VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

ASEAN leaders will meet in the 32nd ASEAN Summit in Singapore starting from April 25-28. In the summit, the ASEAN leaders are scheduled to discuss one of the proposals to form ASEAN Smart Cities Network -ASCN. For Indonesia, the cooperation can decrease the development gap and it's in line with the national agenda to improve the quality of people’s life. Thus, Indonesia supports the idea and has nominated 3 smart cities, namely Jakarta, Banyuwangi and Makassar. The meeting will also discuss preparation of ASEAN-Australia Special Summit on March 17 - 18 in Sidney, Australia. Furthermore, the meeting will legalize revision of the meeting to confirm mandate of the meeting in supporting ASEAN Coordinating Council -ACC to handle cross-sectoral and cross-cutting issues. In addition, the meeting will also elaborate the improvement of implementation of High Level Task Force on strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat and reviewing the ASEAN Organs. Some recommendations are the efforts to streamline ASEAN meetings, utilization of video technology of conferencing facilities to conduct ASEAN meeting, and assignment of Pillar Economic official to each Permanent Representative of ASEAN Member States in Jakarta.

​More than 2000 visitors flocked New City Hall of Tagum on the peak of Tagum city anniversary and Musikahan International Festival at Tagum City, Davao Del Norte, the Philippines on March 7, 2018. Indonesian Consul General in Davao City, Berlian Napitupulu said that there were 7 countries which participated in the Festival namely: South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, and China. However, 2 countries opened pavilions, namely Indonesia and Malaysia. This was the first time for the Indonesian consulate general in Davao City to hold exhibition of trade, investment and tourism at Tagum city, as the biggest agro-industrial city in South Philippines. Indonesian pavilion displayed foods and beverages; one of them was the Indonesian main coffee product which does not have agent or distributor in the Philippines. The Indonesian consulate general did not only display Indonesian manufacture products through poster but also directly carry 1 unit of hand tractor. The tractor attracted a lot of visitors; most of them are the owners of plantation and businesspeople of agro-industry at Tagum City and surrounding areas.

Eighteen students of Junior High School of Altheneum Brussels, Belgium participated in Gamelan and Kecak workshop at Indonesian embassy in Brussels on Wednesday (7/3). Indonesian Ambassador to Belgium, Yuri Octavian Thamrin accosted and joined in young people of Belgium at the workshop for 2 hours. The workshop became one of the events of the cultural introduction which was held by the Indonesian embassy in Brussels in cooperation with the local schools of Belgium to give knowledge of Indonesian culture, especially through traditional instruments performance of Indonesia. Balinese dance, such as Kecak was also introduced to children and teachers. The students were very enthusiastic with Indonesian culture. Dance and music ate media which can be used to introduce the existence of Indonesian culture to European community,