Day: March 7, 2023

Central Java (ANTARA) – The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry isof the total fuel-powered motorcycles that are currently circulating in Indonesia into batteryelectric vehicles (BEVs) by 2030.”It is expected to achieve government’s fuel (cost) saving of Rp3 trillion per year,” Energy and Mineral Resources Minister’s expert staff for electricity, Sripeni Inten Cahyani, said here on Tuesday.

She made the statement at the “National Seminar on the 100th Anniversary of the National Automotive Industry,” which was themed “Acceleration of Battery Industry and Ecosystem Towards the Acceleration of the Popularization of Electrification in Indonesia.”

She said that the target would also have other economic effects from the economic cycle of spending on components for the BEV conversion and workshop services.

To this end, a BEV ecosystem is needed to support the massive use of BEVs.

One of the main components of BEVs is their battery, she said. The strengthening of the battery industry’s upstream and downstream supply chain and economies of scale are key to ensuring the availability of affordable domestic batteries.

The policy on the mandatory use of BEVs, both new BEVs and converted BEVs, is expected to be viewed as a positive signal by business players to expedite the development of the BEV industry and the supply chain of BEV components in Indonesia.

ccording to her, Indonesia has strong competitiveness because the country has the largest nickel reserves in the world. Indonesia also has other essential battery materials, such as aluminum, copper, manganese, and cobalt.

“It needs the support of financing and technology facilities as well as support for infrastructure access to develop the mineral processing industry, which supports the national battery industry,” she added.

She further said that the nickel processing industry in the BEV program could provide significant added value, for instance, by opening jobs for 628 workers per gigawatt-hour (GWh) battery production.

The central and regional governments’ pilot projects, including the mandatory BEV use policy for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), are expected to initiate the development of investment for electric vehicle business players as well as providers of infrastructure, component supply chains, and supporting services.

Source: Antara News Agency

Jakarta (ANTARA) – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has instructed ministers to extensively pursue investment in coal-to-dimethyl ether (DME) downstreaming, Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said on Tuesday.The minister informed that the head of state gave the instructions during a meeting at the Presidential Palace the same day.

“Mr. President has instructed us to pursue it. This is part of the optimization of low-calorie coal to become DME, which we will use,” the minister said following the meeting.

He explained that the efforts for such downstreaming were a part of measures to reduce the dependency on imported products, specifically in terms of meeting the liquified petroleum gas (LPG) demand.

“Because we still import about six to seven million tons annually. And slowly, we will reduce the import rate by substituting (LPG with) DME,” Lahadalia added.

The meeting on Tuesday discussed the recent developments in the coal-to-DME downstreaming project carried out by PT Bukit Asam, PT Pertamina, and Air Products and Chemicals in Muara Enim district in South Sumatra, he informed.

ccording to Minister Lahadalia, currently, a presidential regulation is being prepared, which he believes would be completed in the near future.

“There are only calculations about carbon that are still unclear, so it will be finished soon,” he said.

On January 24, 2022, President Jokowi announced that the project for the development of coal-to-DME downstreaming in Muara Enim, South Sumatra, had officially started.

t that time, he had stressed that once the project concludes and DME is adopted as an energy source, the allocation for LPG subsidy can be reduced and some Rp60 trillion to Rp70 trillion (up to US$4.5 billion) of the state budget can be saved.

Domestic demand for LPG is valued at Rp100 trillion (US$6.5 billion). Of that, Rp80 trillion (US$5.2 billion) worth of LPG is imported.

Source: Antara News Agency

Jakarta (ANTARA) – State-run electricity provider PT PLN has informed that it is focusing on setting up public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations (SPKLUs) and providing home-charging services to ensure the availability of EV infrastructure for the community.”Apart from SPKLUs, (we) are also focusing on the construction of home charging in cooperation with electric vehicle producers,” PLN’sDirector of Project and New and Renewable EnergyManagementWiluyo Kusdwiharto said here on Tuesday.

PLN is committed to accelerating the construction of supporting infrastructure for the EV ecosystem in Indonesia, in line with the government’s plan to provide incentives for the purchase of EVs, he added.

PLN will increase the number of SPKLUs in strategic places, such as office buildings, malls, transport nodes, rest areas, and toll roads.

It has already compiled data on regions that have witnessed an increase in the population of EVs so that infrastructure development in the future can be focused on those regions.

Regarding the home-charging services, people mainly charge their electric vehicles at home at night so that the vehicles can be used the next day, he noted.

Therefore, PLN is cooperatingwith EV producers in Indonesia to provide home-charging services.

“When people buy (electric) cars, they automatically get home charging through the cooperation between electric vehicle producers or trademark agents (APM) and PLN. Thus, the system is bundling,” he said.

Based on PLN data, as of the end of 2022, it has installed 570 SPKLUs across Indonesia. The charging stations offer three types of charging services, namely, medium charging, fast charging, and ultra-fast charging.

PLN is intensively constructing SPKLUs to ensure the availability of EV charging infrastructure so that the Indonesian people do not hesitate to shift to EVs, which are more environmentally friendly.

Source: Antara News Agency

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia, as among the 54 member countries of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR), remains committed to actively contributing to improving quality and standards of financial audits globally, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani stated.To this end, she expressed optimism that the IFIAR Inspection Workshop 2023 scheduled to be held in Bali on March 7-9, 2023, would bolster awareness of the importance of improving the quality of supervision in the audit industry.

“Improving the quality of supervision is not only important in the field of policy formulation but also important in the field of inspection and law enforcement,” Sri Mulyani, who participated virtually in the 2023 IFIAR Inspection Workshop, said as quoted from an official statement received in Jakarta, Tuesday.

