Day: June 14, 2022

The Indonesian G20 Presidency, through the Forum on International Policy Levers for Sustainable Investment, has formulated supporting policies to encourage sustainable financing and investment.

“This forum aims to discuss supporting policies to encourage sustainable financing and investment,” Head of the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy Agency Febrio Nathan Kacaribu noted in a statement issued on Tuesday.

G20 is an international forum comprising 19 countries that work together to handle major issues. Indonesia is holding the presidency of the grouping this year.

The supporting policies are expected to encourage sustainable investment that backs greenhouse gas emission reduction and climate change-resilient economy transition.

The forum, held in a hybrid format from Bali, was attended by G20 members, invited guests, and international organizations, with 64 delegations participating in-person and 54 delegations participating virtually.

The discussion at the forum focused on four issues.

The first concerned effective emission pricing tool and mechanism formulation recommendations that support a low-carbon-emission-based economic transition. Canada, the European Union, and the Netherlands made presentations on the topic.

The second concerned non-price tools that support the transition to a low carbon climate. The People’s Republic of China, the United States, and South Korea made presentations on the topic.

The third covered the sustainable energy transition financing policy and ways to bridge the gap in transformative technological financing. Speakers from Argentina, Germany, and Indonesia covered the issue.

The fourth was about understanding the distributive implication of the general policy support directed at transition financing mobilization. Brazil and England made presentations on the topic, and all countries also shared their own experiences on the subject.

In addition to countries sharing their experiences and best practices, several international organizations and knowledge partners also delivered materials concerning related issues.

The core message from the forum was summarized and will serve as an input for the third meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in July in Bali.

The Indonesian G20 Presidency is committed to ensuring collective action and bringing concrete results within the Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) to reach the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement.

“The strategy for energy transition became the main key from economic transformation toward sustainable and resilient development course,” Kacaribu said.

Source: Antara News

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) expressed dissatisfaction over imported products still dominating the central government spending despite the fact that 842 products can be substituted by domestic products on the e-catalog.

“I know many ministries, institutions, and regional governments do not want to buy domestic products for various reasons. However, there are 842 domestic products in the e-catalog that can be purchased,” Jokowi noted at the opening of the 2022 Government’s National Coordination Meeting for Internal Supervision at the State Palace, Tuesday.

The head of state emphasized that the central and regional government spending must take into account three important aspects: creating added value, generating domestic economic growth, and ensuring efficiency.

The government budget, both in the state budget and regional budgets, which had been collected from tax payments and Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP), should be allocated to purchase domestic products that generate added value and boost economic growth, Jokowi stated.

“Why we purchase imported products with the state budget? The (benefits in the form of) added value and job creation go directly to foreign countries,” he pointed out.

Hence, the president urged the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) and the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) to continue to oversee the purchase of domestic products by central and regional government spending.

Meanwhile, Head of BPKP Muhammad Yusuf Ateh explained that until the first quarter of 2022, imported products still dominated the e-catalogs.

However, the condition gradually improved after Jokowi issued Presidential Instruction Number 2 of 2022 on Acceleration of Domestic Products and Micro, Small Business, and Cooperatives Product Use Intensification to support and ensure the success of the Proud of Indonesian Products National Movement (Gernas BBI) in the implementation of the Government’s Goods and Services Procurement.

“In the third week of May 2022, local products had dominated the national e-catalog, although transactions for imported products were still higher,” Ateh remarked.

Source: Antara News

The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) will hold the Indonesian electric vehicle exhibition Indonesia Electric Motor Show (IEMS) once again this year at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Senayan, here, on September 8-10, 2022.

This electric vehicle exhibition event is part of the efforts to welcome the electric vehicle era in Indonesia, which is a trend that has also globalized, including during the G20 Summit in Bali.

Through an official statement on Tuesday, the 2022 IEMS Committee Head Barman Tambunan stated that at least 30 actors, including producers in the electric vehicle industry, would participate in the event.

“(These actors) include Toyota, Hyundai, Gesits, Wuling, DFSK, several universities, PLN, and other actors that we cannot mention one by one,” he stated.

The 2022 IEMS is held with the concept of a hybrid exhibition and seminar, talk show, webinar, research information, and several other activities, such as a test drive of various electric vehicles and a visit to BRIN’s laboratory.

This exhibition is a form of support from BRIN, stakeholders, and producers of electric vehicles as well as their supporting components to drive innovation and development of electric vehicles in Indonesia, Tambunan noted.

