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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said that she believes all indicators of the demand side that support the economy will improve in 2021, and not just government spending indicators.

“This year, we hope that every demand aggregate element starts to enter the positive zone. Hence, the state budget will not work alone, but together with other indicators and demand variables,” she added at the opening of the ISEI Congress XXI, held virtually here on Tuesday.

She said she is optimistic that the demand side will experience positive growth along with the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) that remained expansive at 53.5 in June 2021.

On the global scale, the manufacturing industry’s global performance has also shown an upward trend compared to last year, she noted.

“This means every nation’s economy has started to move, which will create a demand for our export and, of course, capital flow for investment,” Indrawati explained. However, the finance minister still cautioned about the spread of COVID 19. Last month, the spread of the Delta variant compelled the government to slam the emergency brakes in the form of public activity restrictions (PPKM), she said.

This resulted in the lowering of PMI to 40.1 in July 2021, based on IHS Markit’s report, she noted.

“Even so, in August (2021), we have seen that there is a reversal of direction after we face PPKM. Citizens’ mobility has started to increase, which raise consumption activities,” Indrawati remarked.

The minister said that she will continue to use the state budget to control COVID-19 and recover the economy.

This will be done by tightening the implementation of the health protocols, vaccinations, raising tracing, testing, and treatment, as well as distributing social aid to the 50.4 percent of the population that is most economically vulnerable to the pandemic’s impact, she elaborated.

“At the moment, the realization of the National Economic Recovery Program (PEN) has reached 43 percent from the budgeted Rp326 trillion. There are still four months ahead to continue its distribution,” Indrawati asserted.

Source: Antara News

The Security Maintenance Agency (Baharkam) of the Indonesian Police has captured four Vietnamese fishing boats for illegally fishing in the North Natuna Sea Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“On August 27 (2021), the Bisma 8001 patrol boat captured four Vietnamese boats,” Baharkam head, Police Commissioner General Arif Sulistyanto, disclosed in Batam on Tuesday.

The four boats, which were carrying around one ton of fish, were towed to Batuampar dock in Batam City and taken into evidence, he said. The four captains of the boats and 36 crew members were also arrested by police.

As the crime scene is within the national Exclusive Economic Zone, the investigation into the illegal fishing case would be assisted by the Directorate General of Marine and Fisheries Resources Surveillance (PSDKP), Sulistyanto informed.

“We are used to collaborating and working together. Despite different legal basis, procedures, and work scope, protecting the country remains our common duty,” he remarked. Meanwhile, director general of the PSDKP, Rear Admiral Adin Nurawaluddin, confirmed his agency’s readiness to collaborate with Baharkam to investigate illegal fishing practices within Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

“There would not be any compromise to eradicate illegal fishing practices in Indonesian waters,” Nurawaluddin stated.

Director of the Water and Air Police Corps, Police Brigadier General Yassin Kosasih, confirmed that security officers received a tip from local fishermen concerning foreign boats conducting illegal fishing in Indonesian waters.

The foreign fishing boats arrived in Indonesian waters at night and departed by dawn to evade Indonesian surveillance ships, he informed. Upon seizing the boats, police officials found they contained 39 hatches that could hold a maximum of five tons of fish, he said.

From the operation against four Vietnamese boats alone, around 2,340 tons of fish, with Rp1 billion (around US$70 million) income potential, have been saved, he added.

Source: Antara News

The Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority Board (BPOLBF) will develop four tourism development zones on 400 hectares of the Labuan Bajo Bowosie Forest, West Manggarai District, East Nusa Tenggara.

“We and the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry are mandated to develop the 400 hectares of area that will be divided into four zones as a quality tourism destination integrated with the Komodo National Park, the Labuan Bajo City tourism area, as well as other tourism destinations to improve the welfare of the community,” President Director of BPOLBF Shana Fatina stated here on Monday.

Indonesian Presidential Regulation Number 32 of 2018 has regulated the change in status and utilization of 400 hectares of the Bowosie Forest.

Several areas have been granted principle permit and development dispensation for transforming the forest area to become 135.22 hectares of other utilization areas (APL) managed by BPOLBF.

The other 264 hectares is still in the issuance process of Permitting Business Utilization of Forests for the Environmental Services Utilization (PBPH-JL).

Meanwhile, the four tourism development zones comprise cultural, leisure, wildlife, and adventure.

Various attractions and destination facilities to be established on 114.73 hectares of cultural zones comprise the cultural center; tourism research center; hotels; 360o Bajo gallery; micro, small, and medium enterprises villages; as well as other tourism supporting attractions.

Furthermore, 6.79 hectares out of the 63.59 hectares of the leisure zone will be utilized for the special resort, chapel, prayer hill, and forest hiking areas development program.

