Category: Trading

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s poverty rate can be curbed if the poverty eradication program is focused on the country’s most populated island of Java, according to Chief of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Margo Yuwono.

“Java has a very large population,” Yuwono noted in a press statement on Tuesday.

The BPS reported that the country’s poverty rate had reached 10.4 percent in March 2021, with 27.54 million out of the country’s population of 270 million living in poverty.

Yuwono highlighted that in order to reduce the poverty rate, all related authorities should focus attention on factors, such as controlling prices, providing social assistance to vulnerable people, and boosting the public’s income through various stimuli.

The social protection program launched by the government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic can contribute to lowering the poverty rate in due course of time, the BPS chief noted.

“In essence, (we should think of) how to ensure that the social assistance will reach the targeted recipients and will be used properly,” he emphasized.

The BPS announced earlier that the number of Indonesians living in poverty had fallen by 0.01 million to reach 27.54 million in March 2021, from 27.55 million in September 2020, as several economic sectors recovered.

Accordingly, the poverty rate dropped to 10.14 percent in March 2021, from 10.19 percent in September 2020, the BPS chief noted at an online press conference in Jakarta last Thursday. However, as compared to March 2020, the number of poor increased by 1.12 million in March 2021, he stated.

The number of poor in urban areas rose by 138.1 thousand to reach 12.18 million in March 2021, from 12.04 million in September 2020, Yuwono pointed out.

Consequently, the poverty rate in urban areas increased by 0.01 percent to reach 7.89 percent in March 2021, from 7.88 percent in September 2020, he noted.

In contrast, the number of poor in rural areas fell by 145 thousand to reach 15.37 million in March 2021, from 15.51 million in September 2020, Yuwono stated.

Thus, the poverty rate in rural areas declined by 0.10 percent to reach 13.10 percent in March 2021, from 13.2 percent in September 2020, he noted.

The BPS chief attributed the drop in the number of poor people in rural areas to the success of various development programs, including village fund disbursement.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, the tourism and creative economy minister, concurrently Tourism and Creative Economy Agency’s head, is optimistic that the “Indonesia Spice Up The World” event would boost the country’s culinary industry.

Uno noted in a statement here on Tuesday that his ministry fully supported the promotion event initiated by the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment by sending a supporting delegation to the United States in the near future.

“This program has been well-designed for a long time. There was a choice between being postponed or implemented with some adaptations. I choose adaptations to ensure that our economic recovery is not delayed. Hence, we will not be fully physically present but hybrid,” he explained.

“Indonesia Spice Up The World” is one of the government’s main programs involving cross-ministerial and institutional efforts aimed at expanding the marketing of Indonesian spice products or processed food and spices.

In addition, the program is focused at boosting Indonesia’s culinary industry by developing Indonesian restaurants abroad or as part of our gastrodiplomacy efforts.

The minister cited data that Indonesia’s export value of processed and fresh spices had clocked growth averaging 2.95 percent over the last five years. In 2020, the export value was recorded at US$1.02 billion.

The “Indonesia Spice Up The World” promotion event is being organized until 2024, with the objective of boosting the export value of spices and herbs to US$2 billion and increasing the presence of four thousand Indonesian restaurants abroad.

Uno noted that the United States is a big market for the Indonesian spice and culinary sales, constituting 20-25 percent of Indonesia’s spice exports.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta – Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, has said his ministry is targeting to vaccinate 90-95 percent of people connected to the tourism and creative economy sector.

“Until today, there is only 5 percent of our community that has been vaccinated,” the minister noted during a weekly media briefing on Monday.

In an effort to support President Joko Widodo’s request to speed up mass vaccinations, the ministry is targeting to vaccinate 90- 95 percent of the tourism and creative economy community, the minister said.

“We were about to go the extra mile to have this mission achieved,” Uno remarked.

The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has opened six vaccination centers at the Tourism State University (PTNP) and another three vaccination centers at Authority Body (BO), he noted. These vaccination centers are expected to inoculate 3 million people by the end of October, 2021, he said.

The six PTNP are STP Bandung, STP Bali, Poltekpar Medan, Poltekpar Lombok, and Poltekpar Makassar, while the three BO vaccine centers are located in BO Danau Toba, BO Borobudur, and BO Labuan Bajo, he added.

