Day: July 4, 2022

Terrorism movement is inseparable from the global geopolitical developments, National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) Head General Commissioner Boy Rafli Amar stated.

“The war between Ukraine and Russia is also related to terrorism issues,” he noted in an online discussion titled “Early Detection of Radicalism Movement Development Method” on Monday.

On one side, someone claimed that ISIS is involved in the war as mercenaries. As a result, the ongoing condition is related to the global security political map, he expounded.

Due to this, there has been an escalation of the ISIS’ movement that is related to the war between Ukraine and Russia, he stated.

In addition to this, the impact of the war between the two countries also potentially causes serious economic crisis.

“Hence, we will see how resilient Indonesia is in handling it,” he noted.

Based on several releases issued by many countries, they believed that the threat of the food and energy crisis looms large in the future, he stated.

Looking at Europe and the United States, the price of gasoline is already above two euro, or around Rp40 thousand per liter, he highlighted.

This means the ongoing war causes scarcity of oil and gas. In this condition, Indonesia will be tested in handling threats that occur in several European countries and the United states.

The food, gas, and oil crisis threat may potentially be utilized by the terrorism group to sow negative narratives, he cautioned.

“Hence, a gap within the public service can be an entryway for the development of hostility against the state,” he affirmed.

Despite this, Indonesia should be grateful, as it is still capable of maintaining the price stability of fuel oil, including of nine basic necessities, he remarked.

“On the other side of the world, there is anxiety, especially as winter draws near and gas scarcity can cause major problems,” he noted.

Source: Antara News

The government has realized Rp58.9 trillion for community protection clusters using the COVID-19 handling budget and the National Economic Recovery (PC-PEN) for the Fiscal Year 2022, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, stated.

This was part of his report submitted to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) while attending a limited meeting on the evaluation of the community activity restriction (PPKM) at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday.

“For public protection, the budget realization is already amounting to Rp58.9 trillion, or 38 percent of the ceiling,” Minister Hartarto noted in a press statement after attending the limited meeting.

The community protection cluster includes the Family Hope Program (PKH), Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) for cooking oil, Village BLT, cash assistance for street vendors, stalls, and fishermen, as well as Pre-Employment Cards aimed at maintaining the people’s purchasing power due to the pandemic and rising prices.

Specifically for the Pre-Employment Card, Hartarto remarked that the program had realized a budget of Rp5.6 trillion, which included 1.57 million beneficiary participants.

“Meanwhile, the realization for health care is Rp28 trillion, or 24 percent,” the minister noted.

He later explained that the health care cluster included patient claims, labor incentives, health tax incentives, and village funds for COVID-19. Meanwhile, for strengthening the economic recovery cluster, the budget realization has reached 17 percent. This cluster includes labor-intensive programs, tourism, food security, industrial estates, as well as support for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Indonesia has set PC-PEN for the Fiscal Year 2022 at a total of Rp455.62 trillion.

PC-PEN is one of the government’s efforts in handling the pandemic and for economic recovery, especially for a vulnerable group of people, through several programs in three main clusters.

In detail, the PC-PEN 2022 allocation is in the form of Rp178.32 trillion for the economic recovery cluster, Rp154.76 trillion for community protection, and Rp122.54 trillion for health care.

Source: Antara News

The industry and energy and mineral resources ministries are committed to improving the national green industry by prioritizing the effective and efficient use of sustainable resources.

The green industry is one of the easier issues for the two entities to resolve owing to their same goal, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita remarked.

“When we talk about industry, our mission is to develop a green industry so that these products can become green products,” he said at a press conference on a meeting between the two industries in Bogor, West Java, on Monday.

Minister Kartasasmita disclosed that his ministry will develop methods to pursue the goal, saying the effort is relevant to the strategy developed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

The ministries will push the use of rooftop solar power plants in industries so that they can support industries and help create a green industry in Indonesia, including adapting technological developments to the demands of the times.

“We must not forget that technology will always adapt to the demands of each era,” he reminded.

He then said that the government is also encouraging the use of carbon capture technology (CCS/CCUS) to check greenhouse gas emissions since there is still an abundance of coal potential in the country.

“This is one example of our efforts to encourage industries in Indonesia to become green industry, so that products produced by domestic industries can gradually become green products,” he remarked.

The minister opined that the green industry can function as the backbone for maintaining domestic products by utilizing clean energy that can be renewed more easily, which can prevent the industries from being impacted significantly by global geopolitical instability, which could, in turn, cause commodity and energy prices to skyrocket.

The industrial sector has been impacted significantly by the increase in fuel and raw materials prices considering that raw materials make up 87.25 percent of the total production costs, while fuel, electricity, and gas account for 5.87 percent.

The industrial sector truly needs to be supported by sustainable energy supply given that the sector accounts for 40 percent of the total national energy needs, he elaborated.

