VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Recovery efforts in the transportation sector have contributed to the revival of the tourism sector in the country, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi has said.

"This effort is a turning point for the revival of the transportation industry because it continues to increase passenger occupancy," he observed at the Global Tourism Forum or the 2022 Global Tourism Forum-Annual Meeting in Bali on Thursday.

He said that a number of efforts have been made to revive transportation, including the issuance of several circulars regarding easier transportation and travel requirements, while still prioritizing the implementation of the health protocols.

In addition, the Ministry of Transportation, together with transportation operators, is also continuing to optimize the use of technology to minimize the spread of the virus, including by digitizing services at airports and using HEPA filters to keep the air at public transportation facilities clean.

Furthermore, the Transportation Ministry has also launched a number of incentives, for example, Aircraft Passenger Services (PJP2U) or Passenger Service Charge (PSC) in the aviation sector.

Speaking at the forum, the minister said that the recovery efforts have started to show results. One of the indicators is that, based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), transportation and warehousing grew the most in the third quarter of 2022 at 25.8 percent (year on year).

This shows a trend that has continued to increase since early 2022 and has made an important contribution to Indonesia's economic growth, which increased by 5.72 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2022.

However, the Minister of Transportation reminded all parties to continue to strive to maintain the momentum of growth and remain alert to conditions created by global uncertainty, such as further pandemics, climate change, and global war tensions in the future.

He also revealed efforts to build the future of public transportation in post-pandemic Indonesia.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we must think ahead. In the future, Indonesia needs to improve network connectivity, transportation safety, environmentally friendly transportation, and intermodal integration," he said.

For increasing connectivity between regions, the Ministry of Transportation will continue to build transportation infrastructure, both in urban areas and in remote, frontier, lagging, and border areas (3TP).

To overcome the limited state fiscal capacity (APBN) for financing transportation infrastructure development in Indonesia, the Minister of Transportation will continue to encourage non-APBN creative funding through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, state asset funds, utilization cooperation (KSP), mixed financing, green financing in green project infrastructure, as well as establishing a Public Service Agency (BLU) and increasing non-tax state revenue (PNBP).

"At the moment of the G20 Presidency, we signed several memorandums of understanding for non-APBN creative funding with three countries, namely Japan, England, and South Korea, for the development of the Jakarta MRT (Mass Rapid Transit),” he said.

The government is also committed to reducing exhaust emissions from fossil fuel vehicles by starting to transform energy from fossil fuels into new renewable energy (EBT), he added.

The government is targeting to produce at least two million electric vehicles by 2025.

It will develop an electric vehicle ecosystem so that Indonesia does not remain merely a market or consumer of electric vehicles but also becomes a producer given its natural resource potential for producing components for electric vehicles.

The Minister of Transportation also underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation with stakeholders such as ministries or other institutions, state-owned enterprises (BUMN), the private sector, academia, the media, and the public. (antaranews)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he conveyed concerns over regional security to Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday amid growing tensions in Asia over China's maritime ambitions.

Xi was quoted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV as telling Kishida that China and Japan should deepen trust, areas of cooperation and regional integration, and resist "conflict and confrontation".

The two leaders met in Thailand on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, marking the first leadership-level talks between the two countries in almost three years.

Regional tensions have been rising over self-governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and earlier this year staged war games near the island.

The democratically-elected government in Taipei rejects Beijing's claims and says only its people can decide its future.

Japan also lodged a diplomatic complaint in August after five ballistic missiles launched by the Chinese military fell into Japan's exclusive economic zone, near disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

"I reiterated the importance of peace and security in the Taiwan Strait," Kishida said to reporters after the summit, stopping short of suggesting how China responded to his concerns.

"I conveyed my grave concerns about the situation in the East China Sea, including the Senkaku Islands, as well as China's military presence such as their launching of missiles," Kishida added.

Xi told Kishida the issue of Taiwan needed to be handled properly and in good faith as it touched on the political foundation and basic trust of China-Japan relations, according to CCTV.

Xi then went on to say that "China does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, nor does it accept anyone interfering in China's internal affairs under any pretext", CCTV reported.

The Japanese premier took a at an East Asia Summit held in Cambodia last week, openly criticising China for "violating" Japan's sovereignty in the East China Sea.

Xi only hinted at the issue on Thursday, however, saying that "on the issue of maritime and territorial disputes, we should abide by the consensus of principles already reached, and show political wisdom and commitment to properly manage differences."

The fact that Xi sat with Kishida at the summit table in Bangkok despite the open criticism a few days prior gives weight to the meeting, said Rumi Aoyama, professor in Chinese foreign policy at Waseda University.

"Holding the talks was an important achievement to have for Xi's foreign policy... and also indicates the importance of China's relationship with Japan as its economy struggles with the zero-covid policy," she said.

Analysts say Xi's packed schedule of bilateral meetings at the G20 summit in Indonesia, which ended on Wednesday, and at the APEC summit was partly driven by a perceived need to counterbalance U.S. global influence over its allies, including Japan. read more

Kishida also told reporters that he had agreed with Xi to reopen diplomatic channels of communications, with Japan's foreign minister set to visit China in the near future. (Reuters)

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday that peace in Ukraine was not going to be possible until Russia withdrew its troops, but that Moscow showed no signs of being ready for that.

"I am afraid Russia is not ready to withdraw and as far as it doesn't withdraw, peace will not be possible," Borrell told Reuters in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

"It is Russia who has to make peace possible, the aggressor has to withdraw if he wants a sustainable peace," he said. (Reuters)

Kyiv welcomed the murder convictions handed out by a Dutch court on Thursday to three men for their role in the 2014 shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, but said those who ordered the attack must face trial.

The court in The Hague issued the sentences after saying Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made missile fired from a field in eastern Ukraine and that Russia had overall control of separatist forces at the time.

"An important decision of the court in The Hague. The first sentences for those responsible for shooting down #MH17," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter.

"But it is necessary that those who ordered it also end up in the dock because the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes. We have to dispel this illusion. Punishment for all Russian atrocities - both then and now - will be inevitable."

The plane was shot down as Russian-backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, a region where fighting continues following Russian's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The three men convicted were former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist leader.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed a "profound joint effort" by Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia.

"Today’s verdicts send a message to Russia: no amount of lies can help escape justice. All criminals up the Russian chain of command shall be held accountable," he wrote on Twitter.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the ruling sent "the strongest signal to the whole world, including Russia itself, that every war crime committed by the Russians will be documented, investigated and brought to a conclusion. No matter how much time it takes." (Reuters)