VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto proposed health system synergy and digital connectivity as policy focuses of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) at the APEC ministerial meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

"Access to vaccines and transparency in health policy are fundamental to implementing (overseas) safe travel and reconnecting the APEC region," he noted in a statement here on Friday.

To this end, Hartarto encouraged the interoperability of the COVID-19 vaccination certificate system among APEC members by recognizing various types of vaccines used by inter-governmental forum members.

Indonesia had recognized 98 different COVID-19 vaccines and kept conducting assessments to identify more COVID-19 vaccines.

"Different types of vaccines (used) among states should not be an obstacle for travelers within the APEC area (to visit other countries)," the coordinating minister remarked.

He also accentuated the importance of global solidarity to handle the pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that global solidarity is not just a saying. No one is truly safe, until the whole world is safe," he remarked.

Furthermore, he highlighted the significance of digital connectivity that has become an inseparable part of people's lifestyle nowadays in the context of COVID-19 mitigation.

Indonesia has developed interoperability of its COVID-19 tracking application PeduliLindungi with applications from other countries, such as TraceTogether used by Singapore, Tawakkalna applied by Saudi Arabia, and the European Union DCC that is used by the European Union.

However, Hartarto highlighted several challenges in realizing digital connectivity, such as the digital divide that occurs among APEC countries.

"APEC needs to promote wider regional interconnectivity. APEC can be a solution to respond to the challenges posed. We can encourage Public-Private-Partnership for the development of digital infrastructure and human resources," he stated.

Furthermore, he emphasized that solidarity among APEC countries is crucial to bolster economic growth in the region.

The 29th APEC Summit is being held in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 18-19, 2022. (antaranews)

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires synergy and collaboration for accelerated village development, according to Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Minister Abdul Halim Iskandar.

"Since 2021, the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration has started to implement Village SDGs as a direction for the village development policy. Achieving the Village SDGs goals requires synergy and collaboration," Iskandar noted during the commemoration of the Regional Development Acceleration in Bondowoso, East Java, which was followed online on Thursday.

According to the minister, Village SDGs make the direction of village development clearer, facilitate the implementation of development, and make it easier to measure the benefits and impacts of development.

Iskandar affirmed that his ministry is preparing village system information to facilitate regional heads in monitoring village development.

"Inshallah (if God wills), by the end of this year or at the latest early 2023, district heads, regional heads can monitor the conditions of their respective villages in more detail through village system information whose dashboard has reached the finalization phase," he explained.

The minister further noted that villages could update data in real time, thereby making it easier for the government to validate data.

The information system would be able to show regions with the highest poverty rate, according to Iskandar.

On the occasion, he noted that Presidential Regulation Number 63 of 2020 on the Determination of Disadvantaged Regions for 2020-2024 stipulates that 62 disadvantaged regions are spread across 11 provinces.

Iskandar admitted that alleviating 62 disadvantaged regions is not easy while emphasizing that the commitment of all stakeholders and collaboration between ministries and institutions was deemed necessary.

The minister assessed that villages have an essential and significant role to play in the alleviation of disadvantaged regions. To this end, villages must be at the forefront of development, especially in disadvantaged regions.

"In short, the better the use of Village Funds is, the faster the status of the village will rise. This is a broad road for districts to be free from the disadvantaged region status," he remarked. (antaranews)

Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) Minister Bintang Puspayoga felt pride after the G20 member countries agreed to commit to empowering women in the 2022 Bali Declaration as a result of the 2022 G20 Summit.

"The G20 Declaration has made important progress because, for the first time, the G20 countries have agreed and committed to women's empowerment in a separate full statement contained in the 46th commitment," the minister noted here on Thursday.

By stipulating the head of state's commitment to women's empowerment in a separate item, it not only showed concern for the fate of women but also demonstrated the seriousness of the G20 countries to place women and children as the core of inclusive and sustainable development, she remarked.

"This shows a commitment to build a global economic architecture that starts from equality and eliminates inequality, both in the distribution of domestic work and parenting as well as inequality," Puspayoga stated.

This commitment also shows the support of the G20 countries for Indonesia's work, especially her ministry, in making various efforts to empower women and protect children. Thus, the PPPA Ministry will have a smooth process in ensuring the participation of women and children in all aspects of development.

In addition, in almost every point of the commitment, apart from point 46, the need to consider the role of women and child protection was mentioned, in points 6, 25, 26, 28, 38, 39, 41, and 44 concerning food, finance, health, education, digital technology workforce, economy, micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs), and infrastructure investment.

"This proves that the global economic architecture for the next year and in the future will be largely determined by the spirit of equality and the elimination of gender inequality," the minister affirmed.

According to Puspayoga, the effort is aimed at including separate points on women's empowerment in various aspects of development is the long work that has been started since it was voiced at the 2015 G20 Summit in Turkey in the W20 Forum.

However, Indonesia, as Chair of the 2022 G20, is seriously preparing its own points on empowerment through a series of dialogs throughout the year organized by women's organizations, institutions, and the business world that are members of the W20 forum and the Empower forum. (Antaranews)

Bank Indonesia (BI) has recorded 414 million BI-FAST Payment transactions worth Rp1,393 trillion as of October 2022.

"The figure will continue to increase to more than Rp1,500 trillion through 450 million transactions at the end of this year," BI Deputy Governor Doni Primato Joewono said while announcing the results of the annual meeting of BI's board of governors, which was followed online from Jakarta on Thursday.

Therefore, the central bank will continue to push BI-FAST transactions, in terms of volume and value, by opening the fifth round of registration of BI-FAST participants at the end of this year, he informed.

He said that 29 new BI-FAST participants will join the fifth round of registration, taking the total number of participants to 106.

The total participants account for an 87-percent share of the financial market in Indonesia.

In addition, BI will focus on expanding the current BI-FAST features, such as credit transfers, direct debit, and canals.

"We will keep on reviewing the pricing policy," Joewono said.

BI will also open the sixth round registration of BI-FAST participants, particularly non-banking institutions, he informed.

Right now, two or three non-banking institutions are technologically ready to join the sixth round of registration, he said. (Antaranews)