VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) Ministry will step up efforts to conserve seagrass and mangroves as part of the government’s strategy to tackle climate change and improve blue carbon potential.

"(The development of) Indonesia's other blue carbon ecosystem (apart from mangroves), namely seagrasses, which has (cover) an estimated area of 1.8 million hectares, has not received much attention so far," director general of sea spatial management of the ministry Victor Gustaaf Manoppo observed.

He made the statement during a workshop on the “Blue Carbon Strategy for Achieving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Targets and Implementation of Carbon Economic Values (NEK)” on Tuesday.

The seagrass ecosystem in Indonesia can absorb up to 790 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), with a projected economic value of US$35 billion, he informed.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's mangrove ecosystem, which covers an area of around 3.36 million hectares, is expected to absorb 11 billion tons of CO2 with an estimated economic value of US$66 billion.

Furthermore, as part of the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation attempts in the marine sector, the KKP Ministry is seeking to expand marine conservation areas by 30 percent in 2045.

According to the ministry’s data, in 2022, Indonesia's marine conservation area only reached 28.9 million hectares, or 8.7 percent of the total area of the nation.

"By expanding the (conservation) ecosystem area to 30 percent, the seagrass and mangrove ecosystems in the conservation area will be able to absorb around 188 million tons of CO2 equivalent," Manoppo highlighted.

Other efforts that will be carried out by the ministry to mitigate climate change will cover coastal and small islands management as well as marine area utilization arrangement.

Blue carbon is carbon that is absorbed and stored in sea and coastal ecosystems. Biomass like leaves, roots, and trunks, as well as mangrove sediment and seagrass meadows can store four to five times more carbon than forests on land.

Indonesia has shown its serious commitment to nurturing mangrove forests through their reforestation and restoration since 2010.

In 2020, coastal ecosystem protection also became a strategic step in the process of national economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic through the implementation of a labor-intensive activity of mangrove planting in 34 provinces across Indonesia. (Antaranews)

Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah has said that the passage of the domestic workers' protection (PPRT) bill into law is being expedited to provide a legal basis for the protection of domestic workers.

"With the presence of this PPRT bill, issues related to domestic workers can be solved, and (we can) have a clear legal basis," she said in a written statement received on Tuesday.

According to Fauziyah, the government is responsible for supporting the bill’s passage by holding protection as an inseparable part of domestic workers.

She said that collaboration in providing protection to domestic workers must start upstream.

If the upstream protection issues are resolved, the downstream will follow, she explained.

"We want the protection to be as clear as possible for those who work in the domestic sector," she stated.

The PPRT bill, which has been included as a priority of the House of Representatives (DPR), regulates the social security of domestic workers, both in health and employment.

The minister noted that the PPRT bill was initiated by the DPR a long time ago in 2004–2009, and it finally became a priority of the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) for 2019–2024.

The minister said that so far, the legal basis for domestic workers has been regulated by the Manpower Minister's Regulation Number 2 of 2015 on the protection of domestic workers.

However, the regulation does not specifically cover the social security provided by employers to domestic workers.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo said that the government is committed to and is striving for the protection of domestic workers.

According to Widodo, the number of domestic workers is estimated to have reached four million. They are vulnerable to losing their rights as workers. (antaranews)

Sri Lanka is committed to meeting all its debt repayments and is hoping to complete debt restructuring negotiations in the next six months, the country's central bank chief P. Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Tuesday.

"There has been good progress this month with India already pledging financing assurances. We expect assurances from China and Japan soon," Weerasinghe said at an event titled "Economic Outlook 2023".

The island nation of 22 million people has grappled with challenges during the past year ranging from a shortage of foreign currency to runaway inflation and a steep recession - the worst such crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

Sri Lanka is racing to secure a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but requires the backing of both China and India, its biggest bilateral creditors, to reach a final agreement with the global lender.

India last week told the IMF that it strongly supports Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan.

"Once the IMF program is unlocked then we will start specific debt restructuring negotiations with both commercial and bilateral lenders," the head of the apex bank said.

"We hope to complete this process in six months. The biggest uncertainty is the timeframe for the debt restructuring. It is only after debt sustainability is assured can Sri Lanka return to a sustainable growth path," he added.

Weerasinghe added that good progress has been made in negotiations with the Paris Club creditor nations and other creditors.

On the domestic front, talks with local banks to reduce rates were ongoing but restructuring of domestic debt remains an uncertainty, he said.

On a separate note, Weerasinghe said Sri Lanka's inflation would reduce at a faster pace in 2023 and expects it to reach single digits by end of 2023.

The central bank is aiming to bring down interest rates in line with inflation expectations and the process would be fast-tracked once the IMF programme is unlocked, he added.

Sri Lanka's National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) (LKNCPI=ECI) eased year-on-year to 59.2% in December, after a 65% rise in November, data on Monday showed. (Reuters)

Thailand received 11.15 million foreign visitors in 2022, a surge from just about 428,000 the previous year when broad pandemic-related travel curbs were in place, tourism ministry data showed on Tuesday.

The figures, which beat the government's target, reflect a solid turnaround as Thailand tries to revive its vital tourism industry, which bore the brunt of its strict entry and quarantine policies during the pandemic.

In December, there were 2.24 million foreign tourists, compared with 230,497 in the same month a year earlier.

Pre-pandemic 2019 saw a record of nearly 40 million foreign tourists for the full year.

Malaysia, India and Singapore were Thailand's top three source markets last year, the ministry said.

In 2023, the government is expecting 25 million international visitors, including at least five million from China, Thailand's biggest source market before the pandemic.

The government on Tuesday approved a budget of 3.95 billion baht ($120.72 million) to boost domestic travel and international tourism in secondary cities.

China's reopening is expected to further boost Thailand's vital tourism sector, which before the pandemic accounted for about 12% of gross domestic product in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy. (Reuters)