IFIAR is an international organization that includes regulators in the field of auditing from various countries to protect the interests of the public and investors by increasing audit supervision globally. In this case, Indonesia is represented by the Financial Professional Development Center (PPPK) of the Secretariat General of the Ministry of Finance.

s an annual activity, the IFIAR Inspection Workshop aims to facilitate participants to share practical experiences regarding audit guidance and supervision between IFIAR member countries. Indonesia, through the Ministry of Finance, will share regulatory and supervisory practices of public accountants with other regulators, who are members of IFIAR and vice versa.

Through various working groups and a series of IFIAR activities, the Minister of Finance is optimistic that member countries would hold intensive discussions with one another to discuss current issues related to audit supervision. A quality audit is an effort to increase public trust and transparency in financial reports that can then be used to make economic decisions.

Transparency of financial reports is one of the elements in supporting the resilience of the financial sector in maintaining economic stability. In Indonesia, the Ministry of Finance established PPPK as a supervisory body to ensure the reliability of audited financial reports.

However, shesaid, cooperation and collaboration from various parties are deemed necessary to promote the importance of transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior in the financial sector to protect the interests of investors and maintain economic sustainability.

In addition, to emphasize the importance of the role of public accountants as an integral part of the financial industry sector to maintain credibility and sustainability, this year, the government has enacted the Financial Sector Development and Strengthening Act (P2SK).

Through the P2SK Law, the Ministry of Finance, along with Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK), will strengthen the regulatory function, especially from the audit and guarantee industry, Sri Mulyani said, adding that this step is important in maintaining the stability and integrity of the financial sector in Indonesia.

Moreover, the issue of climate change is also one of the challenges for which the auditor is expected to participate in to address it by not only setting global climate-related disclosure standards but also increasing the responsibility for sustainable disclosure of information by companies and helping investors avoid fraudulent disclosure through the application of the principles of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG).

s discussed at the 2023 IFIAR Inspection Workshop on ESG, the transparent disclosure of ESG information can help users consider whether the information is comparable to other companies and is consistent with information earlier disclosed by companies.

Thus, this information can also encourage investors to assess the social environment impact of their investments so as to facilitate corporate incentive schemes.

Source: Antara News Agency

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The government will allocate Rp250 billion (around US$16.24 million) for improving the quality of human resources (HR) in pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) this year.The funds will be prepared through the Pesantren Endowment Fund sourced from the Education Endowment Fund.

The allocation was discussed at a coordination meeting on the acceleration of Pesantren Endowment Fund utilization between the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Education Fund Management Institution (LPDP) of the Finance Ministry here on Tuesday.

“The pesantren community has been waiting for when the Pesantren Endowment Fund will be realized,” secretary general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Nizar Ali, said here on Tuesday.

ccording to Ali, the endowment fund is a mandate of Law Number 18 of 2019 on Pesantren and Presidential Regulation Number 82 of 2021 on funding for pesantren management.

Meanwhile, director general of Islamic education at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Muhammad Ali Ramdhani, informed that the 2023 Pesantren Endowment Fund will be fully allocated for degree and non-degree scholarships for the pesantren community.

The scholarships will cover the bachelor’s degree program, master’s degree program, and doctoral degree program, both within the country and overseas.

Ramdhani emphasized that the Pesantren Endowment Fund is sourced from the Education Endowment Fund and therefore, it is only to be used for educational purposes.

The endowment fund cannot be used for other purposes, such as dakwah (Islamic preaching) and community empowerment, which are pesantrens’ other functions besides education.

“(The use of the fund) Even for implementation or management support is not allowed because that is just how the regulation is,” he said.

The director of scholarships at LPDP, Dwi Sularso, welcomed and expressed support for the acceleration of the utilization of the endowment fund.

Teams from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and LPDP will discuss the technical steps, especially the necessary documentation, so that scholarships for the pesantren community can be opened soon in 2023.

Source: Antara News Agency

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Minister of National Planning and Development (Bappenas) Suharso Monoarfa stated that the preparation of the National Long-Term Development Plan for 2025-2045 considered three main issues in national development.The first area of concern is that Indonesia has been stuck in the middle-income trap for 30 years.

“In addition, Indonesia’s economic development still relies on the extractive sector, with a low level of productivity and complexity and tends to decline. This shows the urgency of economic transformation,” he stated at the Coordination Meeting of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), as quoted from the official BPK website, Jakarta, Tuesday.

The second issue is that social development is still lagging behind, as is reflected in several aspects, comprising the slow decline in poverty rate, social protection that is still fragmented, disparities in participation and quality of education, and the low status and capacity of the health system.

“This shows the urgency of conducting social transformation,” Monoarfa stated.

baca-jugaRelated news: Indonesia to achieve high-income country status in 22 years: Monoarfa

The last issue is that government bureaucracy and public institutions have not been effective, the condition of hyper regulation is accompanied by low-quality regulations, as well as supervision and accountability for development implementation that is a reflection of the condition of governance that has not been optimal.

“This shows the urgency of carrying out governance transformation, and the need for quality and useful state financial governance support to achieve state goals,” the Bappenas minister stated.

Based on the consideration of existing issues, his side expects BPK to support the translation of planning documents into sectoral and regional derivative planning documents, so that budget allocations are consistent with development priorities.

“BPK can be the spearhead in maintaining the quality of development implementation governance, including the management of state finances. BPK’s crucial role will be the key to realizing quality development planning and implementation,” he stated.

Source: Antara News Agency