VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia needs to rehabilitate 701 thousand hectares of mangrove areas, Director of Inland Waters Damage Control at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) Sri Handayaningsih stated.

"Based on the national mangrove map that we have officially launched, Indonesia has approximately 701 thousand hectares of mangrove areas that we must rehabilitate. Apart from that, our mangroves are in pretty good condition," Handayaningsih stated during a discussion on "One Million Mangroves for Life" here on Thursday.

To accelerate mangrove rehabilitation, President Joko Widodo had established the Peat and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) in 2020 for rehabilitating 600 thousand ha of mangrove areas until 2024.

Along with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the BRGM had conducted restoration and rehabilitation of mangrove areas, especially in nine provinces for over the last two years.

Based on the latest national mangrove map launched in October 2021, Indonesia's mangrove areas span a total area of 3.36 million ha or the largest mangrove area in the world.

"Indonesia's mangrove area is the largest in the world. Some 20 percent of the world's mangrove areas are in Indonesia, while 36 percent are in Southeast Asia," she noted.

However, parts of the country's mangrove areas are damaged owing to being converted into palm oil plantations or ponds.

Locals living around the mangrove areas usually altered the function of mangroves, as they believed that palm oil plantations and ponds are more profitable.

"Indonesia also does not close its eyes and in addition to ecological interests, we must also pay attention to the socio-economic aspects of the community or livelihoods around the coasts where there are mangroves. Hence, the scheme for the restoration of mangrove ecosystems in Indonesia includes the three important pillars of conservation, socio-economics, and institutional," she added.

Mangrove areas should be protected, as they contain a wide variety of living creatures, such as fish and poultry.

In addition, based on the results of a recent research, mangroves absorb carbon dioxide emissions up to five folds higher than other plants.

"Surely, this is a huge opportunity for Indonesia to accelerate its ambitious target of reducing carbon emissions or greenhouse gases that have been pledged in the Paris Agreement to be cut by 29 percent by 2030. With the restoration of mangroves, we hope that the targets would be achieved soon," she remarked.  (Antaranews)

The government needs to help Indonesia's Islamic fashion industry, which currently has an extensive market, to become a global leader in the sector, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi has said.

"So, like this, the Islamic fashion industry has a very large market. Even though we have a large market of US$11 billion, we only export US$500 million (worth of products)," the minister noted during the 2021 Jakarta Muslim Fashion Week here on Thursday.

This shows there is room to develop the Muslim fashion industry in Indonesia, he said.

"Therefore, support from business associations, support from academics, and also the government is very important. So, the task of the Trade Ministry here is to become an aggregator to create Indonesia as the leader of world Islamic fashion," Lutfi elaborated.

The ministry has taken some measures to promote Muslim fashion in Indonesia, such as conducting the 2021 Jakarta Muslim Fashion Week. This event aims to introduce Indonesia as the world's fashion center, he added.

Lutfi also affirmed that the Muslim fashion industry is not only focusing on Muslim consumers. The diversity in Indonesia would actually contribute to the progress and development of the fashion industry, he said.

Therefore, the 2021 Jakarta Muslim Fashion Week is also being attended by non-Muslim universities such as the Surabaya PETRA Christian University and the Maranatha Christian University, he added.

"This is what we must embrace. This is what we must advance. That the Islamic fashion industry does not only belong to Muslims. That the Islamic fashion industry will be able to advance because of Indonesia's diversity," the minister remarked.

Lutfi said he expects the existing tolerance and unity of Indonesia to better push the nation towards its goal of emerging as the world's leader in Muslim fashion. (Antaranews)

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen lauded military cooperation with Washington on Thursday as she commissioned the first combat wing of F-16 fighters upgraded with U.S. help to bolster the island's defences during rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing.

Frequent Chinese and U.S. military exercises in the region have raised fears of conflict touched off by a crisis over democratically-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

Tsai told a ceremony at an air base in the southern Taiwanese city of Chiayi to unveil the first squadron of its most advanced F-16s, the F-16V, that the project showed the firm commitment of the Taiwan-U.S. partnership.

"I believe that as long as we adhere to the values of democracy and freedom, there will be more like-minded countries standing on the same front with us," she said, speaking on the same stage as the top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan, Sandra Oudkirk.

The United States has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is the island's main international backer and arms supplier, to Beijing's fury.

The T$110 billion ($3.96 billion) F-16 upgrade is led by manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC), and is the latest example of military cooperation between Washington and Taipei.

Taiwan has been converting 141 F-16A/B jets into the F-16V type, 64 of which have already been upgraded, and has additionally ordered 66 new F-16Vs, which have new avionics, weapons and radar systems to better face down the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter.

The F-16Vs can carry Raytheon Technologies Corp's (RTX.N) advanced AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.

To a backdrop of dance music broadcast over the air base, the F-16s showed off their mettle with combat take offs and landings, and flying low in formation above the runway.

Tsai said that as more F-16Vs entered service, Taiwan's defences would be "even stronger".

Taiwan's air force is well trained but dwarfed by China's.

The United States in 2019 approved an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the island's F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, the largest in Asia.

China has announced sanctions on Lockheed Martin for selling arms to Taiwan.(Reuters)

In a major shift for a country long closed to immigrants, Japan is looking to allow foreigners in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely starting as early as the 2022 fiscal year, a justice ministry official said on Thursday.

Under a law that took effect in 2019, a category of "specified skilled workers" in 14 sectors such as farming, nursing care and sanitation have been granted visas but stays have been limited to five years and without family members for workers in all but the construction and shipbuilding sectors.

Companies had cited those restrictions among reasons they were hesitant to hire such help, and the government had been looking to ease those restrictions in the other fields.

If the revision takes effect, such workers - many from Vietnam and China - would be allowed to renew their visas indefinitely and bring their families with them.

Top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno stressed, however, that any such change would not mean automatic permanent residency, which would require a separate application process.

Immigration has long been taboo in Japan as many prize ethnic homogeneity, but pressure has mounted to open up its borders due to an acute labour shortage given its dwindling and ageing population.

"As the shrinking population becomes a more serious problem and if Japan wants to be seen as a good option for overseas workers, it needs to communicate that it has the proper structure in place to welcome them," Toshihiro Menju, managing director of think tank Japan Center for International Exchange, told Reuters.

The 2019 law was meant to attract some 345,000 "specified skilled workers" over five years, but the intake has hovered at around 3,000 per month before the COVID-19 pandemic sealed the borders, according to government data.

As of late 2020, Japan housed 1.72 million foreign workers, out of a total population of 125.8 million and just 2.5% of its working population.(Reuters)