Category: Miscellaneous

– The Ministry of Transportation has allowed airlines to adjust ticket prices, including by adding fuel surcharges, following an increase in oil and jet fuel prices.

“This provision (allowing airlines to revise ticket prices) was made after coordinating with relevant stakeholders such as airlines, aviation associations, aviation practitioners, YLKI (the Indonesian Consumers Foundation), and other related aviation experts,” Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati informed here on Tuesday.

She said the provision was put in place to maintain the sustainability of airline operations and ensure that connectivity between Indonesian regions is not disrupted.

This provision is stated in Ministerial Decree No. 68 of 2022 concerning Additional Costs for Economy Class Fares of Scheduled Domestic Commercial Air Transport Services, which came into force on April 18, 2022.

Irawati explained that the increase in global jet fuel prices has greatly affected the cost of flight operations.

According to her, if the price increases and affects flight operation costs by up to 10 percent or more, then the government can allow airlines to set additional costs, such as fuel surcharges.

“This provision has also been applied in other countries, one of which is the Philippines,” she said.

However, the provision is non-binding, she added, meaning, airlines can choose to apply the additional costs in the form of fuel surcharges or not.

The provision will be evaluated every three months, or upon significant changes in flight operation costs, she explained.

“Supervision will be carried out by the Ministry of Transportation through the Directorate General of Air Transportation, and will be evaluated in accordance with the dynamics of world prices,” she said.

Jet aircraft can now apply a maximum of 10 percent of the upper tariff limit, according to each air transport enterprise. Meanwhile, propeller aircraft can apply a maximum of 20 percent of the tariff limit.

Source: Antara News

– The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is encouraging the establishment of solar power plants (PLTS) to accelerate the achievement of the domestic New Renewable Energy (EBT) mix target of 23 percent by 2025.

“We must achieve our target because the contribution of new and renewable energy in the national primary energy mix in 2021 had only reached 11.7 percent. Therefore, we need a strategy to accelerate the achievement of new renewable energy targets, including prioritizing the development of solar energy,” secretary general of the ministry, Ego Syahrial, said at the 2022 Indonesia Solar Summit in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The ministry has projected that Indonesia’s solar energy potential accounts for more than 3,200 gigawatts (GW), or 89 percent of the total renewable energy potential in the country.

One of the efforts made by the government to meet the EBT target is the formulation of a Business Plan for Electricity Provision (RUPTL) for 2021–2030. The business plan, made by PT PLN, will put the portion of new and renewable energy at 20.9 GW in 2030, with a total additional solar energy capacity of 4.68 GW. Syahrial explained that Indonesia’s energy transition road map also targets net-zero emissions by 2060. Solar energy will play an important role in supplying electrical energy, with more than 60 percent of new and renewable energy expected to come from solar energy.

“The government has had three major solar energy programs, namely rooftop PLTS with a target of 3.61 GW by 2026, large-scale ground-mounted PLTS, and floating PLTS at 270 locations with a potential of around 27 GW,” he informed.

Indonesia also has a great opportunity to export electricity generated from solar energy to several ASEAN member countries, including Singapore.

Syahrial said that implementing these programs requires contributions from many parties, not only the government or the business sector, but also energy consumers, such as the commercial and industrial sectors.

He also said that rooftop PLTS is a quick way to utilize solar energy through direct contributions from energy consumers, especially for the industry to meet the strong market demand for green products.

Support from local manufacturers is also needed to fulfill the level of domestic component (TKDN) requirements and provide benefits for the country in the job creation sector.

“In addition, the aspect of easy access to affordable financing, incentives, and other financing facilities is important to provide financial feasibility and increase new and renewable energy investments, such as PLTS,” Syahrial added.

Source: Antara News

Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, Bintang Puspayoga, has said that synergy from many parties is needed to realize gender equality in several sectors that are still dominated by men.

“It has become our responsibility to ensure all work sectors are female-friendly. In this way, let us work together to encourage gender mainstreaming efforts in the mining sector. Let us speak out the spirit of gender equality for the progress of this nation,” Puspayoga remarked in a press statement released on Tuesday.

Gender mainstreaming in the workplace is not only for the benefit of women, but is also correlated to a company’s progress, she said.

Gender mainstreaming efforts also benefit companies in the form of increased productivity, employee performance, and increased profits, the minister explained.

