VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga cautioned women and parents to desist from sharing their family's personal data, including of their children, on social media to prevent crimes stemming from such information disclosure.

"Once again, I emphasize, never share our personal data, such as addresses and others," Puspayoga stressed during an online discussion "Being Aware of Social Media Crime to Strengthen Family Resilience" here on Saturday.

The minister also advised every parent to be careful in sharing photos on social media. She reasoned that information and photographs uploaded on social media can lead to the crimes, such as child abduction or abuse.

"Recent child abductions and abuses originated from parents' social media posts containing children's data and images," Puspayoga explained.

The minister emphasized the need for both parents and children to understand the risks of using the internet, frequent modes of crime, protection tools, and ways to protect oneself from cybercrimes.

Puspayoga called on parents and children to comprehend the importance of ensuring privacy on the internet, as what had been uploaded would be difficult to remove and prone to abuse by perpetrators across the world.

"We must ensure that children use the internet under the prevailing regulation, such as complying with the minimum age criteria for the use of social media," she pointed out.

Furthermore, the minister cited research that showed some 87 percent of Indonesian children had used social media before the age of 13.

"This becomes a cause for concern and to this end, parents should strengthen their family's resilience and build positive and warm relations in a family," Puspayoga remarked.

Meanwhile, the law that aims to protect personal data is still in draft form. On Friday, Dec 3, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics spoke of its focus on disseminating information on the Personal Data Protection Bill to the community. (Antaranews)

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin highlighted the government's aim to cover 50 percent of the target population to receive the second dose of COVID-19 by December-end to expedite the realization of herd immunity in Indonesia.

"We are aiming to at least administer the second dose of vaccination to 50 percent (of the target population) by the end of December. There are also regions, with the second dose vaccination coverage reaching 80 percent and also 100 percent," Amin noted after inaugurating the COVID-19 Heroes Monument in Bandung, West Java Province, on Saturday.

The government continues to expedite COVID-19 vaccination in various regions, considering that the number of vaccine doses for the community is sufficient to achieve herd immunity, the vice president added.

"We will expedite vaccination, as we have sufficient stocks of vaccine. Since our territory is large, with a huge population, we will still continue to increase vaccine stocks," Amin remarked.

To accelerate the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination, the government not only relies on health workers from the health services but also counts on help from members of the National Police (Polri), Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI), The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), and mass organization.

"We will focus on agglomeration areas where the vaccination coverage is still low, at around 20 percent, as well as areas outside Java," he noted.

Meanwhile, based on data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of December 2, some 97,318,649 Indonesians had received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, or more than 46 percent of the target population.

The government is still targeting 208,265,720 residents to receive two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to attain herd immunity.

The Indonesian government had earlier received vaccine assistance from the Netherlands on December 3. The arrival of the 146th batch of vaccines comprised 324 thousand doses of the Janssen vaccine. (antaranews)

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin urged Indonesian ulemas to prioritise boosting religious faith and economy among Indonesian Muslims rather than indulging in power and authority.

"I hope we would not indulge in power and authority because in the end, it is Allah, the Almighty God, who has the supreme authority above us," Amin noted in his opening remarks at the 25th national conference of the Islamic organisation Rabithah Alawiyah on Saturday.

Boosting religious faith and economy among Muslims is a duty that every ulema must fulfil, particularly during the globalisation era, he emphasized.

"We must partake in efforts to improve the situation with respect to two important aspects, the first one being religious faith and the second being the economy," Amin remarked.

The vice president emphasized the need to deepen religious faith to ensure that Indonesian Muslims would be protected from sinful acts prohibited by the religion.

"We must ensure that their religious faith would be unshaken and that they could defend themselves from heresy and deviation in thoughts," he stated.

Amin called on ulemas to contribute to improving the Muslims' economy to create a self-reliant Muslim populace, with stable economic conditions.

"Economic empowerment among Muslims must be continued, as the Almighty God has warned us not to let Muslims become weak," the vice president remarked.

After consolidating Muslims in brotherhood, Indonesian Muslims must also engage in brotherhood with fellow Indonesians, he remarked while drawing attention to the event's "Islamic brotherhood" theme that aligns with the conference's goal.

"Ukhuwah Islamiyah (Islamic brotherhood) is the key because without brotherhood, we will be ruined," he affirmed.

Meanwhile, Rabithah Alawiyah leader Zein bin Umar bin Smith reported that the organisation had continued its efforts focused on economic development of Muslims during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Praise be to God, we have recently partnered with several institutions, including the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises, to distribute benefits for micro-scale enterprises in 2021," the leader stated.  (Antaranews)

FILE PHOTO: Flags of Taiwan and U.S. are placed for a meeting in Taipei, Taiwan March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo - 

Taiwan and the United States have mutually beneficial trade relations especially in technology, and the two have "smooth" communication channels and will keep talking to each other on currency issues, Taiwan's central bank said on Saturday (Dec 4).

Taiwan, along with Vietnam, again exceeded the US Treasury's thresholds for possible currency manipulation and enhanced analysis under a 2015 trade law, but the department on Friday refrained from formally branding them as manipulators.

Responding, Taiwan's central bank reiterated the trade surplus with the United States was due to the China-U.S. trade war, which has seen companies shift production from China to avoid tariffs, and soaring tech demand from US consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The expansion of the trade surplus with the United States has nothing to do with exchange rate factors," it said in a statement, repeating comments from a central bank official late Friday.

Taiwan's current account surplus has also been affected by the same factors, with domestic savings growth contributing to the surplus as Taiwanese firms increased investment at home and people were unable to travel or spend as much due to the pandemic, it added.

"For a long time, our country and the United States have maintained close and mutually beneficial bilateral trade relations, and are important partners in the technology supply chain," the central bank said.

"Communication channels between the bank and the US Treasury are smooth, and the two sides will continue to communicate on relevant issues in the future on the basis of good interaction."

The U.S. Treasury said it was working with Taiwan to develop a plan with "specific actions to address the underlying causes of Taiwan's currency undervaluation and excessive external surpluses".

The Taiwan dollar is up more than 2.5 per cent against the greenback this year, among the best-performing Asian currencies.

Taiwan's case is complicated by geopolitical pressures, including heightened military tensions with China, and the island's position as a major exporter of semiconductors that are needed to help ease a supply shortage for US manufacturers//CNA