VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Lead co-chair of Think 20 (T20) Indonesia Bambang Brodjonegoro during the plenary session of the T20 Summit here on Monday, urged G20 leaders to push for an inclusive global economic recovery.

T20 is a cooperation forum for think tanks and researchers across G20 member countries. Group 20 or G20 is a multilateral cooperation group that comprises 19 countries and the European Union (EU).

Stronger and inclusive global economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 is one of the policy recommendations of the Indonesian T20 Presidency’s communiqué.

In addition, the Indonesian T20 Presidency is pushing G20 leaders to carry out collective efforts to restructure global health architecture, utilize digital transformation, expedite sustainable energy transition, and develop better cross-border cooperation.

T20 Indonesia has also encouraged promoting the voices of countries in the southern hemisphere, most of which are developing nations, Brodjonegoro said.

This is because the global narrative is currently dominated by countries from the north, which tends to suit developed countries.

Improving the representation of countries from the south is very important to ensure the formation of a global narrative that is fair and acceptable by the governments of all types of countries, he explained.

Global issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and digital transformation, can occur on a scale that necessitates collective handling, Brodjonegoro said.

Through the communiqué, the Indonesian T20 Presidency has laid stress on five main policy recommendations.

These comprise encouraging economic recovery and resilience, expediting clean zero emissions, regulating the public's transformation into a digital society, making the economy more inclusive and people-centric, and reviving the global order.

These recommendations have been developed through a stringent process that has involved T20 Indonesia gathering 762 policy brief abstracts and producing 130 policy briefs written by more than 200 groups, he informed. (Antaranews)

China's Shenzhen city eased a COVID-19 lockdown on Monday as infections in its latest outbreak showed signs of stabilising, while most of the 21.2 million residents of Chengdu city faced extended curbs on their movements.

An outbreak since late August prompted the technology hub of Shenzhen to order most of its 17.7 million residents to remain largely at home over the weekend and to take two rounds of tests. Bus and subway services in districts conducting tests were suspended.'

By Monday, certain restrictions on dining and visits to some parks were eased and many subway stations resumed operations, in an effort to minimise disruption while adhering to the government's "dynamic COVID-zero" policy that aims at containing each and every outbreak.

Shenzhen, near the financial hub of Hong Kong, found fewer infections among those who hadn't been quarantined in recent days. The latest data showed 71 new local cases for Sunday, down from 89 a day earlier, while the cumulative figure of about 500 cases since late August is fewer than the total in the city's last major outbreak in mid-March.

But Shenzhen remains on high alert for subvariants of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Entertainment venues are shut and large events suspended in most parts of the city, and most people are banned from visiting residential compounds unless they're on a list of people allowed in. Targeted lockdowns are imposed in areas deemed at high risk.

Most parts of Shenzhen resumed restaurants dining on Monday, though only at half capacity. Some city parks opened for half their stipulated capacity.

China has stuck to its stringent COVID policies even as most other countries have eased restrictions with the aim of living with the virus.

The approach increasingly clouds the outlook for the world's second-largest economy as the highly transmissible Omicron spreads.

Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, put its 21.2 million people under lockdown last week. China's biggest city of Shanghai endured two months of lockdown earlier this year.

Chengdu extended its lockdown for most people to Wednesday to enable authorities to complete another round of mass testing that began on Monday.

As of Monday morning, 88% of flights at Chengdu's Shuangliu Airport had been cancelled while the city's Tianfu Airport saw 95% of its flights cancelled, up from 62% and 79% respectively, on Thursday, the first day of the lockdown.

Flights in many other cities remain suspended.

The flight cancellation rate at Lhasa's Gongga Airport in Tibet was at 97% and Sanya's Phoenix Airport in Hainan province in the south was at 90%, while Xining's Caojiapu Airport in northwestern Qinghai province stood at 96% and Shenzhen's Baoan Airport was at 82%. (Reuters)

Liz Truss was named as Britain's next prime minister on Monday, winning a leadership race for the governing Conservative party at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession.

After weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive leadership contest that saw the foreign minister face off against former finance minister Rishi Sunak, Truss came out on top in a vote of Conservative Party members, winning by 81,326 votes to 60,399.

"We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years. I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy," Truss said after the result was announced.

"I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people's energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply."

The announcement triggers the start of a handover from Boris Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal saw support for his administration drain away.

He will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation. Truss will follow him and be asked to form a government by the monarch.

Long the front-runner in the race to replace Johnson, Truss will become the Conservatives' fourth prime minister since a 2015 election. Over that period the country has been buffeted from crisis to crisis, and now faces what is forecast to be a long recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation which hit 10.1% in July.

Foreign minister under Boris Johnson, Truss, 47, has promised to act quickly to tackle Britain's cost of living crisis, saying that within a week she will come up with a plan to tackle rising energy bills and securing future fuel supplies.

Truss has signalled during her leadership campaign she would challenge convention by scrapping tax increases and cutting other levies in a move some economists say would fuel inflation.

That, plus a pledge to review the remit of the Bank of England while protecting its independence, has prompted some investors to dump the pound and government bonds.

Kwasi Kwarteng, widely tipped to be her finance minister, sought to calm markets on Monday, by saying in an article in the Financial Times newspaper that under Truss there would need to be "some fiscal loosening" but that her administration would act in "a fiscally responsible way". 

Truss faces a long, costly and difficult to-do list, which opposition lawmakers say is the result of 12 years of poor Conservative government. Several have called for an early election - something Truss has said she will not allow.

Veteran Conservative lawmaker David Davis described the challenges she would take on as prime minister as "probably the second most difficult brief of post-war prime ministers" after Conservative Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

"I actually don't think any of the candidates, not one of them going through it, really knows quite how big this is going to be," he said, adding that costs could run into tens of billions of pounds.

Truss has said she will appoint a strong cabinet, dispensing with what one source close to her called a "presidential-style" of governing, and she will have to work hard to win over some lawmakers in her party who had backed Sunak in the race.

The Institute for Government think-tank said Truss would have a weaker starting point than any of her predecessors, because she was not the most popular choice among her party's lawmakers.

First, she will turn to the urgent issue of surging energy prices. Average annual household utility bills are set to jump by 80% in October to 3,549 pounds, before an expected rise to 6,000 pounds in 2023, decimating personal finances.

Britain has lagged other major European countries in its offer of support for consumer energy bills, which opposition lawmakers blame on a "zombie" government unable to act while the Conservatives ran their leadership contest.

In May, the government set out a 15 billion-pound support package to help households with energy bills as part of its 37 billion-pound cost-of-living support scheme.

Italy has budgeted over 52 billion euros ($51.75 billion) so far this year to help its people. In France, increases in electricity bills are capped at 4% and Germany said on Sunday it would spend at least 65 billion euros shielding consumers and businesses from rising inflation. (Reuters)

New Zealand's government said on Monday it would be reviewing the country's space policy and launching an aerospace strategy as part of an effort to grow the sector.

New Zealand has a small but growing space industry, which produced estimated revenue of NZ$1.75 billion ($1.06 billion) in the 2018-19 financial year, according to a report commissioned by the government in 2019.

The most well known company is launch firm Rocket Lab USA Inc (RKLB.O), which launches rockets out of a small town on the country's east coast.

The country's clear skies and diversity of geography make New Zealand an ideal location for aerospace activity, Associate Transport Minister Kieran McAnulty said in a statement.

"The Government's aerospace strategy will make sure that regulations remain fit for purpose, and advanced aviation technology is integrated into transport networks without disadvantaging those who use the airspace."

McAnulty said he had heard from the sector that there needs to be a well-resourced regulator with the ability to keep up with the fast-moving sector.

The government is providing NZ$3.7 million to the Civil Aviation Authority to establish a programme that will in part increase their regulatory capacity. (Reuters)