Day: April 28, 2022

Posted on

AGO grills two officials over CPO export-related corruption case

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is questioning two officials of the Trade Ministry as witnesses in the alleged case of corruption related to the issuance of permits to export crude palm oil and its derivatives.

The two officials are Head of the Office Staff of the Trade Ministry identified by his initials as BA and Director of Farm and Forestry Product Export of the Foreign Trade Directorate General at the Trade Ministry identified by his initials as FA.

“They are questioned in the alleged case of corruption related to the issuance of permits to export CPO and its derivatives during the January 2021-March 2022 period,” Chief of the Legal Information Center at the AGO Agung Ketut Sumedana noted in a written statement released in Jakarta on Thursday.

The public prosecutor had earlier questioned FA on Wednesday (April 20).

Apart from the two officials of the Trade Ministry, the AGO also questioned Director of PT Bina Karya Prima identified by his initials as JR.

“The questioning of the witnesses is aimed at strengthening evidence and completing dossiers in the case,” he remarked.

The AGO has named four suspects in the case: Director General of Foreign Trade at the Trade Ministry IWW, PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia Commissioner MPT, Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs of PT Pelita Agung Agrindustri/Permata Hijau Group SMA, and General Manager for General Affairs of PT Musim Mas PTS.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

Anti-graft body detains Bogor district head

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has detained eight suspects in the alleged case of bribery related to the financial report of the Bogor district government for the budget year 2021.

“The eight suspects will be detained for 20 days starting from April 27 to May 16, 2022,” KPK Chief Firli Bahuri stated during a press conference at the KPK building early on Thursday.

The suspects are identified by their initials as Bogor District Head AY, Secretary of the Bogor District government MA, Chief of the Regional Cash Sub-division at the Bogor District Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) IA, and Commitment Issuing Official of the Bogor District Public Works and Public Housing Office RT.

The others are employees of the State Audit Board (BPK) Office in West Java identified by their initials as ATM, AM, HNRKA, and GGTR.

“AY is being detained at the detention house of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police,” Firli stated.

The KPK accused AY of bribing BPK auditors in order to get unqualified opinion for the financial report of the Bogor district government.

AY et al are charged with violating article 5, paragraph (1) letter a or b or article 13 of Law No. 3/1999 on corruption eradication as already amended by Law No. 20 of 2001 jo. article 55, paragraph (1) of the Penal Code.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

Garuda Indonesia to add more flights for Eid homecoming

State-owned PT Garuda Indonesia Group, through Garuda Indonesia and its subsidiary Citilink, will add more domestic flights to anticipate the community’s travel needs during the 2022 Eid homecoming period.

“There are a total of 34 flights, and Insya Allah, we will add 36, and maximize them all tomorrow. This is because recent flights to Padang have been filled 100 percent (of their capacity),” Garuda Indonesia president director Irfan Setiaputra told reporters in Tangerang on Thursday.

The extra flights are meant to anticipate a surge in passengers, he said pointing to a significant hike in prospective passengers flying to Surabaya, Makassar, and Medan.

“However, what is currently a popular destination during the Eid homecoming is the island of Bali or Denpasar,” he said.

The available number of aircraft seats has reached 100 percent in the last few days, he informed. Hence, the airline will continue to optimize the capacity and operation of aircraft.

“We must add more when we have the possibility of adding extra flights,” he said.

Setiaputra further said he expected prospective passengers to continue to implement health protocols strictly and get the booster shots to make their trip cozy and smooth.

“We strongly advise all passengers to make sure they are healthy before flying,” he added.

Meanwhile, on the fourth day leading to Eid, Garuda Indonesia and Citilink airlines recorded 95,492 passengers.

“The number of passengers of Garuda and Citilink is expected to peak tomorrow, but we have a limitation in terms of the number of aircraft,” Setiaputra said.

According to him, the peak of return flow will occur on May 7–8, therefore, the airline will continue to anticipate passenger volumes.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

Some 15,900 passengers to depart on Thursday from Gambir Station

Head of Public Relations of the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) Operational Area 1 Jakarta, Eva Chairunisa, stated that as many as 15,900 passengers will depart from Gambir Station, Jakarta, on Thursday.

“This figure reaches 95 percent of the total available seats, precisely 16,850 seats,” Chairunisa noted in Jakarta, Thursday.

