Day: December 5, 2022

The head of Jakarta’s Seribu Islands Administrative District, Junaedi, has asked that islands reclaimed under the Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) II urban development project be included in the district.

“Otherwise, no matter how many district heads will manage the 21-year-old Seribu Islands (in the future), there would be no significant development,” he said at Jakarta City Hall on Monday.

The inclusion of the PIK II area will bolster economic and political development in the district, he added.

The islands reclaimed for PIK II’s development fulfill all the prerequisites for inclusion in the district, he said, though he did not disclose what the prerequisites are.

The administrative district authority had forwarded its proposal for PIK II’s inclusion in the district to Jakarta acting governor Heru Budi Hartono in a letter, he informed.

“The acting governor responded (by saying) that there is indeed an urgent need to achieve equitable development (for Seribu Islands),” Junaedi said.

Accelerating economic growth in the district would bolster efforts to develop the Seribu Islands as part of the National Strategic Tourism Area (KPSN), he added.

Besides creating new jobs for residents and having a multiplier effect on the regional economy, tourism development in the Seribu Islands would also increase the district’s and the province’s original regional revenues, the district head noted.

According to Junaedi, after its separation from the North Jakarta Administrative City 21 years ago, the administrative district has been successful in fulfilling the basic needs of its people.

However, the current development stage is not sufficient for the region despite its inclusion in KPSN, he added.

Moreover, the inclusion of the PIK II area in the district would enhance Seribu Islands’ tourism image and motivate residents to continue to work for their home district.

“We must develop a tourism concept for the Seribu Islands that has been designated as KSPN. The concept must be similar to Bali because if Bali could (develop their tourism), we can also do it,” Junaedi remarked.

 

Source: Antara News

The Industry Ministry is collaborating with an experienced shoe brand to revive the Cibaduyut shoe industry center in Bandung city, West Java.

Director General of Small, Medium, and Multifarious Industries (IKMA) at the ministry, Reni Yanita, said that the collaboration with the Adorable Project brand, which focuses on footwear, is expected to help Cibaduyut businesses flourish with the help of new, up-to-date innovations.

“We will do it together, collaborate to boost again, grow the Cibaduyut footwear SMEs like it was in the 90s,” Yanita remarked in Bandung, West Java, on Monday.

She informed that the brand is collaborating with 10 small and medium shoe enterprises in Cibaduyut. Later, they would gain some experience in running a business in the current era of technology, she said.

This is because, in order to develop in the current times, footwear SMEs cannot solely rely on offline sales with conservative product appearance and product packaging.

“So, digital transformation and innovation are important given the rapidly developing industry capabilities and consumer needs, which have a significant impact on industrial business processes, including in the footwear industry sector,” she explained.

She said that the footwear industry is one of the industrial sectors with local and global market potential, which must be seized by creating footwear products domestically.

She cited data from the World Footwear Yearbook 2022 to support the claim. According to the data, Indonesia was the fourth-largest consumer of footwear products in the world with a total consumption of 806 million pairs of shoes, or 3.8 percent of the global consumption of footwear products, in 2021.

Indonesia was also the third-largest footwear exporter in the world after China and Vietnam in 2021, with exports of Indonesian footwear products reaching 427 million pairs, or 3.3 percent of the total footwear products exported worldwide, she noted.

Thus, a domestic shoe products revival needs to consider or anticipate the global economic slowdown predicted for 2023. She said that with a population of 270 million, the domestic market can help buffer the impact of the global recession on the national economy.

“When the world is in recession, we don’t want lay-offs; we try to improve it again so that the share of the domestic market is large,” she added.

Head of the Bandung City Trade and Industry Office, Elly Wasliah, said that the Cibaduyut shoe center was on the must-visit list of tourists in the 90s. Compared to that era, the shoe center is currently faring less well, she added.

She said she believes that the shoe center has potential for economic growth considering that the Cibaduyut business center festival hosted a while ago by the Bandung government recorded a turnover of Rp400 million.

“Besides Cibaduyut, there was also a knitting center in Binongjati; at that time, there was still the COVID-19 pandemic but the knitting center still existed, and even exported (products) to New Zealand,” Wasliah added.

