Category: Trading

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Foreign capital inflows into Indonesia reached Rp2.45 trillion in the week from July 19 to July 22, 2021, Bank Indonesia (BI) reported.

They comprised Rp1.24 trillion accrued from net sales in the government bond market and Rp1.21 trillion from net purchases in the share market, it added.

“Overall, net inflows in the domestic money market have reached Rp2.53 trillion from January 1 to July 22, 2021,” executive director, chief of BI’s communication department, Erwin Haryono said in a written statement on Friday.

The central bank said Indonesia’s investment risk premium, reflected by the five-year credit default swap (CDS), increased from 77.53 basis points (bps) as of July 16, 2021 to 78.52 bps. Meanwhile, yield on 10-year government bonds fell slightly from 6.28 percent on July 22, 2021 to 6.27 percent on July 23, 2021, it added.

Haryono said the rupiah traded at Rp14,490 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday morning, falling slightly from the close of Rp14,480 per US dollar the day before.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index strengthened to 92.82 and yields on US bonds fell to 1.278 percent on Thursday (July 22, 2021), he added.

BI will continue to coordinate with the government and related authorities to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on the national economy, Haryono said.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Children’s songs influence the growth and development of children, Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim said at the Swara KILA 2021 media briefing, originating from Jakarta on Friday.

“Song is the language of teaching for children, which greatly influences their growth and development. Therefore, children’s songs should contain moral values, messages of love, and knowledge about Indonesian culture and nature,” he expounded.

However, in recent times, quality children’s songs have become more difficult to find, the minister said. This has become a challenge for parents and educators, he added.

For this reason, the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), in collaboration with KITA Indonesia, has organized the 2021 Kita Cinta Lagu Anak (KILA) contest, he said.

“The 2020 Kita Cinta Lagu Anak (KILA) contest proved that even during a pandemic, Indonesian children could still be creative by partaking in positive activities,” he added.

Quality work was produced during KILA 2020, and it will be followed up with recording and shooting of music videos, Makarim said.

He urged Indonesian children not to be discouraged from learning during the pandemic, adding one such avenue of learning is participation in KILA 2021.

“I invite all Indonesian children to participate in KILA 2021. KILA is an excellent learning and cultural event. Therefore, I also encourage schools and educators to socialize this event,” he said. The current COVID-19 pandemic has changed learning and play for children, Makarim noted.

KILA contest aims to embrace Indonesian children who have lost out on learning and play through children’s songs, he remarked.

Starting from the kindergarten to elementary age groups, KILA aims to encourage children to be active, creative, and make art cheerfully, he said.

Meanwhile, director general of culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Hilmar Farid, said children’s songs are a means of helping children become familiar with their identities, foster self-confidence, and have pride in their Indonesian roots.

“KILA is an effort from the Ministry of Education and Culture to restore childhood for children so they can develop naturally during the pandemic and to help children develop a sense of identity by knowing and singing Indonesian children’s songs,” he explained.

Chairman of KITA Indonesia, Dhenok Bientarno, said KILA 2021 will be held from July 23 to August 23, 2021.

The contest includes a children’s songwriting competition and a children’s song singing competition for the kindergarten and elementary age groups, he informed.

Participants at the singing competition will also be requested to sing new songs created by the 2020 KILA contestants, he said.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Industry Ministry is trying to boost the performance of the paper industry to improve the national economy by providing competent human resources, an official has said.

“The availability of skilled workers has become an important factor in supporting the development of the industry as this sector absorbs a vast number of workers,” said chief of Industry Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDMI) at the Industry Ministry Arus Gunawan on Thursday.

He made the statement after virtually inking a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with seven paper manufacturers for opening a higher education program equivalent to Diploma 1 (D1) on paper technology.

The event was also attended by the chief of the Center for Pulp and Paper (BPPK) and Indonesian Cellulose Foundation (YASI).

The graduates of the program will be placed in the seven companies — PT. Eco Paper Indonesia, PT. Surabaya Mekabox, PT. Kertas Padalarang, PT. Enggal Subur Kertas, PT. Pemalang Agro Wangi, PT. Budi Makmur Perkasa, as well as PT. Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper Tbk Serang Mill, Gunwan informed.

The program will help 899 students gain vocational education and work directly in the industry, he said. The students will come from 10 provinces and 12 districts/cities across Indonesia, he added.

“The demand for human resources in the pulp and paper industry reached 241,661 people in 2020, meanwhile, this number is expected to rise by as many as 10,563 workers this year,” he revealed.

Director of PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper Tbk Serang Mill, Heppy Moiras, said he supports the program as it will be crucial for providing skilled human resources that cannot be obtained through regular educational programs.

Iken Retnowulan, chief of the Industry Vocation Education Development Center, said the Polytechnic of Industrial Management Institute (STMI), Jakarta will offer the vocation program through the Polymer Chemical Engineering Undergraduates Program.

“The study will be completed in two semesters with a total of 43 credits. Meanwhile, the Industrial Work Practice will be conducted in the respective supporting manufactures and BPPK’s laboratory,” she said.

