VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo's name was immortalized as a street name in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates on Monday afternoon (19/10).

According to a written statement from the Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi received in Jakarta on Tuesday, the inauguration of the street name "President Joko Widodo" was carried out by Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office.

The event took place at 4:45 p.m local time on the road that was inaugurated.

The event was attended by the Indonesian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Husin Bagis and the staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Also attending several officials from the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Abu Dhabi Municipality, who together witnessed the unveiling of the red curtain covering the name of the street.

The naming of President Joko Widodo's road reflects the close relationship between Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates and respect from the UAE Government to Indonesian President Joko Widodo in advancing relations between the two countries during his tenure as head of state.

President Joko Widodo Street is located on one of the main roads, which divides the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) with an area that is home to a number of diplomatic representative offices.

The name of the street was previously Al Ma'arid Street, which in Indonesian means exhibition. The road connects the Rabdan road with the Tunb Al Kubra road.

Ambassador Husin Bagis expressed his hope that the naming of President Joko Widodo's road in Abu Dhabi will further strengthen and enhance the bilateral relations between Indonesia and the UAE, which have become increasingly close these days.

Street names in Abu Dhabi are generally geographic names that reflect the mainland history of the street on which they are located while preserving the Abu Dhabi culture and identity.

However, the Abu Dhabi Government in 2013 changed the names of several main streets in Abu Dhabi to the names of the great leaders of Abu Dhabi. This was done as a form of respect and to commemorate the vision, leadership, and contribution of leaders who built the UAE society.

The UAE Government had previously carried out a change in street names in Abu Dhabi with the names of leaders of friendly countries on 23 September 2019.

At that time, the UAE inaugurated the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud street on one of the roads in Abu Dhabi as a form of respect for King Salman's contribution to the Islamic world and to strengthen bilateral relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia and the people of the two countries.

The naming of roads for President Joko Widodo in Abu Dhabi has added to the number of roads with names of Indonesian figures abroad, such as Jalan Sukarno in Rabat, Morocco; Jalan Muhammad Hatta in Harleem, Netherlands; Raden Adjeng Kartini Street in Amsterdam; and Jalan Munir in The Hague. (Antaranews)

Data from the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 shows that until now the government has examined 4,092,595 specimens from 2,553,521 people with a positivity rate of 14.3 percent.

According to data received in Jakarta on Monday afternoon, the health authorities on 19 October 2020 examined 36,259 specimens from 25,202 people. Self-examination was carried out by 376 laboratories throughout Indonesia.

From the results on Monday (19/10), there were 3,373 people tested positive and 21,829 people tested negative through the PCR swab test and molecular rapid test (TCM).

With these results, a total of 365,240 people tested positive out of 2,553,521 people who had been examined.

Dividing the number of positive results by the total number of cases examined for specimens finds that Indonesia currently has a positive rate of around 14.3 percent. The percentage is still higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of five percent.

The results show that the positive rate has not changed in the last three days with the numbers on Saturday (17/10) and Sunday (18/10) also showing the same number.

Of the 3,373 people who tested positive, the largest addition came from DKI Jakarta Province with 926 new patients, followed by West Java with 524 new patients, Central Java with 316 new patients, East Java with 242 new patients, and West Sumatra with 242 new patients.

The capital city of Jakarta is still the largest contributor to total COVID-19 cases with 95,253 people, but Jakarta also recorded the largest accumulation of recovered patients as many as 80,167 people.

Meanwhile, the province with the most total deaths due to COVID-19 is East Java with 3,562 people. (Antaranews)

An earthquake occurred in Jailolo District, West Halmahera Regency, North Maluku, Monday (19/10/2020) at 08.06 WIB.

Fortunately, the 4.5 magnitude earthquake did not have the potential for a tsunami.

"The coordinates of the earthquake are located at 1.17 north latitude and 126.82 east longitude," wrote the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) in its official account.

The epicenter of the earthquake was at sea, 72 km from the west of Jailolo District, North Maluku, which was felt up to Ternate on the MMI II scale, which means vibrations were felt by several people, light objects that were hanging were shaking.

"The earthquake has a depth of 35 km," wrote BMKG. (RRI)

The Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) developed 14 food resilience-based villages in peatland areas, in cooperation with the Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Ministry.

The agency's Deputy for Education, Socialization, Participation, and Partnership Myrna A Safitri said in a statement on Sunday, food resilience has become one focus of the agency since the establishment of Peatland-Care Village in 2017.

The development of the food resilience-based villages would be conducted through close cooperation among villages, and in a prudent manner especially in degraded peatland, she said.

Therefore, she continued, the agency has established a field school for peatland farmers to train them on agricultural land management without slash and burn practice.

Previously, a spokesman of the Agriculture Ministry Kuntoro Boga said the ministry has run the program to increase peatland production capacity in Central Kalimantan, which covers an area of 85,456 hectares for intensification program and 79,142 hectares for extensification program.

In addition to the paddy field, the extensification program will also include the development of corn plantation, shallot, garlic, chili, and sugar cane plantation, as well as cattle farms to reduce import.

On the development of food estate in Central Kalimantan, Boga said, the ministry has targeted to develop food estate covering an area of 10 thousand hectares, and as of now, some 7 thousand hectares have been cultivated.

"The food estate program is conducted in mineral peatland and alluvial land, not peatland area," he noted. (Antaranews)