 

Source: Antara News

Head of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Moeldoko, has asked the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) to develop sorghum research to produce superior seeds and seedlings for farmers.

“I ask BRIN to take this seed research issue seriously,” he said at the “Development Talk Series XII” event at the BRIN campus here on Monday.

According to him, research has a vital role in the development of Indonesia’s agriculture sector. Without strong research, agriculture will not develop, he said.

The government is currently pushing the formation of a sorghum industry ecosystem as part of food diversification efforts, he noted.

Moeldoko said that one of the obstacles to food diversification is the Indonesian people’s emphasis on rice consumption.

“Sorghum is a food that has been consumed since the time of our ancestors. Why isn’t it (the consumption) growing now? Because the ecosystem has not been built. For example, people want to plant it if there are those who want to buy it. That is why it is important for the government to start encouraging the formation of this sorghum ecosystem,” he explained.

He informed that the government is currently preparing off-takers of sorghum. For example, with the demand for animal feed reaching 10 million tons of corn, one company has been encouraged to substitute 10 percent of the feed with sorghum, thereby providing an opportunity to absorb around 1 million tons of sorghum. In this way, the presence of sorghum off-takers can, later on, create an industry, develop cultivation, and advance sorghum research.

“I express hope to BRIN and relevant stakeholders, the existing research should not stop,” he said.

He highlighted that research on sorghum, corn, and other commodities must be carried out in collaboration with the actors in the field.

“The research result must be applied and then evaluated. Thus, research efforts do not stop, and agricultural seeds will always be superior from time to time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the development policy deputy at BRIN, Mego Pinandito, said that research institutions and the academic community are committed to supporting government programs for realizing food self-sufficiency and sustainable food production.

“We need to strengthen cooperation between ministries/institutions to strengthen technological research and innovation to jointly cooperate with the government, private parties, industries, universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the community to strengthen the direction of development toward the development of agriculture and food sovereignty,” Pinandito added.

 

Source: Antara News

Indonesia has been appointed the leading country along with Thailand for developing the “ASEAN Competence Standard for MICE & Event Professionals” as agreed upon under the ASEAN Mutual Recognition of Tourism Professionals (MRA-TP).

ASEAN MRA-TP’s function is to support the mobility of professional manpower in the tourism sector in ASEAN, resources and institutional affairs’ deputy at the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, Diah Martini Mohamad Paham, said.

“We know that we are currently within AEC (ASEAN Economic Community), wherein there is a collective ASEAN MRA-TP agreement between AMS (ASEAN Member States),” she noted during the “ASEAN MICE Toolboxes National Convention” here on Monday.

“The goal is to create ASEAN member countries’ mutual recognition in applying professional manpower competence standards in tourism and mobilize manpower exchange among ASM,” she informed.

Indonesia is considered to have the privilege of the early development of work standards in ASEAN through the adoption of domestic work standards, she informed.

However, it needs to catch up in terms of tourism human resources so that it does not become a spectator within its own country.

To this end, collaboration between pentahelix stakeholders is important. There must be a regulatory alignment within the education, vocation, and training worlds, she noted.

The curriculum needs to be prepared so that the human resources that Indonesia produces are ready to enter a work environment that is already one level up, she said.

There should also be a harmonization of the industry world, associations, and practitioners so that everyone is connected and Indonesia is ready to compete in ASEAN’s labor market, she added.

In line with the 4 AS work ethic (hard work, smart work, complete work, and sincere work) promoted by the Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno, Paham said she believes that Indonesian tourism human resources can compete and even enter international markets.

This focus aligns with other work ethic principles such as innovation, adaptation, and collaboration, as well as work strategies that emphasize quality and sustainable tourism and optimize digitalization.

The National Convention’s outcomes will be presented at the ASEAN Tourism Professional Monitoring Committee Meeting (ATPMC) in Cambodia on December 6–8, 2022, she informed.

“We certainly expect that the collectively agreed upon documents will not just be documents, but can also be implemented and be beneficial for the industry’s need in the future,” she said.

 

Source: Antara News