VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - China will begin polling 1.4 million people on Wednesday in a survey on population changes, as authorities struggle to incentivise people to have more children amid a declining birth rate and the first population drop in more than six decades.

The poll, which was announced on Oct. 10 in an unexpected move, will focus on urban and rural areas throughout the country. The survey will be based on a sample of 500,000 households and last for around two weeks until Nov. 15, China's National Bureau of Statistics said.

It will help provide a basis to monitor China's population developmental changes and for the government and Communist Party to formulate national economic, social development and population related policies, it said.

China last conducted its once-in-a-decade census in November 2020 which showed it grew at the slowest pace since the first modern population survey in the 1950s.

Population development has often been linked to the strength and "rejuvenation" of the country in state media amid the declining birth rate and widespread concerns by citizens on the difficulties of raising children.

High childcare costs and having to stop their careers have put many women off having more children or any at all. Gender discrimination and traditional stereotypes of women caring for the children are still widespread throughout the country.

Authorities have in recent months increased rhetoric on sharing the duty of child rearing but paternity leave is still limited in most provinces.

The country reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China's Great Famine. (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - Japan's top government spokesperson said on Wednesday that Japan is in the final stages of negotiations with the Philippines on what equipment to offer to Manila and when to sign an agreement under Tokyo's official security assistance programme.

The programme is aimed at helping boost deterrence capabilities of Tokyo's partner countries.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno made the comment to reporters ahead of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's visit to the Philippines on Friday. (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Communication and Informatics Ministry (Kominfo) has urged young women to master science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as digital literacy to support digital transformation programs in Indonesia.

In an official statement received here on Tuesday, Secretary General of the ministry, Mira Tayyiba, said that women's mastery of STEM and digital literacy is necessary to equalize the proportion of digital ecosystem users, which are currently male-dominated both at the global and national levels.

"As a woman in the digital era, I invite young women to continue to step up and work together to realize an inclusive, empowering, and sustainable digital transformation," Tayyiba said at the "Girls In ICT Day 2023" forum, held on Monday.

According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data, in 2022, most of the world's 2.7 billion people who did not have internet access were women, she noted.

In the same report, the proportion of women using the internet globally amounted to 57 percent, compared to 62 percent for men.

"In the national context, the survey carried out by Kominfo and Katadata Insight Center in the same year showed that men's digital literacy reached 3.56 points, higher than women's score of 3.52 points," she informed.

Furthermore, she said that more men master STEM than women.

Therefore, in order to support gender equality, the ministry is seeking to close the gap in mastery of STEM and digital literacy by supporting women's empowerment through various digital transformation programs.

"With internet access and skills to use digital technology, women can expand their opportunities to start businesses with a larger market, get better jobs and health and financial services, pursue education, and exchange information and participate more actively in community and family life," she said. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia has more than 4,400 rivers that have great potential to be used to generate hydropower, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said.

"Regarding hydro potential, Indonesia has more than 4,400 potential rivers and 128 of them are large rivers, such as the Mamberamo River in Papua, which has a potential of 24 thousand megawatts, and the Kayan River with a potential of 13 thousand megawatts," he highlighted while opening the 2023 World Hydropower Congress here on Tuesday.

The Kayan River in North Kalimantan will later be used as a source of electricity for the Green Industrial Park in Kalimantan, he added.

President Widodo said that the over four thousand rivers represent great potential that can be utilized for the future of the planet and Indonesia's future generations.

However, Indonesia is also facing several challenges, one of which is related to the location of hydropower sources, which are far from centers of electricity demand, he pointed out.

In view of this problem, the Indonesian government has created a blueprint for accelerating the laying of transmission lines that can carry electricity to locations at the center of economic growth and industrial growth centers so that its value becomes higher.

"Meanwhile, another challenge is funding and technology transfer, which requires quite a bit of investment and requires collaboration with all hydro ecosystem powers in the world," he said.

He then expressed the hope that the World Hydropower Congress would serve as a collaborative forum that produces policy recommendations and boosts investment to support the use of hydro energy for building a sustainable and green economy.

Such policy recommendations and investments are important, considering that many changes and natural phenomena have occurred in recent times.

"Our Earth is under the weather. The UN says that currently it is no longer global warming, but it has entered global boiling," he said.

If the Earth's temperature rises to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is predicted that 210 million people will experience water shortages, 14 percent of the population will be exposed to heat waves, 297 million houses will be submerged by coastal floods, and 600 million people will experience malnutrition due to crop failure, Widodo explained.

This phenomenon is a real threat to people in various parts of the world. So, tackling it will require collaborative work.

Indonesia is fully committed to accelerating the energy transition through the addition of new and renewable energy on a large scale because the nation is rich in green energy potential, the President added.

"Based on calculations (the addition of new and renewable energy) is estimated to reach 3,600 gigawatts, starting from (energy derived from the) sun, wind, geothermal, ocean currents, waves, bioenergy, and also hydropower," he said. (Antaranews)