The 2022 IEMS is expected to become a platform to conduct electric vehicle transactions and to raise Indonesians’ interest toward this type of vehicle.

BRIN has become the only agency that currently focuses on developing technology research after the integration of several research institutions, such as LIPI, BATAN, LAPAN, and BPPT.

He urged actors in the electric vehicle industry to view BRIN as not only a test laboratory but also a cooperation partner with the private sector.

“We prepare one test drive area with proper and spacious location as well as charging station test land, so that visitors can see the electric vehicle charging technology,” Tambunan noted.

Source: Antara News

The Yogyakarta city government continues to improve public services for permit issuance to ensure investment in the city is maintained in the wake of the alleged bribery case by its former mayor Haryadi Suyuti.

“We are committed to strengthening our permit service, so as not to hinder investment but to ensure that everything is in accordance with the rules,” Yogyakarta Mayor Sumadi stated in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.

Sumadi remarked that Yogyakarta remains open to investors keen to invest in the city while also ensuring that the investment climate remains normal and is not affected by the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK’s) operation over the alleged bribery case for granting apartment construction permits.

“Every day, we have a meeting to evaluate permits that have been issued. We will evaluate again. (This is) not to hinder investment,” he remarked.

In addition, he stated that applications for new permits would run according to the regulation.

“If the permit application does not comply with the regulation, then it will be returned to the applicant to fix it,” Sumadi explained.

However, the Yogyakarta city government must ensure that investors are still interested in investing in Yogyakarta since investment is an important part of the development process, he noted.

“We remain open to investors. Investors do not need to worry about investing. However they must obey the procedures and administration,” Sumadi stated.

He later remarked that KPK’s arrest operation related to the alleged bribery for a building permit in Yogyakarta was a major eye-opener and lesson for the local government.

“We must fix our system and provide the best service according to the applicable regulations and cut the likelihood of it being used by irresponsible people,” he stressed.

In addition to permit issuance, he ensured that the Yogyakarta city government will evaluate other public services to facilitate the public in terms of standards and punctuality.

Source: Antara News

It is vital for families to plan births to prevent a boom in the non-productive population, head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), Hasto Wardoyo, told ANTARA here on Monday.

“When we encounter a boom in old people (demographic), it is the explosion in baby births that must be restrained,” he said.

According to Wardoyo, population aging cannot be prevented, and several regions in Indonesia are currently transitioning to the aging population phase, such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali, East Java, and North Sulawesi.

The unstoppable boom in the elderly population has posed a serious threat to the nation’s achieving a second demographic bonus, he said.

The country needs more productive people to turn the economic wheels, he explained.

“In 2035, the present old demographic will be unproductive. With that, there will be no second demographic bonus,” Wardoyo said.

Therefore, population aging must be panned by all parties because the state of the elderly in Indonesia is different from that in developed countries, he added.

Old people in developed countries already have a high level of education, have earned enough income, and are able to save for their retirement, making them capable of providing for themselves, participating in investment activities, and even funding their children, he said.

On the contrary, most of the Indonesian elderly do not earn an income and often ask for help from their children and grandchildren, he pointed out.

Realizing this urgency, Wardoyo asked every family to plan the birth of each child so that the Human Development Index (HDI) can increase in terms of higher life expectancy, income, and education level.

Planning births through the Family Planning (KB) program can also prevent the increasing number of the unproductive population, unplanned pregnancies, and lead to the birth of healthy babies free of stunting, he remarked.

Source: Antara News

STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States and South Korea are preparing for all contingencies of North Korea’s imminent nuclear test, but President Joe Biden’s administration is facing tough questions from congressional members and analysts on the diplomatic impasse and inability to deter North Korea from further provocation.

Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin at the State Department. The two discussed a “unified and firm” response to North Korea’s unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests and nuclear threats. This year, North Korea has launched 31 ballistic missiles, smashing a previous record of 25 set in 2019.

Park said he believed North Korea has finished the preparation for the next nuclear test and now requires only a “political decision.” It would be Pyongyang’s seventh nuclear test since 2006 and its first since September 2017.

“If North Korea ventures into another nuclear test, I think it will only strengthen our deterrence and also international sanctions, and it will only isolate North Korea from the international community,” Park told reporters during his first visit to Washington as South Korea’s top diplomat.

“We are prepared to make both short- and longer-term adjustments to our military posture as appropriate,” Blinken said during a joint news conference. The top U.S. diplomat added that both countries are talking about how to “expand the scope and scale of combined military exercises” as well as “training on and around the Korean Peninsula.”

