Day: March 28, 2022

Indonesia G20 will strive to expand the development of a global health manufacturing and research center in preparation to prevent and respond to the pandemic in future, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated.

“To strengthen global health, we need to equally redistribute research and manufacturing capability toward vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics,” he noted.

During a press conference for the G20 Health Working Group (HWG) meeting titled “Harmonizing Global Health Protocol Standards” here on Monday, Sadikin noted that vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic equality were crucial health aspects during the pandemic.

Research and manufacturing capability should ideally exist in various nations and not just in advanced nations or countries with high income. This means the knowledge redistribution process is necessary, he stated.

For the G20 Presidency, Sadikin highlighted three agendas in the health sector. These agendas also became topics that President Joko Widodo had requested.

The first agenda concerns building the global health system resiliency. The second involves harmonizing global health protocol standards to ensure similar standards on regulations related to PCR, quarantine, and others.

The third relates to developing global manufacturing and knowledge center for the prevention, preparation, and response to the pandemic.

“For the working group, the topics of global health resiliency system and redistribution of the global manufacturing and knowledge center for the prevention, preparation, and response to the pandemic will have their own session,” he explained.

Earlier, the Health Ministry’s official, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated that through the G20, Indonesia will encourage development of the health manufacturing and study center in developing countries.

“For now, we strengthen global relations among scientists in virology, immunology, epidemiology, and other branches related to the health crisis,” she noted.

Source: Antara News

The state budget will continue to absorb risks from the turmoil caused by the spread of the pandemic and geopolitical conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated.

“Various dynamics will continue to occur and the state budget will be the main instrument for absorbing risks from each turbulence,” Indrawati noted at the KiTA State Budget Press Conference in Jakarta, Monday.

In 2022, the geopolitical conditions, especially the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have brought risks different from those arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, she pointed out.

This conflict has an indirect impact on the increase in the global commodity prices, especially food and energy commodity prices, which affected the prices of other commodities, Indrawati noted.

“This has pushed up inflation in developed countries, especially in Europe and the United States, which experienced very high price hikes, and it then led to a quite drastic tightening policy response,” the minister remarked.

The Federal Reserve (The Fed), the US Central Bank, announced it would increase its benchmark interest rate up to seven times throughout 2022 and start reducing its quantitative easing policy.

Indrawati addressed that the United States’ policy had an impact on the decline in yield and price of Indonesian securities. However, the minister said she will take appropriate steps to anticipate the risk of changes in future.

“We have to look at two aspects, the increase in interest rates themselves and the price of securities that will experience further pressure due to capital outflows. We must be aware of debt management and especially in financing,” she emphasized.

The minister noted that the performance and resilience of Indonesian securities remained good despite experiencing shocks in the form of capital outflows.

“We will continue to maintain this because in future, the condition will not get better. However, we will witness shocks that we will continue to anticipate,” she stated.

Source: Antara News

President Director of state fertilizer industry firm PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur (PKT), Rahmad Pribadi, was named the best CEO for the State-Owned Holding category at the 2022 State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Awards.

Pribadi was viewed as being consistent in implementing the company’s development strategies amid various challenges in the fertilizer and petrochemical industry, both domestically and globally in 2021.

“Amid the economic and market conditions that are still dynamic due to the pandemic, PKT continues to implement a risk-based, value-added, and innovative strategy through business diversification. Through strategic measures supported by good risk management and operations, thank God, PKT can get out of the COVID-19 crisis as the winner, one of which is by recording the highest profit,” Pribadi explained here on Monday.

In 2021, PT PKT had managed to record a profit after-tax of Rp6.17 trillion. It was also assessed as being capable of maximizing productivity to improve operational efficiency.

According to Pribadi, several strategies are also conducted to ensure that the company is still able to maintain positive performance even during the pandemic, such as digital transformation, energy efficiency, human resources development, and business diversification with new and renewable energy as raw materials.

As the largest producer of urea fertilizer in the country, PKT was also deemed as being capable of conducting the mandate of SOE transformation, which is to be more professional, transparent, and accountable, as well as having a spirit of global competition while still having a huge impact on society.

In addition to winning the Best CEO of SOEs Holding, PKT also bagged other two awards: the Best I of SOEs Holding in the Strategy of Growing and Surviving, and the Best II on The Transformation of SOEs Holding Organizations.

The award was handed over by Chairman of the Jury, Tanri Abeng, in Jakarta, Thursday (March 24, 2022), based on the assessment encompassing Growth Strategy, Organizational Transformation, Corporate Governance, Quality Human Resources Development and Business Innovation.

Source: Antara News

The realization of the National Economic Recovery program budget has reached only Rp22.6 trillion as of March 25, 2022, or 5 percent of this year’s ceiling of Rp455.62 trillion, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has informed.

“So, this needs to be improved because we are already in the third month,” the minister said at the ‘State Budget KiTA’ press conference here on Monday.

