VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia has a big opportunity to become a renown halal producer at the international level, according to Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartato.

Indonesia could also become the biggest market for global halal products by utilizing the advantage of demographic bonuses and its status as a country with the biggest muslim population in the world, Hartarto said in a statement on Sunday.

Indonesia had 229,6 million muslim population in 2020 and their spending for halal products and services reached US$184 billion in 2020. This figure is estimated to reach US$281,6 billion by 2025, he informed.

"As a result, this is a large market," he remarked during the 2022 Indonesia Halal Industry Award (IHYA) held here on Sunday.

Observing this large potential, Hartarto emphasized the need for repositioning so that Indonesia does not just become a market target, but it should also able to improve its halal production.

This repositioning is also necessary so that Indonesia's halal industry has better competitive power as compared to other countries in the global market to pursue existing export potential, he added.

To this end, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs will continue to expedite the development of national halal industry sustainably to meet domestic and overseas demands.

Meanwhile, Hartarto lauded the 2022 IHYA which provides dissemination and education on halal industry in Indonesia.

"This 2022 IHYA activity is expected to be a form of dissemination and education as well as driver for domestic industry," he remarked.

The State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2022 (SGIE) reported that Indonesia's syariah economy managed to rank fourth in the world.

Moreover, Indonesia is one of the biggest consumers of halal products which encompasses 11,34 percent of global halal spending.

Indonesia becomes the second biggest consumer of halal food in the world as well as fourth biggest consumer of halal cosmetics. (Antaranews)

Logistics costs in Indonesia, which reached 23.5 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, are relatively high, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs has said.

Meanwhile, the nation’s logistics sector contributed 3.15 percent to the GDP in 2018, it added.

According to World Bank data on Logistics Performance Indicators (LPI), Indonesia placed 46th in logistics performance globally and 5th in the ASEAN region in 2018.

"This figure is indeed higher in comparison to other countries, such as Singapore, America only 8 percent, the European Union and Japan, South Korea only 9 percent," assistant deputy for digital economy at the ministry, Edwin Manansang, said at a webinar, which was followed from here on Thursday.

The webinar discussed the logistics challenges and opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)

According to Manansang, the country's geographical conditions have compromised the logistics sector's performance, keeping it from becoming optimal and posing problems for logistics operators.

Other problems pertaining to logistics have involved shipping to rural areas outside cities and outside Java, and fragmented warehousing problems and logistics actors, which have prevented effective and efficient business operations.

"About 70 percent of logistics business actors are small players and the warehouse process is still manual," he noted.

Then, the utilization of trucks for transporting goods is not yet optimal, and there are still many MSMEs that rent trucks to send goods between cities using a one-time system only.

"So the time to return costs so that the cost is doubled," he explained.

Then, information related to delivery, delivery time is still not standardized and not integrated, he noted.

He said that to resolve these logistical problems, the government has created the NLE (national logistics ecosystem) platform, which integrates data on the international flow of goods and documents from the time of arrival of the means of transport at a port till the goods arrive at a warehouse (hinterland).

The NLE platform, which is in line with Presidential Instruction Number 5 issued this year, aims to improve national logistics performance, the investment climate, and the competitiveness of the national economy. (antaranews)

International partnership to support the blue economy and increase investment in the net-zero emission system is one of the principles of the G20 Bali Compact 2022.

Secretary General of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Rida Mulyana delivered the remarks during the "Indonesia-Nordic Investment Day: Collaboration to Achieve NZE Target" event, which was followed virtually from Jakarta on Thursday.

"The agreement serves as a voluntary principle to ensure effective energy transition mode for G20 members and so on. Energy transition has become the main focus of global change. During the G20 (Summit) this year, Indonesia raised the energy transition issue as one of the three discussion points," he said.

The event is very relevantand has the potential to result in an actual commitment since, in the next four decades, Indonesia will produce more than 580 gigawatts of electrical energy, which will mostly comprise solar, hydro, geothermal, sea and hydrogen energy, or fossil energy, such as oil and gas, to support the transition to clean energy, he added.

The Indonesian government has reportedly endorsed a strategy for reducing fossil energy by converting it into clean energy and stopped constructing coal-fired power plants.

"Of course, we need huge investment to support effective energy transition. The investment will reach US$25–30 billion, which is targeted to be achieved in mid-2030," he said.

Indonesia is considered very competitive in the energy sector, for instance, it offers a variety of initiative projects under business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) schemes, he added.

At the government level, Indonesia has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Finland regarding clean, efficient, and renewable energy and another MoU with Denmark concerning renewable energy and energy conservation.

In addition, Indonesia has also set up a working team with Sweden for the renewable energy project and bilateral consultation.

"We also have energy partnership called INDODEPP with Denmark. Also, we team up with Iceland in the field of capacity-building and geothermal potential initiative," he said. (Antaranews)

Indonesia must take advantage of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Convention 2003 to support its cultural diplomacy abroad, a Foreign Ministry official has said.

"How is Indonesia's cultural diplomacy through the ICH Convention 2003? As a culture-rich country, Indonesia must be able to benefit from the ICH Convention 2003 to support cultural promotion and expand potentials for cultural cooperation on a large scale," Director of Sociocultural Affairs and International Organization for Developing Countries at the Foreign Ministry Penny Dewi Herasati said.

The ICH Convention 2003 is a part of the cultural cooperation program. In principle, cooperation under the UNESCO program must serve peace and cooperation interests, in accordance with UNESCO’s Constitution, she said during an informal talk on the ICH Convention in Jakarta on Thursday.

The ICH Convention 2003 aims to identify intangible culture, ensure the related community's and individuals' efforts to uphold the intangible cultural heritage, increase local, national, and international awareness on the importance of intangible cultural heritage, and encourage mutual respect, she informed.

"In general, the UNESCO Convention alone has the spirit and principle which prioritizes cooperation and mutual respect among nations," she added.

She said the inscription of cultural heritage is the starting point for preserving culture. This is because it can open up many cooperation opportunities for Indonesia, including practical cooperation for preserving culture in support of the creative industry. (Antaranews)