VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Civil 20 (C20) engagement group asks leaders of G20 countries must pay more attention to civil society issues and be more transparent in the policy-making process.

"Why does the Civil 20 (C20) important? It's because, as part of a democratic society, the government must open up spaces for participation and transparency together to roll out policies that benefit the community at large," Binny Buchori of the Civil 20 (C20) steering committee said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to Buchori, the involvement of civil society organizations in the process of policy-making is very important so the policies are truly inclusive and no one is left behind.

“So, it is civil society organizations that monitor policies,” Buchori said.

C20 is one of the participation forums attended by civil society organizations from across the world as well as international partners.

Thus, the C20 steering committee asked the governments to accommodate the aspirations of the world's civil society, which is divided into seven working groups.

The seven working groups include first, vaccine access and global health; second, environment, climate justice, and energy transition; third, development, sustainable development goals (SDGs), and humanity; fourth, education, digitization, and civic space; fifth, gender equality; sixth, anti-corruption; and seventh, taxation and sustainable finance.

Earlier, the chair of C20 Indonesia, Sugeng Bahagijo, said that C20 Indonesia is a meeting place for global civil society organizations to balance the policy-making process in the G20.

Indonesia's G20 presidency determines the fate of people around the world, including the poor from low- and middle-income countries, he added.

C20 urges G20 leaders to pay heed to and take action on the issues that directly impact people's daily lives on their agenda.

The pandemic has pushed at least 20 million people into extreme poverty. This is on top of 82.4 million people who have been forcibly displaced and 161 million people who have faced acute food shortages.

“We need to question whether G20 has heard the voice of the people to address the multidimensional crisis worldwide," he said. (Antaranews)

Global partnership for financial inclusion became one of the most important agendas under Indonesia's G20 Presidency in the finance track, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani stated at a virtual talk show on Thursday.

"This is because we want to ensure that the 'recover together and recover stronger' theme not only occurs between countries but also within these countries," she noted.

G20 is an international forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union that work together to handle major issues. Indonesia is holding presidency of the grouping this year.

During the G20 Digital Transformation: Resilient MSMEs for Global Economic Recovery virtual talk show, she stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had left a deep scarring effect on several sectors that can actually be bolstered.

Hence, within that context, Indonesia's G20 Presidency provides global partnership for financial inclusion as an activity related to infrastructure, such as compatible regulation and payment system between countries.

This will allow financial institutions and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to have access, especially to the capital and market.

In addition, Indonesia's G20 Presidency provides several other activities related to financial literacy and activities that create a supply chain from many major, medium, and small companies, Indrawati stated.

"This activity will then allow them to have the capability to gain profit from the global supply chain," she explained.

Nonetheless, the minister fully understands that there will be serious disruption to the global supply chain as a result of the current geopolitical situation.

To this end, the Indonesian government will combine digital technologies.

This will allow several SMEs to participate in their activities at the local and global levels that will provide a market platform.

The former managing director of World Bank also noted that the government will provide access to very important capital for several SMEs, wherein Indonesia provides the ultra-micro financing system to SMEs.

"This is provided by all economic policies from the credit side," she remarked.  (Antaranews)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has affirmed that the government will routinely evaluate the development of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.

"Every week or regularly, whenever there is a development, a ministerial decree of the Agriculture Minister will be issued and followed up with the issuance of a task force's circular and Home Affairs Minister's instruction to accelerate FMD handling, just like what's done in COVID-19 handling," he explained at a limited coordination meeting for FMD handling on Wednesday.

Hartarto said that besides cattle, FMD has started affecting buffaloes, goats, and pigs. For that reason, the government is accelerating the handling of FMD by pushing the task force to work quickly, expediting vaccinations, and managing livestock movement.

"There has been a Decree of the Chair of the PC-PEN (COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery) Committee Number 2 of 2022 regarding the FMD Handling Task Force," the minister pointed out.

The task force's implementing team is chaired by the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and assisted by five deputy chairs from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, the Indonesian Military (TNI), and the National Police (Polri).

The Ministry of Agriculture has also issued the Decree of Agriculture Minister Number 500.1/KPTS/PK.300/M/06/2022 concerning the Determination of FMD Outbreak Areas, which stipulates 19 provinces as FMD outbreak areas.

The government has also prepared 3 million vaccine doses to curb the spread of FMD.

"There are already 3 million doses of vaccine in Indonesia with a budget that has been prepared. Thus, the existing vaccine doses must be injected immediately," Hartarto said.

The limited coordination meeting on Wednesday also discussed strategies to accelerate FMD vaccinations by prioritizing FMD green zones and community farms, expedite FMD testing, as well as manage livestock movement.

For the FMD handling evaluation, the task force will report daily, weekly, or periodically to the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and relevant ministers and agency heads, who will then make a report to the President. (Antaranews)

Pakistan's foreign minister called for an easing of Western sanctions against Afghanistan under the Taliban government, saying the basic functioning of the Afghan economy must not be endangered.

The Taliban takeover last year prompted foreign governments, led by the United States, to cut development and security aid, and the strict enforcement of sanctions has debilitated the country's banking sector.

In an interview with Germany's Welt newspaper published on Thursday, foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said isolating Afghanistan economically was pushing the country into economic collapse.

"If the country remains locked out of international banking and its foreign assets remain frozen, then that is what will happen. We must not promote famine," she added.

Khar said the Western troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, in which Germany was also involved, had serious repercussions because it was not preceded by a negotiated solution, calling on Germany to play an active political role in easing sanctions.

"In the current situation, it is not a good idea to continue to starve Afghanistan and risk an economic implosion in the country," she said, adding that economic support was necessary to help the Afghan people.

"How is it that we spent $3 trillion on the war, but today don't even have $10 billion on Afghan survival? I don't understand this behavior," she added. (Reuters)