2020 to 2024 is the first milestone of the public communication advancement,” Plate explained.

In certain phases, achievements must already be obtained by all elements of public communication, including the ministry’s public relations agency (Pranata Humas) as human resources (HR) in the management of public communication, he stressed.

Regarding HR, there are targets of formation, readjustment, and improvement of HR skills, he pointed out.

“Other targets are the development of system standardization and human resources certification, and enhancement of media literacy, data literacy, and public information literacy on part of the public,” he explained.

In 2021, the target of public communication development includes the establishment of institutions or groups of public communication volunteers from millennials for the success of Indonesia’s four pillars of advancement in 2045, he said.

It is time to increase the role of traditional media, conventional media, new media, and content production in public communication, he added.

Source: Antara News

All stakeholders must work to resolve issues concerning the distribution of social aid that have continued to persist, vice chairman of Commission VIII of the House of Representatives (DPR) Ace Hasan Syadzily has said.

“Commission VIII has reminded several times regarding this issue,” Syadzily told ANTARA here on Monday.

He highlighted Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini’s findings regarding allegations of rice social aid monopoly in Lumajang, East Java, on Saturday, in addition to a field report the minister received while visiting Bandung District on Friday.

In its implementation, social aid distribution has been plagued with a variety of issues, from the aid recipient data collection to aid distribution, Syadzily said.

When it comes to data, there remains the problem of records reflecting the names of people who have passed away as social aid recipients, as seen in Bandung, he elaborated.

There is another problem regarding the distributed Non-Cash Food Aid (BPNT), the commodity value of which is above average and the quality is not as expected, he added.

He urged the Social Affairs Ministry to promptly resolve the social aid issue by fixing the system that has been deemed problematic for some time.

“Fix the system immediately. The problem is clear. Issues regarding social aid have been unresolved for too long,” Syadzily asserted.

In addition, he also announced that the House’ Commission VIII will invite State-owned Banks Association (Himbara) that has been tasked to distribute aid funds to help recipient families (KPM) in the near future.

Source: Antara News

The capital city Jakarta has become an important part of Indonesia’s economic recovery given the big contribution the province makes to the national economy, Jakarta’s Governor Anies Baswedan said during the JaKreatiFest 2021 event here on Monday.

According to data provided by Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Jakarta remains the biggest contributor to the national economy. The province contributed 17 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), followed by East Java and West Java, in the second quarter of 2020, Baswedan noted.

Meanwhile, according to BPS, the gross regional domestic product of Jakarta has reached Rp721.5 trillion in the second quarter of 2021, he said.

The governor also revealed that Jakarta’s economic growth in the second quarter of 2021 is in the positive zone at 10.9 percent.

Based on Jakarta BPS data, this economic growth has followed an 8.33-percent contraction during the same period of 2021.

This is a sign of an economic recovery that must be utilized by entrepreneurs, Baswedan said.

One of the strategies that the Jakarta provincial government is implementing is vaccination as it is one of the solutions to recover the economy from COVID-19’s impact, the governor added.

“Vaccination has become important. This has become a game-changer and we hope that the vaccination movement can be completed soon,” he said.

As of Sunday, the number of first COVID-19 vaccine dose recipients in Jakarta has reached 9.6 million, 107.7 percent of the 8.9 million targeted recipients.

Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto had said that stemming the spread of COVID-19 is key for accelerating Indonesia’s economic recovery in the second quarter of 2021.

Source: Antara News

The Jakarta Creative Festival (JaKreatiFest) 2021 was held to support the ‘Proud of Indonesian Products’ and ‘Proud of Indonesian Tourism’ campaigns and expedite national economic recovery (PEN), head representative of Jakarta’s Bank Indonesia, Onny Widjanarko, said.

“We want to provide information, story, and interaction with industry players in syariah enterprises, creative industry, national film industry, coffee industry, Jakarta tourism, fashion industry, and payment digitalization,” he explained at the JaKreatiFest opening ceremony, held virtually here on Monday.

By collaborating to find various potential new sources of economic growth, syariah enterprises, creative tourism industry, including MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions), as well as digital economy and finance, can find the space and opportunity to expedite national economic recovery, he said.

With this consideration, the theme of JaKreatiFest 2021 is empowering new, creative, innovative, and inspirational sources of economic growth in the digital era to accelerate PEN, Widjanarko added.

He expressed the hope that the event will have an impact, such as adding MSMEs to the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, said JaKreatiFest 2021 has the potential to expedite economic recovery by supporting entrepreneurs’ capacity in terms of funding access, production, and marketing.

JaKreatiFest has the potential to have a positive impact on MSME development, creative industry, tourism, and digitalization, especially in Jakarta, he elaborated.

JaKreatiFest has been jointly organized by Jakarta’s Bank Indonesia and Jakarta’s provincial government to synergize creative economy development activities.

Based on data from JaKreatiFest’s website, around 144 MSMEs entrepreneurs attended the virtual exhibition.

Before JaKreatiFest began, it was preceded with training activities such as halal certification, coaching clinic, and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) consulting at the Tokopedia Marketplace.

Podcasts and competitions related to tourism and coffee were also held as part of the festival.

Source: Antara News