In addition, a restaurant, mini zoo, outdoor theater, and nature observation hall will be built over 10.2 hectares out of the 89.25-hectare area in the wildlife zone.

Meanwhile, hotels, glamping inns, cave tourism area, cable car transportation facilities, public green spaces, and cross-forest bicycle paths will be constructed in the 10.2 hectares of the 132.43 hectares area of the adventure zone.

Fatina noted that development of the tourism area in the production forest area aligns with the principle of environmental sustainability since the basic coefficient of the buildings and built-up areas set in the development plan are very low in each zone — 10 percent for the PBPH-JL area and 17 percent for the APL area — to continue to support the ecological function of the forest.

“In developing the tourism area, we conducted an integrated hydrogeological study and environmental impact analysis to ensure the sustainability of the 10 existing water springs, so that the development will not hinder water supply for the local community,” she stated.

“We have coordinated with experts to implement the presidential regulation with the application of the sustainable development principle to maintain environmental sustainability to offer benefits to local residents,” she noted.

Source: Antara News

The green economy, which has also turned out to be a global economic trend, plays a significant role in the new civilization that has emerged amid the pandemic, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo stated. “We must actively participate in preparing this nation for a new civilization that has emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Warjiyo stated at the online opening of the XXI ISEI Congress here on Tuesday.

The BI governor noted that the demands to realize environment-friendly economic activities are getting higher, so Indonesia must be able to respond to it and prepare itself through various structural and digital reform policies.

Such efforts would be better undertaken jointly by the central and regional governments, so that all regions in the country can boost economic activities that are increasingly environment-friendly. Apart from the green economy, Warjiyo noted that digitalization also played a significant role in that type of civilization.

“Restrictions on mobility during the pandemic have accelerated digitalization in various aspects of economic activities,” he stated.

Hence, he believes that digital learning in education is necessary to accelerate the national digital financial economy that has turned out to be a game changer during this pandemic.

Digitization also simplifies activities in the health and other sectors, as it makes them faster, easier, and more efficient.

Furthermore, the BI governor noted that inclusion was an important element in this new civilization.

Hence, he called to continually improve Indonesia’s economic and financial inclusion to reduce economic disparities between regions, business scales, and groups of people with different incomes.

“Hence, we continue to accelerate the inclusion of the economy; finance; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); and the agricultural sector, especially through clustering, entrepreneurship, increasing access to finance, and digitalization,” according to Warjiyo.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesian origin game Lokapala, which means “the world’s protector,” will also be competed during the esports exhibition at the 2020 Papua National Sports Week (PON) as a friendly match.

Lokapala: Saga of the Six Realms will be the only local game contested at the national sporting event, as it will also hold the competition for four foreign games: Free Fire, Mobile Legends, eFootball PES 2021, and PUBG Mobile.

The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mobile game was developed by Ivan Chen — the CEO of a game and digital content developer Anantarupa Studios — inspired by Indonesian regional cultures as well as historical and mythological heroes.

He remarked that the game was created through a lengthy process. “Four years ago, we had noticed that esports would shift towards mobile-based gaming. Hence, we wanted to do something to catch the trend,” he noted during a virtual press conference on August 24, 2021. However, at that time, several people still did not believe in his plan, as there was not a single gaming company that was able to make esports games in the Southeast Asian region, he remarked.

Despite a difficult journey, Chen and his team still continued their preparations for the eight-month pre-production stage in 2018.They then started the game production in 2019.

Finally, in mid-2020, they cooperated with digital entertainment content provider PT Melon Indonesia — a subsidiary of the state-owned telecommunication network and service provider PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk. — which began to develop interest in the game publishing business.

“It turned out that Lokapala received a lot of positive feedback despite our limited capability back then,” the CEO of Anantarupa Studios added.

Birth of Lokapala

Lokapala: Saga of the Six Realms became the first game published by PT Melon Indonesia.

“It was released in May 2020 amid the pandemic,” the CEO of PT Melon Indonesia Dedi Suherman stated.

Suherman noted that the company had decided to enter the game publishing business then.

Earlier, PT Melon Indonesia had focused on the game aggregation business for quite a long time by embracing various well-known games that also comprise the four games that were contested at the 2020 Papua PON esports exhibition.

Suherman admitted that entering the game publishing business was quite difficult since they had to get the Indonesian local game that was ready to be marketed.

After conducting a long hunt for the local game while rejecting the foreign ones from China and Korea, the company finally met Anantarupa Studios.

“After discussing, we assessed that the game had quite mature stories for the characters. Thus, it became the first local game with capabilities as a MOBA game. Hence, it could be competed during esports,” the CEO of PT Melon Indonesia remarked.

