Day: July 29, 2022

Chair of B20 Indonesia Shinta Widjaja Kamdani stated that her administration encouraged discussion of the priority agenda during the B20 presidency in November through meeting with Japanese business players and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).

“We offer the opportunity to Japanese business players, particularly those facilitated by JETRO, to collaborate and come in the B20 Indonesia Summit that will be hosted in November 2022 in Bali. We believe that Japan has a strategic position to support B20’s theme,” Kamdani noted in an official statement on Friday.

All along, Japanese had contributed significantly to Indonesia’s economic development, particularly in electric infrastructure. Japan had built 11 thousand megawatts of electric infrastructure, which supplied 20 percent of the electricity in Indonesia.

Kamdani remarked that B20 would result in two important outcomes: creation of a carbon trade hub and B20 Wiki, a platform to improve penetration of MSMEs’ products in the global supply chain.

The recommendations readied by B20 Indonesia were based on those from the trade and investment task force; the energy, sustainability, and climate change task force; and the digitalization task force that were closely related to what was produced in 2016 during Japan’s B20 Presidency.

The B20 Indonesia chair expressed belief that trade and investment could only recover fully if there was support for fair, open, and efficient global trade as well as well-managed multilateral investment, through WTO reforms.

“Sustainability is an important issue that is being promoted during Indonesia’s B20, one of which is through the energy, sustainability and climate change task force, which we believe will be able to encourage increased global cooperation in pursuing energy transition and ensuring fair, orderly, and affordable implementation of energy transition among developing and developed countries,” she stated.

Indonesia’s cooperation with Japan was also believed to better Indonesia’s process in energy transition through the development of technology that utilized renewable energy sources, support for policy development, and human resource development, as well as the transfer of knowledge related to energy transitions and the technology used.

“Policy recommendations of the Digitalization Task Force are related to the development of adequate infrastructure, encouraging transaction security, and encouraging MSMEs to be ready in terms of digital literacy and skills as well as promoting risk-based cyber security standards,” she concluded.

Source: Antara News

The Transportation Minister is seeking to involve universities in reviewing the operational readiness of two national strategic projects: Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail (KCJB) and the Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Bekasi (Jabodebek) light rail transit (LRT).

“Zero accident must be our main principle, especially since these two projects are full of new technology. I come to invite Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to get involved as expert assistants in reviewing the readiness of the project together with consultants Crossrail International, assigned by the UK Department for Transportation,” Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said during a visit to the transportation laboratory of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering of UGM, according to a statement received here on Friday.

He informed that his ministry wants the two projects to have good construction, excellent service, and safety standards once they are operationalized.

It is hoped that in the future, the two projects will have the same quality as the Shinkansen high-speed trains operating in Japan, the minister said.

In addition, Sumadi called for an increase in the domestic content level (TKDN) in transportation infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of UGM, Selo, expressed gratitude for the Ministry of Transportation’s step to involve the university in the transportation infrastructure development project.

According to Selo, this is an opportunity to contribute to the development of transportation infrastructure, especially technology, in the railway sector.

“Thank you for the opportunity given by the Ministry of Transportation in the railway’s sector. This is an extraordinary opportunity for us to contribute to building technological independence,” he remarked.

He said he hopes that this involvement will become an opportunity for Indonesia to reduce its dependence on foreign technology.

“This is also an opportunity for us to master the technology. We can cut our dependency on foreign technology in the future. We could finally have an independent decision in our own projects,” he added.

“This is an opportunity for us to master little by little, even though we are just integrating, it is an opportunity for us to master, at least we are not dependent on certain vendors so that we have the discretion to choose; this is an independent decision,” he said.

Secretary of the Directorate General of Railways, Zulmafendi; director of railway traffic and transportation, Mohamad Risal Wasal; representatives from PT KAI, PT LEN, PT INKA, PT Adhi Karya; and a number of related officials accompanied the minister during the visit.

Source: Antara News

The Central Kalimantan government has urged small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to penetrate new export markets, particularly in nontraditional countries, or countries that have the prospects and potential to be new markets for domestic products.

Assistant of economic affairs and development at the Central Kalimantan Regional Secretariat, Leonard S. Ampung, said that the regional government is disseminating information about exports to nontraditional countries.

It is conducting the effort through one of its offices, the Trade and Industry Office, Ampung informed in Palangka Raya on Friday.