The Polytechnic of STMI Jakarta has seen two batches of the higher education program equivalent to Diploma 1 (D1) on Heavy-duty Equipment, run by the Industrial Technic Undergraduates Program in cooperation with PT. Komatsu Indonesia, she added.

The government is confident of the competitiveness of the industry as Indonesian pulp manufacturers have managed to reach the 8th position in global rankings, meanwhile, paper producers are in the 6th position, the agency chief noted.

Domestic and export requests for pulp and paper products are still promising, he said. Together with the rise in e-commerce, they will boost the growth of Indonesian pulp and paper production, he added.

Despite the pandemic, global demand for pulp and paper products still rose 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, domestic demand has surged 63 percent in the last five years.

In 2019, Indonesia’s national paper production reached 10.1 million tons, with consumption at 6.3 million tons. Meanwhile, the export potential of pulp was recorded at 5.3 million tons.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – As many as 548 thousand children out of the targeted 11.9 million children in the age group of 12-17 years have received COVID-19 vaccine shots, the Ministry of Health has reported.

“The vaccination drive for children in the age group of 12-17 years is focused on local health facilities or their respective schools,” the Health Ministry’s COVID-19 vaccinations spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said during an online dialogue hosted by the National COVID-19 Handling and Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN) here on Thursday.

Vaccination drives at local healthcare facilities (Fasyankes) are focused on vaccinating teenagers aged 12-17 who are not enrolled in any educational institutions, while teenagers enrolled in schools are being directed to get vaccinated at schools hosting vaccination drives, Tarmizi informed.

Vaccines for teenagers have been distributed nationwide, with 50 percent of vaccines allocated for Java-Bali provinces and the rest proportionally to other provinces, she added.

“We currently have a policy of distributing 50 percent of vaccines to Java-Bali provinces due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases there, and the rest of the vaccines will be distributed proportionally to other provinces. Those portioning already includes vaccines for teenagers,” Tarmizi said.

The current vaccine stock in Indonesia is just 130 million doses, a mere 30 percent of the 426 million doses necessary to satisfy the national vaccination target, she pointed out.

The target of the vaccination program has also been increased from 181.5 million to 208 million, she added.

The 16.9 million recipients of the second vaccine dose account for 7 percent of the target, while the 43.3 million recipients of the first vaccine dose represent 15 percent of the target, as per records collated yesterday afternoon (July 21, 2021).

“We need to meet the target in these seven months, at least to achieve 90 percent of our initial target of 181.5 million,” Tarmizi remarked.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Industry has said it is planning to set up an Engineering Center for laptop production to create market for domestically produced laptops and attract investment in related industries.

“In order to create a market based on industry scale, we need to initiate a laptop designed to cater to the government’s needs, through establishing an engineering center,” Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said at an online press conference originating from Jakarta on Thursday.

Establishing an Engineering Center to protect Intellectual Property (IP) and support the main components of laptops, among other things, could bring great opportunities for the development of domestic industries, not only large industries, but also small industries, the minister added.

Based on the ministry’s calculations, the assembly of 1-2 million laptops in Indonesia could encourage original design manufacturers (ODM) to become interested in strengthening the laptop ecosystem in Indonesia, he said.

“With support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), we can domestically assemble 300-400 thousand units. We need support from related stakeholders to expand our domestic laptop market share,” he informed.

The Engineering Center can also aid the development of the domestic semiconductor industry, Kartasasmita pointed out.

The semiconductor industry will produce strategic products in the future, especially in the Industrial Era 4.0, which will include chipsets for all industrial activities and daily needs, he elaborated.

“Thus, we must have independence in design and semiconductors production,” he said.

He also said he is currently finalizing a regulation on the procedure for the calculation of local content requirement (TKDN) for laptop production to support the development of the domestic industry.

The goal of the regulation is to increase investment and human resources to support the Bangga Buatan Indonesia (Proud of Made-in-Indonesia) program, Kartasasmita said.

“We hope our program will boost confidence in our people to have a domestic product in order to obtain national branding on the global (stage),” he added.

In order to encourage investment and produce more electronic components domestically, Kartasasmita said a production line is required as part of the TKDN assessment.

“In addition, we are encouraging software development to fulfill needs in education, offices, and design for domestic manufactures,” the minister added.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Bank Indonesia (BI) has projected the global economy will grow from 5.7 percent to 5.8 percent in 2021 due to increasing financial market uncertainty and the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in several countries.

One of the factors driving global economic recovery is the revival in international trade, Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo said here on Thursday while announcing the results of the July, 2021 board of governors meeting.

“Trade volume and world commodity prices are also estimated to be higher, thus supporting improved export performance in developing countries, including Indonesia,” he noted.

He said BI’s forecast is also supported by an increase in economic growth in the United States (US) and the European region, along with the acceleration of vaccinations and continued fiscal and monetary stimulus. Meanwhile, China’s economic growth is also recorded to remain high, he added.

The economic outlook for India and the ASEAN region is likely to be lower due to the policy of restricting people’s mobility to cope with the resurgence of COVID-19 cases, Warjiyo said.