An “extended deterrence” working group between the U.S. and South Korea will be reestablished and “get up and working very soon in the weeks ahead,” said Blinken.

Diplomatic impasse

On Saturday, North Korean state media announced the appointment of Choe Son Hui as the country’s first female foreign minister and one of the highest-ranking women officials in its history. It is unclear whether Choe’s promotion indicates a wider shift in North Korea’s approach toward the U.S. and South Korea.

“We have noted the appointment of a new foreign minister in North Korea, but our approach is not predicated or dependent on specific individuals. It’s focused entirely on the policies that a given country is pursuing,” Blinken said in response to questions from VOA.

The Biden administration seeks dialogues with Pyongyang without preconditions and has reached out to North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on specific proposals, either through third parties or through private channels including personal messages from senior U.S. officials to senior DPRK officials, according to Sung Kim, U.S. Special Representative to DPRK.

North Korea has not responded nor indicated that it is interested in diplomatic talks.

“It’s time for preventive diplomacy,” said Yoon Young-kwan, South Korea’s former minister of foreign affairs and now professor emeritus at Seoul National University. He made the comment during a webinar hosted by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS.)

“I would like to recommend the Biden administration to seriously consider dispatching a special high-level (as a one-off engagement) envoy to North Korea” to “mediate the crisis situation and to begin dialogue,” Yoon added, suggesting a modification to the current approach of the Biden administration in which Sung Kim serves as both U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and as special envoy for North Korean issues.

Congressional critics

While the Biden administration underlined North Korea’s continuing expansion of “illicit nuclear weapons and missile programs” as one of the major challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region and vowed to strengthen “extended deterrence” on North Korea’s provocations, some members of Congress are skeptical about the State Department’s seriousness to prioritize its Indo-Pacific strategy.

“Despite the administration’s rhetoric, the budget requests for the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) Bureau and South and Central Asia (SCA) Bureau rank at the very bottom when … compared to the State Department’s other regional bureaus … In total, these two bureaus covering the Indo Pacific Region account for only 11% of the total foreign assistance budget,” said Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation, during a hearing June 7.

“The administration has requested less personnel and less diplomatic program funding for EAP and SCA (Bureaus) combined than it has for the European Bureau alone,” Chabot added.

Others raised concerns that nongovernmental organizations seeking to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea may not be able to under current sanctions, particularly at a time of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Whatever the regime does next, we can expect the people of North Korea to suffer under harsher conditions, as they’re further cut off from essential food and medicine,” said Democratic Rep. Andy Levin during the hearing last week.

Former U.S. officials and some experts noted that North Korea did not feature as prominently in Biden’s summit meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last month.

“Normally when we see a summit meeting between the U.S. and the South Korean president, particularly a first summit meeting, the featured item always is North Korea,” said Victor Cha, a senior vice president and Korea chair at CSIS who led negotiations with North Korea under former President George W. Bush’s administration.

“President Biden arrived in Korea, and the first place he went was not the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas) or not the intense discussions on North Korea but went to the Samsung plant in Pyeongtaek,” Cha said in a recent CSIS webinar.

Some analysts said the U.S. is running out of options.

“Sanctions so far have not changed the North’s (North Korea’s) policies and aren’t likely to have any greater impact now,” Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told VOA’s Korean Service.

Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, “Now it appears we’re about to enter a fraught period, and U.S. options are limited at best.”

Source: Voice of America

India is considering wheat exports to Bangladesh, and four other nations — Indonesia, Oman, UAE, and Yemen.

Following the export ban May 13, India has received requests from the mentioned countries, and the government is considering to export the crop to the countries, reports Mint.

“Following the ban India has received requests from Indonesia, Oman, UAE, Bangladesh and Yemen. The government is evaluating their wheat requirements and availability of wheat with us,” a government official told the Indian financial daily.

India kept the government-to-government (G2G) supplies open for its neighbouring countries and others who may be facing a food security threat.

Several trade experts speculated Bangladesh would be seeking more wheat imports from India as it currently imports nearly half of the total wheat exported by India and is also a buyer of wheat from Ukraine and Russia.

Bangladesh imported wheat worth $1.8 billion from Russia and $610.80 million from Ukraine in 2020, the Mint reported.

As per the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), India exported around $1 billion worth of wheat to Bangladesh in 2021-22.

Source: TREND News Agency