VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

photo : yorkshire cnd

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi said that since the establishment of the UN 75 years ago, and since the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 50 years ago, the world is still far from a complete elimination of nuclear weapons. In the High Level Meeting of Commemoration and Promotion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons which was held virtually on October 2, 2020, Minister Retno Marsudi explained that the absence of progress in efforts to eliminate nuclear arsenal had resulted in a decline in trust among countries in the world.

As quoted on the kemlu.go.id page (03/10), Minister Retno Marsudi also underlined three important points to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons: First, there must be the implementation and enforcement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In this regard, she said that full participation and commitment from all countries, including countries with nuclear weapons, is essentially needed. The second point is to strengthen the mechanism and architecture of global disarmament. Several disarmament mechanisms such as the Conference of Disarmament, the prohibition of comprehensive nuclear testing and other mechanisms must be pursued in order to achieve the goal of total elimination of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the third is to ensure that nuclear disarmament provides tangible benefits to global prosperity.

In addition, Minister Retno emphasized that the Covid-19 pandemic is a reminder of the world's nations that human and humanitarian protection can only be achieved through global solidarity and not through nuclear weapons.Minister Retno in her closing speech said that on the one hand, maintaining the existence of nuclear weapons does not provide benefits to the world (zero-sum). On the other hand, the complete elimination of nuclear weapons will precisely ensure the survival of mankind. The High Level Meeting for Commemoration and Promotion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is part of the 75th UN General Assembly (SMU) High Level Meeting which is taking place from 21 September 2020 up to now.

Indonesian Trade Minister, Agus Suparmanto explained the marketing strategy so that businesspeople can survive and penetrate the export market amid Covid-19 pandemic in the 8th Annual Jakarta Marketing Week 2020 virtually on Sunday (Sept/20).

In the short-term, the Trade Ministry focuses on export development for products which experienced positive growth during the pandemic namely processed food and beverages, medical equipment, agricultural products, fishery, and agroindustry. Besides that, they also focus on new product development that emerged during pandemic such as pharmaceutical and new export products resulting from industry relocation from some countries to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, for market approach, Indonesian Trade Ministry will implement export market development strategy which is adjusted to each export destination country's condition during Covid-19 handling. Minister Agus Suparmanto said, for now and until one year ahead, Indonesia will focus on countries that had or beginning to recover such as Australia, New Zealand, England, Germany, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Algeria, Canada, and Mexico.

For medium-term, the Trade Ministry is studying products with market power in accreditation countries of the trade representatives and classifying them in three categories. Firstly is excellent products, namely products with market power in export destination countries. Secondly is emerging products, those with increasing export trends in the last five years. Then, thirdly is losing products, namely products with decreasing export trends in the last five years.

The Trade Minister also explained that Indonesia will join one of the biggest exhibitions in the world namely Dubai Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates with the theme "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future." Indonesia's participation was also an attempt to increase Indonesia's image in the world. This event was initially scheduled on October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021. However, because of the pandemic, it changed into October 1 2021 - March 31 2021. He said that the Indonesian Pavilion will present the concept of Golden Indonesia 2045.

In his explanation, the Trade Minister also invited the businesspeople to join the Trade Expo Indonesia - Virtual Exhibition 2020 (TEI-VE) 2020. This event will be held on November 10-16, 2020. TEI-VE is an effort of the Trade Ministry to boost Indonesian export and to answer the Covid-19 challenges. TEI-VE 2020 also aimed to restore Indonesian economy through export promotion amid Covid-19 pandemic. It was expected that 200-300 participants, including from the export-oriented small medium enterprises will join the TEI-VE 2020.

In the same opportunity, Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto also explained about Indonesian export performance. In January-August 2020, Indonesian export was 103.15 billion US$.

The export performance was surplus 11.05 billion US$, or better than the same period last year which was deficit 2.06 billion US$. The export destinations were still dominated by China, the United States, European Union, Japan, India, Singapore, and Malaysia.

photo : JP

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said 143 foreign companies plan to relocate investment to Indonesia, including those from the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and China. At the HSBC Economic Forum in Jakarta, Wednesday (16/9) Airlangga said that the investment relocation plan to Indonesia has the potential to absorb more than 300 thousand workers. He added that the relocation plan indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic had provided valuable lessons that supply chains of goods could not be centralized in one country.

Now many multinational companies are starting to relocate their industries from China to other Asian countries, especially ASEAN countries. Airlangga said this is an opportunity for Indonesia to replace China's position as an investment destination and a new global supply chain hub.

However, Airlangga is aware that the risk of uncertainty this year is still very high, so that the Indonesian economy is facing both external and internal pressures. He explained that the pressure from the external side was a global uncertainty that had its roots in the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the global economy to be predicted to remain bad. Meanwhile, from the internal side, the pressure that occurred was in line with the global economic slowdown, namely that growth for Indonesia in the second quarter contracted or minus 5.32 percent.

Therefore, Airlangga confirmed that currently the Indonesian government is preparing various policies in order to overcome these external and internal pressures. He explained that the steps and policies that are being pursued by the government include immediately completing the discussion of the Job Creation Bill with the House of Representatives so that investment can increase.

In addition, the government has prepared the Investment Priority Listusing a "picking the winners" approach. This will cover the business fields that will be encouraged and provided with facilities, both taxation and non-taxation. Airlangga Hartarto hopes that this investment priority list will attract investment that is not only large, but also high quality and able to create jobs.

Meanwhile, the government is strengthening industrial development and transportation and logistics connectivity, by developing corridors along the northern part of Java Island. In addition, it has also formulated an initiative to build a Super Hub as a center for production, trade, technology and finance. Airlangga is optimistic that the Indonesian economy through concrete and appropriate policies will be able to overcome the challenges that are being faced in 2020.

PHOTO : NK-VOI

Deputy Minister of Environment and Forestry-LHK Alue Dohong encouraged that community’s roles will be more optimized in forest management, particularly in rehabilitation of watersheds (DAS). Alue Dohong said this when delivering a keynote speech at the Watershed Rehabilitation Webinar on Monday (Sept14). According to him, society should not only be used as an object, but must become a crowdsourcing with other forces, both from the central and local government sectors, academicians, researchers, environmental activists, and the business world who are then encouraged by the media to form a great force. In this activity, Alue Dohong had an opportunity to talk through video conference facilities with the community who were carrying out tree planting activities in watershed rehabilitation. He also expressed appreciation and admiration for the concern and enthusiasm of the community in welcoming the forest restoration program through watershed rehabilitation activities

Alue Dohong reminded parties who have an obligation to carry out land rehabilitation, to give greater role and trust to the community in implementing watershed rehabilitation, starting from preparing seeds, preparing land, planting, maintaining, as well as protecting plants from pests and Fire. Furthermore, Alue revealed, it is time for every business actor, especially the holders of Borrow and Use Forest Area Permits (IPPKH) to have a broader insight and perspective on efforts to improve the environment.

According to him, entrepreneurs should not just look at the location of their business, but also have to participate in improving the watershed area around their company. Currently, it is necessary to shift the value. If previously entrepreneurs only pursue the profit, it is time they have a moral responsibility towards improving the environment and improving the welfare of the community around the company's operations.