He further noted that after reaching an agreement, the mobile game was finally launched in the midst of the pandemic. Thus, the promotions could only be conducted through virtual esports activities.

With passage of time, Lokapala has become more mature and gotten its own community. Ahead of the 2020 Papua PON, PT Melon Indonesia was engaged in discussions with the Indonesian Esports Executive Board (PB ESI) and the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI).

“Finally, PB ESI and KONI accepted Lokapala as one of the games competed during the 2020 PON esports exhibition. We will have a special category as a friendly match,” Suherman stated.

Friendly match

Lokapala: Saga of the Six Realms became the representative icon of an Indonesian game at the 2020 Papua PON esports exhibition.

“We want to show our commitment, as we and Anantarupa Studios have been given an opportunity to present an authentic game whose intellectual property, coding, and story are originally made in Indonesia and able to be accepted in a short time,” Suherman remarked.

Suherman expressed hope that the mobile game would not only be able to entertain its players but also produce excellent esports champions and athletes, who can represent Indonesia in national and global tournaments.

Meanwhile, Lokapala being contested in the 2020 Papua PON holds its own meaning for its creator — Ivan Chen.

“The first PON held in Surakarta — which is my hometown — aimed at showing Indonesia’s sovereignty to the world despite being blockaded by the Netherlands back then,” Chen stated. The first PON was held on September 9-12, 1948, amid the enforcement of the Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia that limited Indonesia’s territory.

“Hence, the Lokapala friendly match during the 2020 Papua PON means a lot to us — especially me — as it can demonstrate to the world that Indonesia also has sovereignty over the esports game industry,” he affirmed.

In addition, he is optimistic that the Anantarupa Studios’ mobile game presence in the national multi-sports event would be a great starting point for the domestic game industry, thereby being able to encourage the birth of better work.

The friendly match of Lokapala: Saga of the Six Realms will be run in a national tournament format.

According to the 2020 Papua PON technical guidebook, registration for the friendly match has been opened from August 23 to September 3, 2021, through Garudaku.com platform.

Each team has to register five members. Thus, in order to make the process easier, they are allowed to come from different provinces.

Meanwhile, the technical meeting will be conducted on September 5, 2021, and then be followed by the qualifying round on September 6-7, 2021. The round of 8 will take place on September 13, 2021.

Later, the finalists will head to Papua to compete in the final round for a total prize of Rp200 million. It will be held on September 22-26, 2021, at the esports arena located at the cricket and hockey venue in Doyo Baru Village, Jayapura District, Papua.

Source: Antara News

The House of Representatives’ (DPR RI’s) Commission IV member, Daniel Johan, lauded the establishment of the National Food Agency (BPN) as part of the government’s efforts to address food issues in Indonesia.

“Every time my commission convenes, I always urge the government to establish a food control agency. President Joko Widodo’s recent decision to establish the National Food Agency finally addressed my concerns. Hence, I express my gratitude to the president,” Johan stated here, Tuesday.

The House member welcomed Presidential Regulation No. 66 of 2021 for establishing the National Food Agency despite pointing to the nine-year delay since the passing of Law No. 18 of 2012 on Food dictated for such agency to be formed.

Johan is optimistic that food issues in Indonesia would be addressed suitably by the National Food Agency, as the regulation delegated sufficient authority for the new body. He remarked that Article 3 of the presidential regulation detailed the function of the agency to coordinate and establish policies related to food availability and price and supply stability, among other functions.

“Article 28 of the regulation also authorises the National Food Agency to draft policies related to price stability, food distribution, and food export-import,” he noted.

Johan, who represented the National Awakening Party (PKB) in the parliament, stated that Indonesians trusted the National Food Agency to address food issues that often arose in society, such as food scarcity, sudden price hike, market overwhelmed by imported products, and overlapping food control among several government departments.

He expressed hope that the government would appoint a competent person with sufficient food control knowledge and experience to lead the BPN.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia’s digital market potential will reach US$124 billion, or some Rp1,700 trillion, by 2025.

The market is quite large since Indonesia has the maximum number of e-commerce users in Southeast Asia.

According to the Trade Ministry’s data, Indonesian e-commerce transactions had reached Rp266 trillion in 2020. Meanwhile, as of the second quarter of 2021, the figure had reached Rp186.8 trillion, an increase of 63.4 percent, from last year.

Meanwhile, the number of on-boarding micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the digital ecosystem had increased to 15.3 million, or 23.9 percent of the total MSMEs, amid the pandemic.

Deputy for small and micro enterprises (SMEs) at the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry Hanung Harimba Rachman projects the growth to cross Rp400 trillion in 2021.