“This is as one of the efforts to (conduct) national economic recovery, and Indonesia, including Central Kalimantan, is a manufacturer of many highly valuable products,” he said.

Thus, it has become necessary to make efforts to expand to new markets in places other than the countries that already have a trade partnership with Indonesia.

According to data on Central Kalimantan’s foreign trade, coal and mineral have ranked the highest, along with crude palm oil and its derivatives, as the top export products in the past five years, Ampung said.

Each year, Central Kalimantan has made a significant positive contribution to the country in terms of foreign exchange generation. This is evident from Central Kalimantan’s foreign trade records, which have reflected a surplus of US$1.5 billion in the past five years.

Head of the Central Kalimantan Trade and Industry Office, Aster Bonawaty, said that the nontraditional countries in question include Middle Eastern countries, or even, countries in Africa.

“So, information dissemination about nontraditional countries will be (pushed towards) SMEs in Central Kalimantan whose products are export-oriented so that market development can be done (in the best way possible),” she informed.

She said that besides natural resource products, such as coal and minerals, CPO and its derivatives, the office is also promoting the development and improvement of other products, such as chopsticks and agarwood, among others, in order to enable their exports.

Source: Antara News

It is vital to formulate programs and strategies to strengthen human resource development by improving the quality of living and education to maximize the demographic bonus, the National Research and Innovation Research Agency (BRIN) has said.

The demographic bonus will end in 2045, when the proportion of the productive population will be smaller than the non-productive population, BRIN head Laksana Tri Handoko noted during the “Utilizing Demographic Bonus in Fulfilling Development and Developing the Nation” webinar on Friday.

This means that the country has to implement various programs and strategies to anticipate future changes in the population structure, he said.

Indonesia is facing the challenge of improving the quality of the productive age population in order to reap a bonus in national development while the productive age population is still larger compared to the non-productive population.

The quality of the population refers to the Human Development Index (HDI), which encompasses education, health, and income or economy.

The index needs to be the foundation for programs and strategies to bolster the quality of human resources from the bonus demographic.

One aspect of quality that can be improved is social protection insurance, which can be bolstered by strengthening easily accessible health services.

The strategies to achieve this include using the life cycle approach that starts from the first one thousand days of life to the elderly stage.

In the 2015–2045 period, the population aged 7–18 years, namely elementary and middle school students, will continue to increase.

The same will be the case with the population aged 19–23 years, or those who are pursuing a university education.

Thus, it must be ensured that the population in these age ranges receives quality education services, while upholding the principle of egalitarian access to quality education for all, Handoko said.

He also highlighted the importance of creating human development programs through literacy dissemination starting from families, educational institutions, as well as the general public.

He said he expects the webinar to serve as a platform for all parties to understand the issue and seek solutions to the problem, including by formulating accurate policies related to the demographic bonus.

Source: Antara News

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin believes that the consequences of climate change, such as global warming, could not be separated from mankind’s unlawful interaction with nature.

“The negative impact of climate change, such as global warming, cannot be separated from mankind’s own doing, who is negligent in interactions with the nature or environment,” the vice president stated during a Muslim Congress for Everlasting Indonesia, on Friday.

The vice president said that environment and climate change had become important issues at the local, national, or global scopes. Hence, everyone is required to participate in the efforts to address the impacts of climate change.

He said that environmental destruction could be seen anywhere and everywhere, with its impacts being real, from the local to global scope.

Environmental damage also got worse with the increase in incidents of hydrometeorological disasters, such as floods, landslides, and droughts.

“Data from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency in 2021 showed that 99.5 percent of the disasters in Indonesia are hydrometeorological in nature,” he stated.

The vice president highlighted the commitment of Indonesia and other countries to pursue efforts to reduce carbon emissions through the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 2019 Roadmap and long-term strategy pertaining to low carbon, climate sustainability-oriented development of 2050.

“Indonesia, holding the G20 presidency in 2022, also raised the issue of climate change, with emphasis laid on the scale of business climate resilience, carbon emission reduction, and green technology,” he pointed out.

He expected that a global commitment to address the issue would bolster efforts to resolve the climate change problem.

However, the vice president believes that the government could not singlehandedly make efforts to address climate change.

“Involvement of more stakeholders, including academics, business players, mass media, and people, particularly Muslims, is deemed necessary in order to work in a collaborative manner, so that the climate change phenomenon can be anticipated well,” he affirmed.

Source: Antara News