The realization of the 2022 National Economic Recovery program budget includes Rp0.8 trillion for the health cluster for customs facilities for vaccines and medical devices and Rp21.2 trillion for the community protection cluster, specifically the Family Hope Program, staple foods and cash assistance provision for villages, and Pre-Employment Cards.

Meanwhile, as much as Rp0.6 trillion has been allocated for the economic recovery cluster, which includes tourism and food ministries and agencies, as well as tax incentives.

The national COVID-19 handling and economic recovery program (PC-PEN), which has a total budget of Rp455.62 trillion, is aimed at funding or supporting the handling of the pandemic, offering protection for affected citizens, as well as supporting economic recovery by expediting job creation.

This year, the program is aimed at three clusters: healthcare, with a budget of Rp122.54 trillion; community protection, with an allocation of Rp154.76 trillion; and economic recovery, with total funding of Rp178.32 trillion.

The healthcare cluster is focusing on continuing the handling of COVID-19 and expediting vaccinations.

The community protection cluster is focusing on maintaining the purchasing power of the poor as well as addressing issues of extreme poverty.

The economic recovery cluster is focusing on creating more jobs and increasing productivity.

Source: Antara News

People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, while receiving the Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia, Lu Kang, here, invited investors from China to assist in the development of the Mengwi-Gilimanuk toll road.

“The existence of the Mengwi-Gilimanuk toll road is very strategic and promising for investors because it can accommodate vehicles from west to east, and vice versa, in Bali,” he said in a statement issued on Monday.

The toll road can serve as an alternative route from Gilimanuk Harbor to the capital of Bali, Denpasar, he added.

The toll road will also shorten the traveling time from Gilimanuk to Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, and Tabanan from six hours to just two hours.

Soesatyo said he expects the Chinese Ambassador to encourage Chinese investors to invest in Bali’s Mengwi-Gilimanuk toll road, which stretches 96.21 kilometers.

The toll road consists of three sections: section I from Gilimanuk to Perkutatan spans 54.7 km, section II connecting Perkutatan and Soka is 23.17 km in length, and section II linking Soka with Mengwi stretches 18.9 km.

The toll road encompasses three districts of Bali: Jembrana, Tabanan, and Badung.

Soesatyo also lauded the increase in Indonesia and China’s bilateral trade in 2021. Trade between the countries swelled to US$110 billion in 2021, a 54.04-percent increase compared to 2020.

This figure is the largest in the history of Indonesia-China trade.

“I expect that the achievement can be improved,” Soesatyo remarked.

He further said he expects that the trade value will be more balanced in the future. Indonesia’s trade deficit was US$2.44 billion, though the figure was better than the deficit in 2020, which stood at US$7.85 billion.

Indonesia’s trade balance deficit with China is affected by non-tariff trade hurdles for Indonesia’s prime commodities in agriculture, farming, and fishery sectors.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, held a business forum on Indonesia Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Day on Monday to attract investors, specifically in the nation’s infrastructure sector.

The Finance Ministry-held business forum discussed innovative financing policies and instruments as well as the support that the government is providing to realize Indonesia’s commitment to sustainable infrastructure development.

The forum featured several figures, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as well as several panelists.

The panelists comprised Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny Gerard Plate, and West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil.

World Bank country director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Satu Kähkönen, also attended the event.

“By 2045, Indonesia will become a nation with the fifth biggest economy in the world,” the Trade Ministry’s national export development director general, Didi Sumedi, noted.

“This projection is what we continue to uphold during Indonesia’s participation in the Expo 2020 Dubai,” he added.

Sumedi, concurrently the Commissioner General of Indonesia Pavilion, also said that this is Indonesia’s opportunity to continue to draw investment, especially in domestic infrastructure construction and development projects.

The business forum discussed the government’s guarantee instrument integrated with the blended finance infrastructure to bolster the implementation of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principle, he informed.

This is meant to encourage the active participation of the private sector in developing and funding Indonesia’s sustainable infrastructure development.

This aligns with the main focus of UAE’s investment in Indonesia, specifically renewable energy and industry based on good environmental management.

Through the PPP scheme, project supervisors can access Finance Ministry’s support, such as project preparation facility and eligibility support, which have been integrated with the government’s guarantee and the SDG Indonesia One platform.

“All of these supports are provided to encourage the private sector’s participation in developing and financing Indonesia’s sustainable infrastructure development, which aligns with Golden Indonesia 2045 vision,” Finance Ministry official Brahmantio Isdijo said.

The success of Indonesia’s infrastructure development is inseparable from the success of the PPP scheme.

Major projects that were successfully built under the scheme include the Cikampek Toll Road, water supply system in Bandar Lampung, and Palapa Ring project that has involved the development of fiber optic infrastructure for telecommunication and managed to reach 17 remote regions in Indonesia.

Source: Antara News