Jakarta Indonesia’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rising to 39.1 in June demonstrates that the government’s policy for economic recovery was on the right track, particularly for the national industry, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita stated.

“The most important aspect pertaining to the increased PMI in June 2020 is the rising confidence of manufacturing industry operators. This has demonstrated that the government’s policy in the new normal era has run on the right track,” Kartasasmita noted in a statement here on Saturday.

According to London-based IHS Markit, Indonesia’s Manufacturing PMI increased to 39.1 in June 2020, from 28.6 a month earlier, with business confidence soaring to the highest since January.

The future output index, benchmark, and business sentiment climbed to 73 percent in June.

“This is the highest index for the past five months, and this achievement would serve as a guideline for the government to issue policies that continue to encourage activities in the manufacturing industry in the new normal era,” the minister stated.

However, the government should take necessary precautionary measures to facilitate economic growth in the third and fourth quarter of 2020.

“These periods are important, so we have to take precautionary measures to this end. This is since it will determine the economic performance in 2021,” he stated.

Kartasasmita pointed out that the industry was the biggest contributor to the country’s gross domestic product, at 19.98 percent in the first quarter of the year.

“To maintain the manufacturing sector’s performance, the Industry Ministry has supported industries to continue operations by applying for the industry operation and mobility (IOMKI) license and adhering to the health protocols,” the minister noted.

As of July, the ministry had issued over 17 thousand IOMKI to ensure that five million workers could continue to work.

In addition to economic stimulus for reviving the industrial sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has readied various incentives for investors.

“The government has planned to establish 27 new industrial zones by 2024 across the country,” he remarked.

A new industrial zone in Batang, Central Java, will be built to facilitate investors, including those relocating their plants from China.

“Investors can benefit from the four thousand hectares of land within the PTPN IX Siluwok area,” he stated, adding that it is strategically located, with access to port, clean water, railway, and Trans-Java Toll Road.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – There is still scope for growth in the demand for food and beverage products from Indonesia in the American market amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Kasan, director general of National Export Development, Ministry of Trade.

He made the statement during an interactive discussion on ‘Strategies to Win Market Competition in American Food and Beverage Market’.

“As consumers’ attention grows toward hygienic products that are beneficial for the immune system, there need to be special strategies (implemented) in marketing products that are innovative and have high quality, in order to win the competition in the international market, including in the United States of America,” he said in a statement received here on Thursday.

Aside from maintaining product quality, he continued, other aspects that need to be focused on include accessible and secure funding programs for businesses. Exporters and importers would need funding to expand their markets, especially in the US, he noted.

“A high demand and a significant growth rate makes the American market the main export destination for food and beverage producers in various countries, which makes the market very competitive and tight,” he added.

Meanwhile, Indonesian cosmetics brand Mustika Ratu’s representative for the North American region, Julie Wahono, said the company will continue to take steps to support government policy in advancing Indonesia’s economy.

“One of which (is) through export activities and following every policy and regulation that has been set by each destination country’s government,” she stated. (INE)

Source: Antara News

Medan, N Sumatra: Indonesia’s government has pledged to help over 17 thousand tourism workers in North Sumatra currently reeling from the socio-economic impacts of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Province’s Tourism Office Head, Ria Novida Telaumbanua, stated.

“The central and provincial governments have been striving to assist business players in the tourism sector and their workers severely hit by the COVID-19 outbreak,” she informed local journalists in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province, on Tuesday.

To this end, the Ministry of Tourism/Creative Economy Agency has offered 16,100 packages of basic necessities and ready-to-eat food items for the affected tourism workers in North Sumatra, Telaumbanua remarked.

Right from the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, which initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, and since then spread all across the globe, the tourism industry was the first and hardest-hit business sector in North Sumatra, she pointed out.

Speaking in connection with the reopening of tourist destinations in the province, Telaumbanua affirmed that the North Sumatra provincial administration had left the decision on the district and city governments since they were aware of the COVID-19-related situation in their administrative areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic, undeniably a huge crisis in human history, has crippled the global economy, partly owing to travel restrictions, shutdown of business entities, disruption of supply chains, and border closures.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admitted recently to have been apprised of the global economic crisis being a real challenge, and several nations had felt its impact amid the ongoing global pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecast that this year, several countries would experience an economic contraction.

The US economy is projected to contract up to minus eight percent, while the economies of Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany are expected to decline to -5.8 percent, -10.2 percent, -12.5 percent, -12.8 percent, – 12.8 percent, and -7.5 percent, respectively.

According to the IMF, Indonesia’s growth slowed in the first quarter of 2020 to three percent year-on-year, from five percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, or -2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, mostly driven by reduced consumption and investment, as containment measures were intensified in late February.

Indonesia’s rupiah depreciated by 1.9 percent against the US dollar, while equity prices had plunged by 21 percent, up from a 40-percent decline in late March, according to IMF’s policy tracker, published on its official website.

The yield on rupiah-denominated 10-year government bonds had increased marginally by eight bps to 7.1 percent, decreasing from a 132-bps spike in late March, according to the IMF.