This makes the industrial sector the second-largest energy user after the transportation sector. In 2019, the sector consumed 389.4 million barrels of oil equivalent to coal, gas, and electricity, in addition to diesel oil and fuel oil. Of the total energy consumption, 85 percent was used as fuel, and the remaining 15 percent was used as raw material for production.

Meanwhile, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, Arifin Tasrif, said that it is important to pursue green industry development as carbon tax has begun to be implemented on a global scope.

If the switch to clean energy is not made, the carbon tax will put great pressure on national industries, Tasrif said.

“We have many sources of clean, renewable energy that we must use. We must be grateful that the country is blessed with many potential sources that we must tap into,” he added.

“Indeed, in the implementation, there are bottlenecks that we have to resolve together. We believe in coordination and communication, then from these things we can design appropriate programs,” he said.

Source: Antara News

The creative economy products’ trade balance registered a 60-percent surplus in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 despite a spike in COVID-19 cases during the period, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno noted.

“The largest export destinations were the United States of America (USA), Switzerland, and Singapore,” he stated during a working meeting with Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) on Monday.

According to data presented by the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry at the working meeting, the export value of creative economy products to the US was recorded at US$3.31 billion (Rp49.75 trillion), or 37.78 percent.

Meanwhile, the export value to Switzerland and Singapore had been recorded at US$1.09 billion (Rp16.38 trillion), or 13.19 percent, and US$384.13 million (Rp5.77 trillion), or 4.63 percent

The minister noted that in the first quarter of 2022, the exports of creative economy products grew 56.16 percent, which was better than the average national exports that increased by 35.25 percent.

Fashion products were the largest contributor to the exports, valued at around US$4.68 billion (Rp70.34 trillion), or 56.53 percent of the total export value.

Crafts emerged as the second-largest contributor to the export value, recorded at 38.05 percent, or US$3.15 billion (Rp47.35 trillion).

“The value add of the creative economy (sector) had increased gradually but significantly, as it reached Rp1,191 trillion (US$79.2 billion) in 2021. Meanwhile, it is targeted to reach Rp1,236 trillion (US$82.2 billion) in 2022 and Rp1,279 trillion in 2023 (US$85.09 billion),” Uno revealed.

Furthermore, he stated that since the start of 2022 to date, around 603,358 tourists had visited Indonesia, as most of them came from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and the United States.

“The top three destinations were Bali Province, Jakarta Province, and Batam Island in Riau Islands Province,” he remarked.

The ministry has targeted foreign tourist visits to reach 1.8 million to 3.6 million in 2022 and 7.4 million in 2023.

Meanwhile, trips by domestic tourists are targeted to reach 544 to 621 million in 2022 and 642 million in 2023.

Furthermore, the tourism foreign exchange value is estimated to reach US$0.47 billion (Rp7.06 trillion) to US$1.7 billion (Rp25.5 trillion) in 2022 and around US$6 billion (Rp90.18 trillion) in 2023.

“Regarding the contribution of the tourism industry to the national gross domestic product (GDP), it is targeted to reach 4.3 percent in 2022,” the minister added.

Source: Antara News

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has said that it is now mandatory for people visiting a crowded place or attending a crowded event to have received the COVID-19 booster vaccine.

“The COVID-19 Handling Task Force has issued a circular regulating crowded events visitors must be vaccinated with the booster vaccine,” Hartarto noted at the State Palace on Monday.

The circular refers to Circular Letter (SE) Number 22 of 2022, which came into effect on June 21, 2022.

The circular covers events attended physically by more than 1,000 people at the same specific time and location, either indoors or outdoors.

The circular states that children aged 6 to 17 years will be allowed to enter if they have obtained the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccination. Meanwhile, visitors aged 18 years and over will be allowed entry if they have received the third or booster dose of the vaccination.

“Then, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reminded the use of PeduliLindungi application in various places to be tightened,” Hartarto added.

He also highlighted that in some countries, COVID-19 cases are still relatively high and the pandemic has not ended yet.

“We will see it in the next six months. For now, 80 percent of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia are dominated by BA.4 and BA.5 variants,” he informed.

Based on data from the COVID-19 Task Force, as of July 3, 2022, the total number of confirmed positive cases in Indonesia has increased by 1,614, bringing the total tally to 6,093,917. Meanwhile, the number of active cases has reached 16,919.

Meanwhile, the number of patients who have recovered from the virus has increased by 1,606, bringing the total to 5,920,249. The number of deaths has increased by 4 to reach 156,749. The pandemic broke out in Indonesia in March 2020.

As for vaccinations, the government has provided the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination to 201,565,306 people, the second dose to 169,117,557 people, and the third dose or booster vaccine to 50,916,428 people, thus, the booster coverage has only reached 24.5 percent of the targeted recipients.

Source: Antara News