She later remarked that for Thursday, or D-4 of Eid al-Fitr, 35 trains were operating, with eight of them being additional trains.

The additional trains are Argo Muria (Gambir-Semarang Tawang) at 00:25 local time, Gambir-Solo Train (Gambir-Solobalapan) at 00:45 local time, Argo Dwipangga (Gambir-Solobapalan) at 9:50 local time, and Taksaka (Gambir-Yogyakarta) at 10:30 local time.

Furthermore, the additional trains are Argo Sindoro (Gambir-Semarang Tawang) at 13:05 local time, Sembrani (Gambir-Surabaya Pasarturi) at 21:15 local time, Argo Lawu (Gambir-Solobalapan) at 22:50 local time, and Taksaka (Gambir-Yogyakarta) at 23:45 local time.

Chairunisa noted that the number of bookings for long-distance train tickets for departures from Jakarta, specifically Gambir Station, Pasar Senen, Bekasi, Cikarang, Karawang, Cikampek, and Jakarta Kota during the pre-Eid period, specifically from April 22 to May 1, reached 312,200, or 86 percent of the total 362,200 tickets provided.

The departure dates that were most chosen by the public were April 27-30 and May 1, with majority of the destinations being Yogyakarta, Solo, Kutoarjo, Purwokerto, Kebumen, Semarang, Surabaya, Malang, Cirebon, and Bandung.

“There are 161,200 tickets at Gambir Station and 200,900 tickets at Pasar Senen Station,” she noted.

Chairunisa stated that in order to expedite the inspection process, KAI had integrated the KAI ticket system with the PeduliLindungi application to validate the passengers’ COVID-19 vaccination data and test results. With the application of this method, the passengers’ vaccination status and test result would be immediately integrated when they order the ticket through KAI access and during the boarding period.

To help customers implement health protocols, KAI also distributed healthy kits containing masks and wet wipes for customers.

“According to government regulations, the capacity set for long-distance trains is 100 percent,” she noted.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

UI, UC Berkeley cooperate to increase research capacity

The University of Indonesia (UI) is cooperating with the University of California (UC Berkeley) U.S. in terms of research supported by the Deposit Insurance Institute (LPS).

“The cooperation includes the Visiting Research Young Scholar Program from University of Indonesia to conduct research on energy, bioengineering, and biomedical engineering with top professors at UC Berkeley for one year,” UI’s Rector Prof. Ari Kuncoro noted in a statement here on Thursday.

On Saturday, April 23, 2022, UI’s delegation, led by its rector, visited UC Berkeley to sign the cooperation agreement between UI and UC Berkeley.

During the visit, the rector was accompanied by Deputy Rector on Human Resources and Asset Dedi Priadi, Cooperation Director Toto Pranoto, UI’s Technic Faculty Dean Heri Hermansyah, and LPS team led by LPS Commissioner Board Chairman Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa.

Apart from visiting UC Berkeley, the delegates also paid a working visit to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), two start-up accelerators at Silicon Valley –Mind the Bridge (MTB) and Plug and Play– and Tesla.

The rector noted that the cooperation program was part of the Scholars Engagement Program for Natural Resources-Based Research and Innovation fully funded by LPS.

“The program aims at enhancing the capacity of research and young researchers at UI. As its pilot project, the first collaboration will be between UI’s Faculty of Technic and School of Engineering of UC Berkeley,” Kuncoro remarked.

LPS’ Commissioner Board Chairman Yudhi Sadewa expressed hope that through the cooperation, UI would produce excellent young researchers, who have strong international exposure and be experienced in conducting research in cutting-edge laboratories.

In addition, the program could boost research collaboration and mutual publication between UI and other top-notch institutions at the international scale.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

Tourism polytechnics should prepare tourism innovations for recovery

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology called on tourism polytechnics across Indonesia to prepare post-pandemic innovations in a bid to facilitate recovery of the tourism sector.

Director General of Vocational Education at the ministry Wikan Sakarinto expressed optimism that vocational education at tourism polytechnics would immediately improve in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

“Tourism is quickly affected by the pandemic situation and is the last to recover. However, that can be anticipated. Whatever the field is, changes must be made,” Sakarinto stated at the 6th Anniversary of the Palembang Tourism Polytechnic here on Wednesday.

Sakarinto noted that the tourism industry should immediately adapt to break that stigma.