“What does this mean? It means that supply, demand, and production will get disrupted. We must be aware of the fact that while we are handling public health issues, we are still reeling from the other problem, that is, the economy,” President Jokowi noted.

This has prompted a call for maintaining a balance in pushing the brake and accelerator pedals in managing the public health and economic crises.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta The world’s economic recovery from the twin crises, encumbering several nations worldwide owing to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, can be achieved in 2022, Indonesia’s former tourism minister Arief Yahya stated.

“According to experts, the public health and economic problems arising from this COVID-19 pandemic would have been handled by 2022,” Yahya informed participants of a virtual seminar on Indonesia’s 2020 Brand Forum here, Tuesday.

Nearly all experts have projected global economic recovery during the post-novel coronavirus pandemic to not be fast but rather slow and gradual in nature, he noted.

Two major challenges in the path to realizing global economic recovery are finding ways to optimally handle the public health and economic issues arising from the novel coronavirus disease since they will otherwise impact the social sector, he stated.

Yahya pointed out that the impacts of the initial shock and aftershock of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy were felt in the form of layoffs and bankruptcy of several companies.

However, the spirit of nationalism has arisen amid the COVID-19 pandemic during the aftershock phase, though the enforcement of lockdowns and travel restrictions had disrupted the supplies of goods.

During the aftershock phase, several countries have gradually relaxed and revoked their restricted movement policies and begun taken precautionary measures to mitigate the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, he pointed out.

The COVID-19 vaccine would be produced and distributed on a massive scale in 2021 to address the twin crises, he noted, adding that a full recovery in the world’s economy was projected to occur in 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which is undeniably a huge crisis in human history, had crippled the global economy, partly owing to travel restrictions, shutdown of business entities, disruption of supply chains, and border closures.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admitted recently to have been apprised of the global economic crisis being a real challenge, and several nations had felt its impact amid the ongoing global pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecast that this year, several countries would experience an economic contraction.

The US economy is projected to contract up to minus eight percent, while the economies of Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany are expected to decline to -5.8 percent, -10.2 percent, -12.5 percent, -12.8 percent, – 12.8 percent, and -7.5 percent, respectively.

According to the IMF, Indonesia’s growth slowed in the first quarter of 2020 to three percent year-on-year, from five percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, or -2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, mostly driven by reduced consumption and investment as containment measures were intensified in late February.

Indonesia’s rupiah has depreciated by 1.9 percent against the US dollar, while equity prices had plunged by 21 percent, up from a 40-percent decline in late March, according to IMF’s policy tracker, published on its official website.

The yield on rupiah-denominated 10-year government bonds had increased marginally by eight bps to 7.1 percent, decreasing from a 132-bps spike in late March, according to the IMF.

“What does this mean? It means that supply, demand, and production will get disrupted. We must be aware of the fact that while we are handling public health issues, we are still reeling from the other problem, that is, the economy,” President Jokowi noted.

This has prompted a call for maintaining a balance in pushing the brake and accelerator pedals in managing the public health and economic crises.

Source: Antara News

Kendari, SE Sulawesi The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) cautioned residents of Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, of the omnipresent danger of illicit drugs since its recent study indicated 24 of the city’s 64 neighborhoods were yet prone to drug trade.

Head of the BNN-Southeast Sulawesi Office Brig. Gen. Ghiri Prawijaya delivered the warning while speaking at a meeting with the heads of sub-districts and neighborhoods in Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi Province, on Tuesday.

“A survey that we conducted this year showed that 24 neighborhoods that we choose as samples are not safe, with 16 categorized as ‘danger,’ five as ‘alert,’ and three others as ‘standby,'” he noted.

Incidents of drug dealing and misuse in the city had reached emergency proportions since those siphoned into the vicious circle of addiction transcended age, level of education, profession, social status, and gender, he affirmed.

In addressing this challenging reality, Prawijaya called on all heads of sub-districts and neighborhoods in Kendari to work closely with those from related agencies and community members to boost preventive measures to be better prepared in the fight against drugs.

Domestic and transnational drug dealers perceive Indonesia as a potential market due to its large population and millions of drug users. Drug trade in Indonesia is valued at almost Rp66 trillion.

According to BNN’s report, some 50 drug use-related deaths occur daily in Indonesia. However, the deaths have failed to deter people from using drugs.

In the face of the grave threat posed by drug lords, BNN Chief Commissioner General Heru Winarko has pressed for handing down capital punishment to those involved in drug trade in the country.

Both BNN and the police have continued their war against drugs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 19, 2020, under the command of Brig. Gen. Ferdy Sambo and Sen. Coms. Herry Heryawan, the National Police’s Red and White Special Task Force personnel confiscated 821 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in Serang District, Banten Province.

On June 4, 2020, the task force’s drug raid in Banten Province helped uncover another case involving the smuggling of 402.38 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from the Middle Eastern region into Indonesia aboard a hired fishing boat.

Source: Antara News