“For next month, we are targeting to vaccinate 38 thousand people through our vaccination centers. We will continue to conduct this vaccination until the end of 2021,” Uno said.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has collaborated with the Ministry of Health, local governments, Grab Indonesia, Traveloka, Homecare24, Alodokter, Loket, tiket.com, and PT MNC to organize the vaccination program, he informed.

This July, the ministry also helped set up a vaccination center at the Indonesian Air Force’s Command and Staff College in Lembang, Bandung and also at MNC Kebon Sirih and Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta, he said. The vaccination centers were built with the help of Danone and Homecare24, he added.

“We expect by the end of this year, our tourism industry will bounce back with 90-95 percent of people vaccinated from this community. Meaning that we have to formulate new strategies to achieve this goal,” Uno remarked.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta – The Indonesian government is preparing to increase the social protection budget under the national economic recovery (PEN) program by Rp33.98 trillion to Rp187.84 trillion from Rp153.86 trillion, an official has said.

The increase in the social protection budget is the result of the expansion and extension of the social protection program in response to the enforcement of public activity restrictions (PPKM) from July 3, 2021, head of the Fiscal Policy Board at the Finance Ministry, Febrio Kacaribu, said in a written statement released on Monday.

“The extension and expansion (of the program) will help the public withstand the current situation,” he added.

The increase in the social protection budget will be used to subsidize electricity bills of households consuming 450-900 volt ampere (VA) of electricity until December this year, instead of September, as originally planned, he informed.

The subsidy on the base drinking water bills of 1.14 million business subscribers will also be extended until December, 2021, he added.

Meanwhile, the internet quota subsidy for students, teachers, and lecturers, which was originally planned to end in May, 2021, will also be extended until December, Kacaribu said.

In addition, the government will expand the coverage of the social protection program with the help of the additional budget , including extending the basic necessity card program to 18.8 million beneficiary families during the July-August 2021 period, he added. As such, the recipients will enjoy the benefit of the basic necessity cards for 14 months, he pointed out.

The social protection aid will also include rice assistance of 10 kilogram from the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) for each of the 28.8 million beneficiary families and cash assistance for 5.9 million beneficiary families, other than basic necessity card recipients and social assistance recipients, for six months, he said.

The outreach of the pre-employment card program will also be expanded to cover 2.8 million more participants, he added.

The government will also raise the number of micro businesses receiving productive assistance by 3 million, he further said. The assistance is expected to be disbursed between July and September, 2021, he added.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta – State-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia began doling out Social Cash Transfers (BST) to DKI Jakarta residents on Monday.

“According to the instructions from the PT Pos Indonesia Head Office, the distribution of BST will be carried out from July 19 to July 27, 2021,” head of the Central Jakarta Post Office, Syafrizal, said in a statement received here on Monday.

At least 300 thousand Indonesian rupiahs will be doled out to each beneficiary family (KPM) per month under BST, he informed. In July this year, recipients will be provided a two-month quota of Rp600 thousand, accumulated from May and June, he added.

The targeted recipients in Central Jakarta are residing in eight sub-districts, Syafrizal said.

Cash will be distributed in Cempaka Putih sub-district on July 19-20, 2021, Gambir sub-district on July 21, Menteng sub-district on July 22, and Sawah Besar sub-district on July 23, he informed.

Meanwhile, cash will be disbursed in Kemayoran sub-district on July 24-25, 2021, Senen sub-district on 26 July, and Tanah Abang sub-district on July 27, he said.

DKI Jakarta residents will be able to check their status and whether they are registered as recipients by clicking on the social aid tab on the corona.jakarta.go.id web page, he added.

The recipients will be monitored through their family card number (KK), Syafrizal said. Based on data, 55,346 families in the Central Jakarta area are eligible for the social aid, he added.

To qualify for the aid, BST recipients will need to register for the 2020 basic necessities social aid program and not for the Family Hope Program (PKH) and/or Non-Cash Food AID (BPNT) program, he said.

Registered recipients will receive an invitation at least one day before the aid disbursal from the designated regional officer, he said. If residents do not attend on the first schedule, they will be rescheduled to the second schedule or third schedule, after the distribution of the first phase is completed in the five areas of DKI Jakarta and the Seribu (Thousand) Islands, he added.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Social Affairs with the cooperation of the National Logistic Agency (Bulog) were distributing a total of 200 million kilograms of rice to 10 million beneficiary families (KPM) under the Family Hope Program (PKH), and another 10 million beneficiaries under the Cash Social Assistance (BST) program.

