VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Telecommunication Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) of the Communication and Informatics Ministry stated that the 4G Base Transceiver Station (BTS) infrastructure in the outermost, remote, and underdeveloped (3T) areas prioritized the utilization of sustainable energy.

"The 4G BTS concept in 2021-2022 entirely utilizes green energy, so it is environment-friendly. We provide electricity from solar panels," BAKTI President Director Anang Latif stated here on Tuesday.

Latif assessed that the use of solar panels, as a source of sustainable energy for 4G BTS in the 3T areas, was the right step forward since the produced energy will last longer than that generated from fossil fuel.

According to Latif, if the 4G BTS uses fossil fuel as its electricity source, then additional costs will be incurred for purchasing more fuel and mobilization in the 3T areas.

He affirmed that the additional costs were not cheap and not environment-friendly, as more gas emissions were produced. Meanwhile, batteries store the electricity generated by solar panels.

BAKTI also ensured that the battery, with a duration capacity to last for 100 hours, can be used when the areas where 4G BTS are built did not receive sunlight.

"The solar panel system is beneficial for building 4G BTS in rural areas. If we use the diesel fuel, we will incur more cost in terms of the supplies," he added.

He explained that the cost of supplies would pose a challenge in addition to only being able to access the BTS locations in 3T areas on foot.

One of the 4G BTS using solar panels is located in Sauwyatami Village, Keerom District, Papua.

Owing to the mountainous landscapes, the solar panel system was selected and it had succeeded in providing equitable internet access to local people in the border zone of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. (Antaranews)

The Indonesian government has currently set its sights on the exploration of oil and gas basins in five areas in eastern Indonesia namely Buton, Warin, Timor, Seram, and Aru.

The exploration is expected to support realization of the target of one million barrels of oil and 12 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day by 2030.

"The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has assigned an exploration team assisted by experienced experts to integrate data on potential areas for further exploration," Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Ego Syahrial noted during a virtual discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Reserves for the five locations are estimated to reach over 9.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, he remarked.

As of January 19, 2021, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources noted that Indonesia's proven reserves had reached 2.44 billion barrels of oil and 43.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The government has encouraged oil and gas contractors to increase exploration in prospective areas to strengthen oil and gas reserves and production in Indonesia.

As of August 31, 2021, the ministry had also recorded 175 work areas comprising 96 production areas and 79 exploration areas.

Energy transition in Indonesia will have a significant impact on the domestic use of oil and gas. However, in terms of volume, the use of oil and gas commodities, including industrial raw materials, will continue to increase, Syahrial remarked.

The government also views the importance of natural gas as transitional energy before a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the long term, he stated.

The energy transition program will be implemented in several stages while taking into account aspects, such as competitiveness, costing, availability, and sustainability.

"Hence, exploration continues to be increased through greater efforts," he remarked.

President Joko Widodo had earlier highlighted the government's grand strategy for achieving a green economy in response to a global shift away from fossil fuels.

"We will move towards what is dubbed as a green economy because we have great power here too. This strategy must begin to be organized," he stated.

"This is because in 2030, people in Europe and America may have to stop (using) and henceforth reject items that resulted from fossil energy. That is the law they will prepare," he elaborated.

At the G20 meeting on October 30-31, 2021, leaders of several countries held discussions pertaining to the green economy, President Jokowi noted.

"At the G20, our talks just revolved around that. People just resorted to this, to the green economy, and we are aware that we have great power in this green economy," he affirmed. (Antaranews)

Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves climbed to US$145.9 billion at the end of November this year from US$145.5 billion the previous month, Bank Indonesia (BI) has informed.

The foreign exchange reserve position was equivalent to financing 8.3 months of imports or 8.1 months of imports and servicing the government's foreign debt, head of the BI's communications department, Erwin Haryono, said in a statement issued in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The position of the foreign exchange reserves is above the international adequacy standard of about three months of imports, he noted.

"Bank Indonesia considers the foreign exchange reserves to be able to support external sector resilience and maintain macroeconomic and financial system stability," he added.

He explained that the increase in the position of foreign exchange reserves in November 2021 was influenced, among other things, by tax and service receipts as well as the withdrawal of government foreign loans.

Going forward, Bank Indonesia expects foreign exchange reserves to remain adequate, supported by stable economic prospects, and maintained in line with various policy responses to promote economic recovery, he said. (Antaranews)

A senior Myanmar junta official said on Tuesday the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi showed that no one was above the law and the army chief had commuted her sentence on "grounds of humanity".

Information Minister Maung Maung Ohn also told a virtual briefing that Myanmar's judicial system was impartial and Monday's sentencing of the Nobel laureate and former leader was according to the law.

Suu Kyi, 76, was sentenced to four years in prison for incitement and breaching coronavirus regulations but the military junta leaders reduced it to a two-year term of detention in her current location.

“There is no one above the law,” Maung Maung Ohn said on Tuesday, adding that Myanmar's judicial system "has no partiality".

He was speaking at a rare media briefing on the economy during which he and the junta’s investment minister said the situation in the country was stabilising.

They said preparations for elections to be held before August 2023 were under way but would not confirm whether Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, would be allowed to compete.

The party is under investigation by the election commission, which Maung Maung Ohn said was due to report back early next year.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military seized power in a Feb.1 coup, arresting Suu Kyi and most of her government.

Security forces seeking to crush opposition have since killed more than 1,200 people, according to monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, and armed rebellions have sprung up across the country.

On Sunday, security forces in a truck rammed into a flash mob protest in the commercial capital of Yangon, killing at least five people, the news website Myanmar Now reported.

Maung Maung Ohn said the protest was the result of pressure from anti-coup groups “so that young people get emotional” but that crowd management by authorities “is sometimes handled unintentionally”.

“Such kind of protests should be prevented according to the law,” he said.(Reuters)