VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The first information comes from Karachi, Pakistan. Film as an art and culture is part of Indonesia’s soft power diplomacy conducted for the national interest and it strengthens its role in the world. The participation of Indonesia in Karachi Film Festival, in addition to confirming that Indonesia is a country of peace and appreciating various religions, ethnicities and cultural diversity, is a promotional means to improve Indonesia's image in Pakistan.To strengthen the soft power diplomacy, Indonesia participated in the Asia Peace Film Festival (APFF) held at Karachi Expo Center, Karachi, Pakistan, 23 - 26 February 2018. The theme of this film festival is "Celebrating diversity and harnessing harmony by promoting cinematography as a mass medium of peace education in the Asian region". While the vision is making film as a medium of intercultural, recursive, reconciliation, conflict mediation and peace building in Asia. The festival is part of a program held in Islamabad on 18-20 September 2017. Indonesia's participation in this Film Festival was a collaboration between the Indonesian Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulate General in Karachi. During the festival, various movies were screened, including short film genre (with 3-30 minutes duration), documenter film (3-30 minutes), and animation film (maximum 30 minutes duration). Indonesia presented four documentary films at the Karachi Film Festival namely, "Karatagan Ciremai", "Identity", Innner Peace "and" Save our Forest Giants". Meanwhile, the representatives of Indonesia cineas who attended the event were Sofie Setyorini (Curaor), Harvan Agustriansyah (Documentary filmmaker and director) and Antonius Tonny Trimarsanto (Documentary filmmaker).

The Indonesian Embassy in Paris once again participated in the 22nd Tour Salon International du Tourisme (SIT) de Rennes which took place on 16-18 February 2018 at Parc Expo Rennes. The exhibition was followed by more than 400 participants from various tourism sectors, including tour operators / travel agencies, hotels / villas / camping, tour vehicle rentals, playground / historical tours, to airlines / shipping. In addition to Indonesia, a number of countries such as Canada, Vietnam, India, Iran, Tanzania, and the Dominican Republic, as well as players of the French national tourism industry were also present.  Based on data from the Office de Justification des Statistique, the exhibition was visited by almost 39,000 visitors.The Indonesia stand presented two potentials of the country, namely, tourism and handicraft products by Indonesian SMEs. The Promotion of tourism also involved tour operators from Francewhich sell tour packages to Indonesia during the exhibition. Visitors could get information on tourist destinations in Indonesia through interactive touch screen media, videos, brochures, and flyers on 100 art and cultural festival agenda in 2018 (100 Wonderful Indonesia). During the event, a presentation on Indonesian tourism destinations was also held before tothe visitors. In addition, Indonesia enlivened the event on the main stage by presenting Peacock Dance from West Java as well as traditional Indonesian songs by Indonesian students in Rennes. On the sidelines of this Rennes SIT activity, the Embassy of Indonesia also conducted Indonesian community development in France. For that reason, on February 17, 2018, a meeting of Indonesian Ambassador with the Indonesian community and students of the Association of Indonesian Students (PPI) in Rennes was held. On the occasion, the Ambassador delivered the Government development program to improve people's welfare. The Ambassador also advised the students to have a clear and focused vision and mission so that their education in France can be useful for the people and the nation of Indonesia.

Good news is coming from Belgium. A Researcher from Indonesia, dr. Arief Wibowo, received an award from King Baudouin Foundation, in Brussels, Wednesday (28/2). King Baudouin Foundation is a foundation under the supervision of the Queen of Belgium. Dr. Arief Wibowo received the prestigious "King Baudouin Award" in cardiovascular field and became the only Indonesian to receive this award. The awarding itself was made in the framework of the Rare Disease Day Commemoration that falls on February 28, 2018.The Researh of dr. Arief Wibowo is on "Neovascularization Potential Exosomes Derived from Blood Outgrowth Endothelial Cells in Ischemic Cardiomyopathy" or Potential Exosomes therapy in patients with Ischemic heart failure. This research is his specialty since taking doctoral program in Cardiovascular Research Department at Katolieke Universite Leuven (KUL) starting from July 1, 2014. Through this research, dr. Arief hoped to help more and more people to handle heart disease that currently requires cutting-edge treatment techniques.This achievement is also appreciated by Indonesian people in Belgium. Located at the Embassy of Brussels, a simple thanksgiving event was held for dr. Arief. The Indonesian Ambassador to Belgium, Yuri O. Thamrin and the the Indonesian embassy congratulated Dr Arief and expressed their pride in his contribution in scientific field and the name of Indonesia in Belgium. His research was conducted in 2 places, namely UD Leuven Hospital and OLV Aalst Hospital Cardiovascular Department. For this research, dr. Arief received 2 awards, the Paul Dudley White Award from the International Science Team Award America and the King Boudwijnstichting Award from the Foundation under the Kingdom of Belgium.The King Baudouin Foundation provided funding of 166,000 Euro per year to the the doctor for 2 years. The funding is planned to be used for further research collaborations between the Heart Research Department, Hassan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, Indonesia and the hospitals in Belgium where he is conducting his current research.