However, uncertainty in the global financial markets is expected to increase, driven by market concerns about the surge in COVID-19 cases and its impact on the world economic outlook, as well as anticipation of plans to reduce monetary stimulus or tapering by the US Central Bank, the Fed, he added.

These conditions will push the diversion of capital flows to financial assets that are considered safe or flight to quality, resulting in limited capital flows and pressure on exchange rates in developing countries, including Indonesia, he projected.

The adjustment of capital outflows from developing countries also caused the rupiah exchange rate on July 21, 2021 to weaken by 0.29 percent point-to-point and 1.14 percent on average compared to at the end of June, 2021, he noted.

“With these developments, the rupiah as of July 21, 2021 was recorded to have depreciated around 3.39 percent compared to the figure at the end of 2020, relatively lower than the depreciation of currencies in a number of other developing countries, such as Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand,” Warjiyo said.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah said the government’s wage subsidy program (bantuan subsidi upah or BSU) was expected to help prevent workers affected by COVID-19 from getting laid off amid the enforcement of public activity restrictions (PPKM).

“The BSU (aid) is expected to increase purchasing power and ensure the prosperity of the workers. The aid is also expected to assist employers in maintaining their businesses during COVID-19 pandemic,” the minister said here Thursday.

“Through this aid, we hope the harmonious and conducive relations within companies are maintained, so, once again, termination of employment can be avoided,” Fauziyah said.

She hoped that the BSU scheme would be able to reduce companies’ burden so that employers and employees can work together to find solutions to the impacts of the pandemic.

Under the BSU 2021, eight trillion Indonesian rupiahs (about US$551 thousand) will be allocated to eight million people, with each beneficiary receiving Rp1 million (about US$69) via bank transfer, the minister added.

The aid amount is still an estimate as the data is still being worked on by the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan), Fauziyah pointed out.

To receive the aid, workers need to be Indonesian citizens, registered under the Worker Social Security Program (Jamsostek), and still active in BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, she informed.

The aid will only be provided to workers living in PPKM Level 4 Zones, as laid out in Ministry of Home Affairs Instruction No. 20 Year 2021 to No. 23 Year 2021 on Micro Community Activities Restriction Enforcement and Optimizing Corona Virus Disease 2019 Handling Posts in Village Levels for Corona Virus Disease 2019 Spread Control, she said.

The beneficiaries will be required to pay a fee, which will be accounted for from the Rp3.5-million salary, as reported by employers to BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, she said.

The BSU will be provided to workers from sectors impacted by the PPKM, such as the consumption industry, trade and services, except education and healthcare, transportation, miscellaneous industries, property, and real estate, Fauziyah said.

“BPJS Ketenagakerjaan has been chosen as the data source since, at the moment, it has the most accurate and complete (data), thus (making it) accountable and valid to be used by the government as the basis for allocating the subsidy fast and accurately,” she added.

Source: Antara News

The ministry will encourage a number of efforts to more actively attract investors to Indonesia. Starting from facilitating access to licensing and banking to providing comprehensive services to investors until they start production.

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Investment should aggressively attract foreign and domestic investment amid the pandemic, executive director of the Association of Indonesian Entrepreneurs Research Institute (Apindo), Agung Pambudi, has said.

“The Ministry of Investment should be aggressive to attract investment for job creation and Economic Value Added increase, in order to rise from the downturn caused by the pandemic,” he advised in a statement released in Jakarta on Wednesday (July 21, 2021).

According to Pambudi, the implementation of the Omnibus Law will also have a crucial effect on national economic growth, especially in investment realization. The new law as well as vaccination efforts, which are aimed at creating herd immunity, will be key to economic acceleration during the pandemic, he said.

“Incoming investments will need time to be realized, for example, administration, infrastructure, and institutional matters. So, hopefully, the vaccine program will (help the nation) overcome the pandemic so that there will be additional real economic activities afterward,” Pambudi elaborated.

Moreover, a number of industrial sectors that are the ministry’s focus, such as export-oriented manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, infrastructure, and mining, will take a relatively long time to operationalize, he added.

The Investment Ministry is expecting to encourage investment in the innovation and technology sectors since those sectors will be able to provide long-term added economic value, while improving the competency of national industries, he informed.

The ministry has successfully pulled in investment of US$350 million from one of Cargill’s global food companies for the next three years, he pointed out.

The investment plan comprises a US$50-million business expansion and a $100-million corn processing plant in East Java that will be commercially operational by early 2022, he said.

Also, work on a $200-million palm oil refinery in Lampung has started and is targeted to be completed by the end of 2022.

“The ministry will encourage a number of efforts to more actively attract investors to Indonesia. Starting from facilitating access to licensing and banking to providing comprehensive services to investors until they start production,” Pambudi said.

The ministry’s efforts will be supported by incentives, such as tax holidays, tax allowances, exemptions on customs duties for machinery and raw materials imports, he added.

A super deduction tax will also be offered to investors who absorb more labor and organize vocational programs to push research and development.

Source: ANTARA News