“The gender equality that we aspire toward has not yet been achieved. Women are still left behind in terms of accessibility and equal roles in development. They have not received the same development benefits as men. In fact, development in all sectors should prioritize the principle of equality and efforts to mainstream gender, including in the mining sector,” she added.

Women have special needs, including from the physiological perspective, such as menstruation, pregnancy, and breastfeeding, and special and specific strategies are required to accommodate these needs, Puspayoga said.

Therefore, it is important for companies to fulfill the rights based on women’s special needs, she emphasized.

“Women’s special needs in the workplace have often become obstacles for them in choosing a certain profession, especially in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, which are still considered as male jobs, such as in the mining industry. We should not label any type of work with gender,” the minister added.

Source: Antara News

The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) has started a class called ‘Class for Great Parents (Kerabat)’ to improve parents’ understanding of the first 1,000 days of an infant’s life.

“Parents and families are the main foundation in forming a good and quality child’s character,” director of family development for children under five and children at the BKKBN, Irma Ardiana, said in a written statement received here on Tuesday.

Creating quality children starts with the nurturing of infants in the first 1,000 days of their life, she added.

According to Ardiana, the class has been opened to address nutritional problems among Indonesian children, especially childhood stunting.

The Kerabat class is meant to serve as a forum for increasing the knowledge and skills of parents in nurturing and fostering children’s growth and development through physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social, and moral stimulations.

The class aims to educate parents, especially in nurturing children during the first 1,000 days of their life so that they can grow and develop optimally, have emotional, social, and physical abilities so they are ready to learn, innovate, and eventually, compete at a global level.

The class, which targets adolescents, couples contemplating marriage, pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children aged 0–59 months, is expected to provide effective services for bringing about behavior change at the family level.

Ardiana said that Kerabat is an innovation from the BKKBN and a part of efforts to prevent stunting as well as a form of appreciation for activists and parents who have joined classes and implemented the knowledge of nurturing children.

“Children are one of the main assets for a country to prepare the next generation of its nation. Children are a gift as well as a mandate from God whose growth and development must be maintained well,” she remarked.

Source: Antara News

The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has launched the ‘Pitching Independent Tourism Entrepreneurship 2022’ online activities for five Indonesian super-priority destinations.

On Tuesday, the idea-pitching event was held at Lake Toba, North Sumatra, and Bali.

The activity provided an opportunity to 44 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to introduce their products and business development plans to 41 potential investors through pitch deck presentations.

“MSME players must be able to introduce their products and development plans to investors through pitch deck presentations. Remember, this pitching can determine the moment of truth,” Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, said here on Tuesday.

During the pitching session, he explained, the work scheme offered includes access to capital such as venture capital, equity crowdfunding, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The second work scheme is access to marketing, comprising modern marketing, department stores, export aggregators, and associations/communities, he added.

“MSMEs, as national economic drivers, need to be facilitated thoroughly by the government, especially when they are able to create employment,” Uno said.

Based on data from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, the number of MSMEs has currently reached 64.19 million, with their contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) reaching 61.97 percent or Rp8,573.89 trillion.

Meanwhile, MSMEs absorb 97 percent of the total workforce and 60.4 percent of the total investment in the country, according to the ministry’s data.

The implementation of the pitching event will be divided into four sessions, with Session I covering Lake Toba and Bali. Session II will be at Mandalika in West Nusa Tenggara on April 20.

Session III on April 21 will take place at Likupang in North Sulawesi and Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara, and the last session on April 25 will be at Borobudur in Central Java.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia has cornered a 15-percent share of tuna, skipjack, and mackerel tuna production globally to emerge as the world’s largest producer of the commodities, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has said.

The increase in Indonesia’s tuna production has been even higher than the world average, director of marketing at the Directorate General of Marine and Fishery Products Competitiveness, Erwin Dwiyana, said here on Tuesday.

“Indonesia saw an increase in production of 3.66 percent on average, higher than the world average increase of 3.42 percent,” he informed.

The Philippines, as the second-largest producer, has a production share of 7.3 percent, followed by Vietnam at 6.6 percent, and Ecuador 6.1 percent. The largest tuna production in Indonesia is of skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna.

However, Dwiyana said, even though it is the largest tuna producer, Indonesia has not been able to become the world’s largest tuna exporter.

