VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Soekarno Hatta International Airport is ranked first on the Airports Council International (ACI) list of busiest airports in Southeast Asia for 2022, according to state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II.

This Cengkareng-based airport also ranked third on ACI's list of busiest airports in the Asia-Pacific region, Angkasa Pura II President Director, Muhammad Awaluddin, noted in a statement here Friday.

ACI World had published the latest World Airport Traffic Dataset on July 19 showing that airports in the United States still dominated the world's top 20 busiest airports.

According to ACI's official website, the dataset also showed "airport passenger, cargo, and aircraft movement rankings for over 2,600 airports across more than 180 countries and territories."

Awaluddin remarked that the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's success in joining the list of busiest airports in the Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific regions revealed the outcomes of all stakeholders' hard work.

Last year, Indonesia's aviation sector was still challenged by the impacts of the global pandemic of novel coronavirus but it had entered a recovery period, he remarked.

"In the recovery period, AP II and all its stakeholders continue to strengthen the domestic and international flight connectivity to help boost economic growth and pandemic mitigation efforts," he remarked.

Awaluddin attributed the strengthening of flight connectivity to the sound collaborations among stakeholders and full support from the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and Transportation Ministry.

The strengthened connectivity was apparent from the reopening of flight routes that had been closed during COVID-19; increasing the frequency of existing flight routes; and the opening of new flight routes, he remarked.

These collaborative efforts had made the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport the busiest in Southeast Asia and ranked third on ACI's list of busiest airports in the Asia-Pacific region, he stated.

According to ACI, for 2022, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's passenger traffic was recorded at 39.60 million people, while the global passenger traffic reached 6.6 billion people, he noted.

Meanwhile, AP II's Director of Engineering Agus Wialdi remarked that the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's success was the result of good facility and infrastructure maintenance in air and on land.

As a result, in 2022, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport had also ranked ninth on the list of Best Airport Staff in Asia, he remarked.  (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia is ready to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has said.

"I spoke with (OECD) Secretary-General Mathias Corman to convey that Indonesia is ready to become a member of the OECD. The response has been very positive, and Indonesia is now a key partner, which means we are invited to every OECD meeting," Hartarto informed.

If Indonesia becomes a member of the OECD, it will be the third country in Asia after Japan and South Korea to join the cooperation organization based in France, he noted at the 2023 Indonesia Data and Economic Conference (IDE) in Jakarta on Thursday.

He said it is important for Indonesia to become a member of the OECD because that will allow it to apply higher standards in the entire legislative process, both in the process of forming legislations to the types of regulations and standards that will be applied at each ministry and institution.

According to him, Indonesia deserves to be an OECD member since, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has again become an upper middle-income country, successfully organized the G20 Summit, and led the ASEAN Summit amid difficult situations ranging from pandemic, war, and climate change.

"We have succeeded in making breakthroughs and at the same time, grounding the G20 with various programs, including the launch of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure, JPP, and others," he said.

There are many programs that have been grounded from the G20 meeting and this has never happened before, so hopefully, in the next few years, Indonesia will become the third country in Asia to be included in the OECD group, Hartarto disclosed.

The OECD is an intergovernmental organization (IGO) that was founded in 1961 to encourage economic cooperation among countries. Currently, the developed country organization has 38 member countries.

Based on Article 1 of the OECD convention, the organization was established to "achieve sustainable economic growth, employment, and the highest standard of living among its member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and contributing to world economic development."

The organization also promotes policies that contribute to economic expansion, both in member and non-member countries. Another objective of its policy is to promote regulations that expand world trade on a multilateral and non-discriminatory basis, in line with international obligations. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Indonesian National Paralympic Committee (NPC) is collaborating with Seoul Sports Association for the Differently-abled (SSAD) South Korea to improve the achievement of athletes with disabilities and build international-standard training facilities.

NPC Chairman Senny Marbun noted that the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SSAD Senior Vice President Hwang Jae Yun in Seoul, South Korea, on July 10, 2023.

SSAD is an association with a mission to improve the quality of life of disabled people through sports activities. SSAD trains talented athletes to promote disability sports in South Korea and has an advanced training facility.

Several important programs were agreed upon in this MoU, such as the athletes' exchange to undergo training in each country.

"Indonesia can send athletes to train in South Korea using their facilities and vice versa," Marbun noted in a press statement received here Thursday.

According to Marbun, as Asian countries, the two parties have agreed to support each other to produce quality athletes as an effort to excel and compete with European countries in international events.

"We do not want Asian countries to be left behind by European countries," he emphasized.

During his visit to a training ground for athletes with disabilities in Korea, he asked for a blueprint for their training facility.

He noted that NPC is also keen to build an international-standard training facility in Karanganyar, Central Java.

Meanwhile, Deputy General Manager of Public Relations and Cooperation Department of SSAD Jun Hee Sun welcomed the cooperation between the two countries.

This collaboration further ensures that SSAD and NPC will establish a fundamental relationship to carry out international sports exchange activities, Sun remarked.

Moreover, Sun noted that the MoU signing aimed at intensifying cooperation among parties by establishing roles and responsibilities for the development, implementation, support, and means of cooperation activities that will be carried out together. (antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia is among the few countries that have managed to recover from global crises thrice, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.

The three major crises faced by Indonesia comprise the monetary crisis in 1998, the global financial crisis in 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Indonesia is one among few countries who, after experiencing crises three times and learning from (those) crises, we can recover and manage crises well," the state treasurer said at the Indonesia Data and Economic Conference hosted by research company Katadata here on Thursday.

According to her, this success is owing to Indonesia's skill in observing and reviewing data as well as learning from its experiences.

She said that Indonesia made efforts to extend aid during every crisis, for instance, during the 1998 crisis, when the financial sector was almost at its downfall.

The state also actively managed the situation during the 2008 global crisis to ensure stability, she added.

Everyone has also jointly participated in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted.

"So, if there is a crisis, the state's finances will have a part (in addressing the issue). Hence, in crises, we always place state's finances as the first and foremost of instruments," she added.

She assured that consistent efforts will be made to maintain the readiness of the state's financial instruments to face future crises, as Indonesia has learned from extensive crises, particularly those affecting its financial sector.

The efforts have included improving banking sector regulation and developing the non-banking financial sector, particularly insurance and retirement funds, Indrawati highlighted.

Indonesia's success in managing crises has been proved by the state's consistent economic growth, which crossed 5 percent during some consecutive quarters, she added.

Moreover, the state budget's deficit, which, at one point, exceeded 3 percent because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was successfully brought down to below 3 percent in 2022, she pointed out.

The achievement was in line with Law Number 2 of 2022, specifically the plan to bring down the state budget deficit below 3 percent by 2023, she added.

"This is the fastest fiscal consolidation," she said. (Antaranews)