Rachman revealed that small businesses will face various challenges in future in terms of the unfair business competition, cyber security, digital literacy, as well as the information and communication technology industry, which continues to be dominated by imported products.

Hence, the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry is striving to encourage MSMEs actors to enter the digital ecosystem by strengthening the capacity and competitiveness of micro, small, and medium enterprises cooperatives (KUMKM) through the provision of collaboration networks as well as free business incubation and e-learning platforms, Rachman stated.

The ministry is also preparing SMESCO — a brand of the ministry’s Cooperatives and SMEs Marketing Service Agency — as a Center of Excellence for SMEs by providing an exploration and research laboratory for future small enterprises at SMESCO Labo, product curations at Sparc Trade, export assistance at BNI Xpora, business fostering companions at Sparc Campus, and collaboration with various MSME companion associations, he noted.

In addition, SMESCO is providing logistics support innovations through fulfillment centers (consolidation of the logistics processing of MSMEs products), factory sharing, cloud kitchens, as well as SMESCO’s drop-shipping business platform Siren.id, he remarked.

Meanwhile, SMESCO Indonesia’s president director, Leonard Theosabrata, stated that it had mapped the growth of various digital platforms comprising e-commerce, ride hailing, and digital payments in Indonesia.

Those platforms have helped Indonesia become a country with the largest and fastest digital economy in the ASEAN in the past two years, he added.

Furthermore, SMESCO has fulfilled the five pillars of the microeconomic recovery acceleration approach through digital platforms that manage to reach customers, suppliers, back offices, data analytics, and logistics support, he noted.

30 million MSMEs

The government will persuade more than the targeted 30 million Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to join digital trade by 2023, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi stated.

“On account of the positive developments, we are optimistic that the government’s target to encourage onboarding of 30 million MSMEs to digital platforms by the end of 2023 will be achieved,” the minister stated.

Lutfi expects this to drive performance of the trade sector and facilitate the recovery of the national economy.

In the second quarter of 2021, the national economy recorded a growth of 7.07 percent from the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, the trade sector recorded a growth of up to 9.44 percent.

E-commerce transactions during the first semester of 2021 also grew significantly by 63.4 percent, with a transaction value of Rp186.7 trillion (almost US$13 billion), and it was estimated to reach at least Rp395 trillion (over US$27 billion) by the end of 2021.

Lutfi stated that until mid-August of 2021, over 15 million, or 22 percent, of the total MSMEs nationwide had joined the digital trade.

Of the 15 million MSMEs, more than seven million MSMEs are the result of onboarding during the Gernas BBI campaign launched in May 2020, Lutfi stated.

He opined that Indonesia, as one of the largest countries globally, had the potential to become a key player in the world’s digital economy.

Indonesia’s digital economy in 2020 was valued at Rp632 trillion (almost US$44 billion) and is projected to grow eight folds by 2030 to reach up to Rp4,531 trillion (around US$314 trillion).

This can be achieved if we optimize the development of equitable telecommunications infrastructure and competent human resources as well as through comprehensive regulatory support, he remarked.

According to Lutfi, MSMEs should conduct collaboration and innovation as the main keys to accelerate digital transformation.

Collaboration is deemed necessary between all stakeholders — the government, private sector, associations, and banks — in order to succeed in creating strong, capable, and competitive national MSMEs in the global market.

The second key is innovation. National MSMEs must continue to adapt to advancements in digital technology.

The minister believes that Indonesian MSMEs can grow and contribute to the national economy if these two keys were applied, complete with support in the form of sound regulations, training, comprehensive digital transformation development, and inclusive financing.

While Indonesia has one of the fastest growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, action is needed to ensure that all Indonesians, especially the most vulnerable, can access various digital technologies and services and realize the benefits, according to a new World Bank report “Beyond Unicorns: Harnessing Digital Technologies for Inclusion in Indonesia”. Although the accelerated adoption of internet-enabled services during the pandemic is likely to boost the growth of the digital economy, the benefits of such development could be unequal, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste Satu Kahkonen pointed out.

Kahkonen highlighted the criticality of helping citizens develop the required skills to maximize digital opportunities, especially for better jobs.

At the same time, it is equally important for the government to address challenges related to regulations and the business environment to enable firms to innovate and compete effectively, she stated. For Indonesia to leverage digital technologies for greater inclusion, the new report emphasizes three policy priorities.

The first is to boost digital connectivity and universalize access to high-quality internet through efforts, such as improving clarity of regulations around the sharing of telecom infrastructure.

The second priority is to ensure that the digital economy works for all. This can be supported by better logistics and greater investment in relevant skills for the digital era.

The third priority is using digital technologies to provide better public services, improve the quality of citizen-and-state interactions, and build trust in the digital world.

Source: Antara News