Each beneficiary received 10 kg of rice to help them cope with the impact of emergency restriction of movement being imposed to curb the COVID-19 spread, Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini said in a statement here on Sunday.

The ministry also distributed five kilograms of rice to each individual informal sector worker unable to work due to the impact of the emergency restriction. they included street vendors, small shop owners, motorcycle taxi drivers, and freelancers in Java and Bali.

“The data on the recipients of the five kilograms of rice aid are obtained from the local governments. Recipients are those who do not receive or are not recipients of the three types of regular social assistance, namely PKH, Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) / Basic Food Cards and BST,” she said.

The rice assistance has been distributed in districts and cities on the islands of Java and Bali since early July 2021. The ministry provided 3,000 packages of five kilograms each for 122 districts and cities, and 6,000 packages of five kilograms each for six provincial capitals on the two islands affected by the restriction.

The Ministry of Social Affairs also disbursed BST assistance for 10 million beneficiary households during May-June, while 18.8 million families under the BPNT/Basic Food Card programs received additional aid for July and August.

The ministry has allocated budges for PKH amounted to Rp28.3 trillion and for BPNT/Basic Food Card at Rp42.3 trillion being channeled through state-owned banks.

For BST, a budget of Rp. 15.1 trillion was distributed by PT Pos Indonesia.

“With this social assistance, it is hoped that it will increase people’s purchasing power,” Rismaharini said.

Source: Antara News

Mr. President has instructed his ministers to channel aid to the people to alleviate their burden during the emergency PPKM (enforcement).

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The government is preparing to disburse additional social assistance worth Rp39.19 trillion to alleviate the financial burden on the people caused by the enforcement of emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM), a senior minister has said.

“Mr. President has instructed his ministers to channel aid to the people to alleviate their burden during the emergency PPKM (enforcement),” Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said at an online press conference in Jakarta on Saturday night.

Pandjaitan, who is also coordinator for the emergency PPKM, said President Joko Widodo has directed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini to realize the additional social assistance soon.

The aid will comprise the distribution of 10 kilograms of rice to 18.9 million beneficiary families and cash assistance to 10 million beneficiary families, he informed.

“(The government) will later provide additional aid in the form of basic necessities to 18.9 million beneficiary families,” he said.

The government will also increase the budget funds for 5.9 million beneficiary families at the request of regional governments, allocate Rp10 trillion for the pre-employment card program, and extend electricity subsidies for households consuming 450-900 volt-ampere (VA) of power by another three months until December, 2021, Pandjaitan informed.

“(We) will also extend the internet quota subsidy for students, university students, teachers, and lecturers and subsidy for base electricity tariffs by another six months until December 2021,” he said.

The government will also raise the budget allocation for the health sector to Rp13.21 trillion to cover the medical treatment of COVID-19 patients, provision of incentives to vaccinators, construction of field hospitals, purchase of oxygen, and distribution of 2 million packages of free COVID-19 drugs, among other things.

Source: ANTARA News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) commander, Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, and Indonesian Police chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, handed out 30 thousand packages containing essential commodities in Solo (also known as Surakarta), Central Java on Saturday.

The packages were distributed to people affected by the Emergency Community Activities Restrictions (PPKM) by village-affiliated non-commissioned military officers (Babinsa) and security and public order police officers (Babinkamtibmas) at an event at the Surakarta City Hall.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief, Lieutenant General Garnip Warsito, as well as Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo also attended the event.

Besides the 30 thousand relief packages, the government has also announced the distribution of 147 tons of rice to people affected by the PPKM.

Prior to Saturday’s event, the police chief made surprise visits, known as “blusukan”, to night food stalls, popularly known as “angkringan”, around the city on Friday night (July 16, 2021).

While handing out essentials and masks, Prabowo spoke to merchants and residents about the importance of following the health protocols and complying with the PPKM rules.

He asked them whether the emergency restrictions had affected their income and advised them to remain patient and comply with the restrictions to help cut the COVID-19 infection rate.

He was accompanied by assistant for operational affairs, Inspector General Imam Sugianto, Central Java provincial police chief, Inspector General Ahmad Luthfi, head of division of profession and internal security, Inspector General Ferdy Sambo, as well as head of police public affairs and press directorate, Inspector General Argo Yuwono, on the visit.

According to the website of the Surakarta city government, the city has recorded 19,617 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of July 17, 2021.

Source: ANTARA News