VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The decision to relocate the national capital to East Kalimantan is aimed at ensuring smooth long-term national development, University of Indonesia academic Andrinof Chaniago has opined.

"We should assume that the relocation of the national capital is a step to develop the country, as we will have more issues to face in the next 30 years," he stated during a webinar on national capital relocation, accessed from Jakarta on Thursday.

Indonesia is on the brink of a food crisis as food production, centered mainly in Java, has declined due to accelerating arable land conversion for industry, housing, or tourism purposes on the island, he noted.

Kalimantan, compared with Java, has a lower population, yet it accounts for 33 percent of Indonesia's total land area, the academic noted.

"Kalimantan has 12 million hectares of non-productive land, and to construct a new city from scratch, we just need one million hectares that we could carve from the available land spaces," Chaniago said.

He argued that the relocation of the national capital would help relieve Jakarta's issues, warning the potential loss from multiple issues in the current capital may reach Rp50 trillion (around US$ 3.5 billion) annually.

"The regional authority is close to being overwhelmed as the demand for public service is beyond their ability to provide the service for the residents," Chaniago opined.

He also asked the authorities to ensure that infrastructure development is evenly spread in Indonesian regions instead of being centered in Java or the Jakarta agglomeration area.

Relocation of the national capital, besides alleviating Jakarta's issues and allowing the regional authority to devise and manage the province's development, would also fuel the development of eastern Indonesia and other underdeveloped regions, the academic said.

"The expected effect is that the new national capital would fuel the development in eastern Indonesia, underdeveloped, and border regions, and ensuring equal development nationwide as the foundation for a quality and sustainable national economic development," he remarked. (Antaranews)

Media briefing on COP26, Jakarta - VOI-NK - 

The 26th Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow is a major international conference for taking action on climate change. Last year Asia experienced its hottest year on record, 1.4 degrees above the average temperature for the previous three decades, causing billions of dollars in economic losses from extreme weather and climate change impacts. When asked by Voice of Indonesia, whether COP26 can be a solution to climate change, in a Media briefing Thursday (28/10/21) In Jakarta, the British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste, Owen Jenkins explained that COP26 must be a solution to climate change problem that is experienced worldwide.

“And I think the answer it has to be. We don’t have another moment, we need to this together, we need to do this in a context of United Nation so every come together to sholve what is bigger chalange we faced. And we think that Glasgow COP26 is our last best chance to address the chalange on a climate change. And we can, the progress has been made, the impresive ambition has shown been by Indonesia and other countries show the world is committed to make this change” Ambassador Owen said.

On the same occasion, First Secretary for climate change and low carbon policy at the British Embassy for Indonesia and Timor Leste, Helen Faulkner said that article 6 of the Paris rulebook on negotiations to form the basis of a carbon market mechanism that has not yet been finalized will be an important discussion at COP26 .

“We are very much practice on issue an introduction of the outcome. Article 6 probably the most chalanging issue to come. And we have seen some progress and changing over these years. And we are seeting it there yet. And I think thats why COP26 President has task two ministers and try to take this forward. And try move forward the process to become each agreement on article 6” Helen said.

The content of these rules is as important as the country's key climate targets, because the key figures are only as good as our ability to ensure countries are clearly reducing emissions and accounting for those reductions consistently //VOI-NK

Australia on Thursday eased its COVID-related travel advice for several countries including the United States, Britain and Canada as it prepares to reopen its borders next week for the first time in over 18 months.

Australia will lift its outbound travel ban for fully vaccinated residents from Nov. 1 following a strong uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, as Sydney and Melbourne, its biggest cities, look to welcome overseas travellers without quarantine.

"The changes announced today are a vital next step in re-uniting Australian families and safely re-opening Australia to the world," Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Thursday.

The updated country-specific travel advice will also help Australians to access travel insurance more readily, Payne said.

As Australia begins to ease COVID-19 travel curbs, Victoria on Thursday recorded its deadliest day of the Delta outbreak with 25 deaths and 1,923 cases, the biggest rise in infections in four days. Neighbouring New South Wales, home to Sydney, logged 293 new cases, down from 304 on Wednesday.

Despite the Delta wave, national coronavirus numbers are still relatively low by global standards, with about 166,000 cases and 1,694 deaths.

Australia has been gradually easing tough restrictions in Sydney and Melbourne, helped by higher vaccination levels after a third wave of infections fuelled by the highly infectious Delta variant spread rapidly across its southeast.

The relaxation in travel rules, however, is not uniform across Australia, as the country's states and territories have differing vaccination rates and health policies. 

Under the updated travel advice framework, the 'do not travel' advisory, put in place for all destinations in March 2020, has been removed. But no destination will be set lower than 'level 2 - exercise a high degree of caution'.(Reuters)

Lao police have seized a record haul of illicit drugs in the Golden Triangle region, two security sources in Thailand confirmed on Thursday, in what the United Nations said was Asia's largest single drug bust ever.

More than 55 million methamphetamine tablets and over 1.5 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine were intercepted by Laos police on Wednesday, who stopped a truck carrying beer crates in northern Bokeo, which borders Thailand and Myanmar, the two sources told Reuters.

Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the discovery was "by far the largest seizure in the history of East and Southeast Asia."

The bust on Wednesday followed the confiscation by Lao police of a combined 16 million amphetamine tablets in two separate busts in the same area over a one week period.

Authorities in Laos did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

The Golden Triangle - an area of northeast Myanmar that meets parts of Thailand and Laos - has a long history of being a major drug-producing area.

It has served as a massive production centre for amphetamine-type stimulants, especially methamphetamine, used by Asian crime syndicates with distribution networks reaching as far as Japan and New Zealand.

Douglas said the spike in volume of drugs seized in Laos was due to a shifting of smuggling routes inside Myanmar, as a result of unrest in border areas since a coup in February.

"This is related to the security and governance breakdown in the Triangle and Shan Myanmar – spillover is hitting the region," Douglas said. (Reuters)