Changes in the tourism sector must be started with its human resources first, he stressed.

To this end, Sakarinto noted that tourism polytechnics have an essential role to play in supporting the tourism industry in its transition process to the “new normal” in tourism.

“After the pandemic, the dynamics of tourism have changed because the outlook of tourists has also changed. Earlier, they liked crowds, but now, they are private. They prefer staycations,” he pointed out.

To this end, Sakarinto deems it crucial to implement the Link and Match education system by exploring the competencies required by the job market in future.

“If the pattern of tourists is not responded to by changing the curriculum, it will not fit. For that reason, we suggested all tourism polytechnics to innovate in the curriculum,” he remarked.

He expounded that currently, hard skills must be honed simultaneously with soft skills, leadership, character development, and entrepreneurship. Those aspects should be included into one curriculum, he added.

Director of the Palembang Tourism Polytechnic Zulkifli Harahap remarked that innovating in tourism had become a demand of the present time, so it is necessary to create a new scheme for the education curriculum at tourism polytechnics.

“We are discussing the new curriculum with the senate,” he stated.

According to Harahap, what they were doing had aligned with the aspirations of the Palembang Tourism Polytechnic community. Thus, he believed that they would really hone the students’ soft skills through learning by doing.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

Booster vaccination coverage reaches 37.45 million

As many as 37.45 million Indonesian citizens have received the third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force has reported.

According to data received from the task force by ANTARA here on Thursday, the number of citizens who have received the booster dose swelled by 1,397,440 on Thursday, taking the total tally to 37,458,813.

Overall, the booster dose coverage has reached 17.99 percent so far.

Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two vaccine doses, increased by 318,457 to reach 164,657,310 on Thursday.

An increase was also recorded in the number of first dose recipients. Based on the data, the number of people who received the first shot jumped by 78,179 to touch 199,191,893.

As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.

With the increase on Thursday, the first dose vaccination coverage has reached 95.64 percent of the targeted recipients, while the second dose coverage has reached 79.06 percent.

Earlier, government spokesperson for COVID-19 Handling, Wiku Adisasmito, had urged all provinces to increase their COVID-19 vaccination coverage, saying there are some provinces where second dose vaccination coverage has not reached 70 percent yet.

“The achievement of the national vaccination is quite good even though the distribution of vaccination coverage still has to be improved. Even the data shows that there are still some regions where the complete vaccine dose coverage has not yet reached the target of 70 percent,” he said.

He stressed that the public must remain alert to the possibility of COVID-19 transmission.

Each individual must have a sense of responsibility for keeping the number of COVID-19 cases under control, the spokesperson added.

Source: Antara News

Posted on

Some 400.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Indonesia

The Committee for COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery (KPC-PEN) recorded that the number of vaccine doses administered under the government’s national vaccination program has reached 400.5 million as of April 27, 2022.

“This is a great achievement, thanks to support from the community,” spokesperson for COVID-19 Vaccination at the Ministry of Health Siti Nadia Tarmizi noted in a written statement received here on Thursday.

Tarmizi expounded that the first dose vaccination coverage had reached 95.63 percent, or 199 million doses injected; the second dose vaccination has reached 79 percent, or 164.5 million doses administered; while the third or booster dose coverage has, so far, reached 17.68 percent, or 36.8 million doses administered.

The spokesperson noted that older adults aged above 60 years are prioritized for vaccinations, as they are included in the vulnerable group and at higher risk when infected by the virus.

According to data, the first dose vaccination coverage among older adults reached 17.5 million people, or 81.66 percent; the second dose vaccination reached 13.9 million people, or 64.74 percent; and the third dose vaccination coverage reached 3.7 million, or 17.22 percent.

The spokesperson emphasized the need to expedite vaccination in order to prevent virus transmission, especially among older adults. To this end, people are urged to help older adults get vaccinated.

She added that one of the government’s efforts to rev up the COVID-19 vaccine administration is by opening vaccination centers throughout the country.

“Vaccination centers can facilitate older adults to get the vaccine at the nearest location,” she said.

Tarmizi urged people that have gotten the schedule to get the vaccine dose immediately.

“Please come to all vaccination service posts or vaccination service centers. We urge families, with family members that have not been vaccinated, to encourage them to get vaccinated immediately,” she remarked.

Source: Antara News

Proudly powered by WordPress