Based on the trade map data of the International Trade Center (ITC), Indonesia was ranked sixth in tuna exports with a market share of 5.33 percent in 2020.

The world’s largest tuna exporter was Thailand, with a market share of 17.73 percent, followed by China (8.45 percent), Spain (8.20 percent), Ecuador (7.98 percent), and Taiwan (5.57 percent).

During the period from January to December 2021, at least 28.8 percent of Indonesian tuna, skipjack, and mackerel tuna exports went to the European Union, 24.7 percent to ASEAN countries, 17.9 percent to Japan, 8.7 percent to the United States, and 21.6 percent to other countries.

According to Dwiyana, the low market share of Indonesian tuna was due to its low competitiveness in terms of product, price, and service.

Source: Antara News

Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo confirmed that BI would be more careful in considering policies to maintain price stability, with the need to encourage domestic economic growth.

“One of the impacts of geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine is the rising prices of global commodities, such as energy and food. Of course, it has an impact on domestic price developments,” Warjiyo noted in the announcement of April’s Board of Directors’ Meeting (RDG) results here on Tuesday.

Warjiyo also assessed the impact on prices will largely depend on the fiscal policy pursued by the government.

“What we have seen and included in our estimates is the price increase of non-subsidized goods, such as pertamax and others. From various assessments, there will be an explanation from the government and we continue to coordinate,” he noted.

To this end, he explained that the BI and government had continued to coordinate to measure how far the commodity prices increased, the extent to which the state budget will be utilized, and how far the impact on the government-regulated price, or administered price, would be.

Nevertheless, Warjiyo expects the impact of the soaring administered price to be lower as compared to normal conditions, as the output gap is still negative.

He said in that way, BI’s monetary policy response will be calibrated, planned, and communicated well if there is an increase in the core inflation rate.

According to Warjiyo, the monetary policy response could be an increase in the Minimum Mandatory Current Account (GWM) or probably increasing the benchmark interest rate, but it will still depend heavily on the government’s policy, especially those that have implications for administered prices.

The increase in administered prices is influenced by the inflation of household fuels and gasoline due to the price adjustment of non-subsidized LPG and fuel (BBM) as well as air freight/transportation prices in line with the increasing public mobility.

Source: Antara News

The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) has said that it is necessary for people to increase compliance with traffic rules and create a good driving culture to reduce the rate of accidents during Eid exodus this year.

“A number of traffic accidents occurring over the last few weeks are very concerning, (they have been) often caused by the negligence of the drivers themselves. Efforts to improve the discipline of road users must continue to be conducted,” deputy speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly Lestari Moerdijat said in a written statement received here on Tuesday.

She made the remark in relation to the Transportation Ministry’s data, which showed an increase in traffic accidents from 2020 to 2021, leading to losses of up to Rp246 billion.

Moerdijat said that not only material losses, the accidents also cost people’s lives, as reflected by data from the Directorate General of Land Transportation of the Transportation Ministry in March 2022. There were as many as 100,028 traffic accidents in 2020, with the number of fatalities or deaths reaching 23 thousand.

The figure increased in 2021, with 103,645 accidents claiming 25,266 lives, she pointed out. The number of accidents increased by 3 thousand and fatalities by 2,000, she said.

Traffic accidents are inseparable from extreme climate and weather conditions as well as a number of factors that affect road safety, including traffic culture, driver competence, comprehension of regulations, and conditions of land transportation facilities and infrastructure, she opined.

Some of these contributing factors must be controlled through efforts to educate people, given that around 85 million people will participate in the Eid exodus this year using various means of transportation, she said.

Adherence to traffic rules and orientation toward safety must be applied to every trip for it to become a culture, she added.

Wearing seat belts and obeying speed limits on freeways are part of traffic discipline, Moerdijat said.

She reminded people to obey traffic regulations in the form of policies or traffic signs on the highway for the sake of everyone’s safety.

In the midst of preparing to regulate the flow of homecoming travel, travelers must be educated to build awareness and compliance with traffic regulations.

This is because many regulations would be in vain if people do not obey them, she said.

Moerdijat called for everyone’s collective support–not just central or regional governments–in implementing this year’s Eid exodus policies and ensuring they are implemented and followed well.

Source: Antara News