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PLN Gradually Recovers Electricity Supply (0)
State-owned electricity firm PT PLN has recovered electric power to Balaraja Extra High Voltage substation in Banten Province, and furthermore it will be channeled to Suralaya steam-fueled power plant (PLTU) to gradually recover its operation to reach its capacity of 2800 MW of electricity.
In addition, power supply from Gandul Extra High Voltage substations in Depok, West Java Province, will be channeled to Muara Karang gas and steam power plant (PLTGU) to supply electricity to the Indonesian capital city, Jakarta.
Acting President Director of PLN Sripeni Inten Cahyani said here on Sunday that the power supply to Jakarta was expected to recover within three hours.
"We apologize for the inconvenience today, and currently all efforts have been made to recover the Java-Bali power system, especially in the area of West Java, Banten, and Jakarta," Cahyani said.
The company has focused on power supply to PLTGU Muara Karang and PLTGU Priok to recover the system in the capital city.
Previously, PLN has recovered the operation of hydro-generated power plant (PLTA) Saguling and PLTA Cirata which are functioned as power stabilizer, and, at the same time, supply the electricity to PLTU Suralaya through Cibinong, Depok, Gandul, Lengkok, Balaraja and Suralaya extra high voltage substations.
PLTU Suralaya is expected to return to its normal operation within six hours to normalize power system in West Java and Banten.
Blackout that affected thousands of homes and public facilities in West Java, Jakarta, and Banten was caused by several troubles in the extra high voltage 500 kV transmission of Ungaran - Pemalang.
"PLN has taken its best efforts and will have evaluation to prevent recurrence of today's incident," Cahyani said.
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May
Indonesia urges ASEAN nations to address health emergency
Written by Nur Yasmin
Indonesia has urged all ASEAN countries to prepare to cope with the public health emergency situation.
"We must show that all ASEAN health sectors cooperate efficiently and (in a) timely (manner) in handling the public health emergency situation," secretary general of the Indonesian Health Ministry, Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha, said in a press statement issued on Thursday.
Nugraha made the remarks while chairing a meeting to discuss preparations for the 15th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Thursday.
He praised health officers who have rescued hundreds of millions of people in ASEAN member states from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"How important and strategic is the meeting this week? For the first time ever, ASEAN health sectors are holding a face-to-face meeting after COVID-19 engulfed (the world)," he said.
The meeting is aimed at sharing knowledge and drafting a joint statement regarding notation, adoption, or endorsement of joint policies at the ASEAN Health Ministers forum.
The face-to-face meeting is being held at Hotel Conrad, Nusa Dua, Bali, from May 11–15, 2022, and is being chaired by Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
The meeting has brought together the health ministers and senior officials of 10 ASEAN member states, delegates from China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, as well as representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO)—South East Asia Region/SEARO) and the Western Pacific Region (WPRO).
In total, 250 participants comprising 150 foreign participants and 100 domestic participants are taking part in the meeting. (Antaranews)
May
German special envoy for climate action visits Indonesia
Written by Nur Yasmin
The German Foreign Ministry’s special envoy for international climate action, Jennifer Morgan, made a three-day visit to Indonesia to discuss close cooperation between the two countries on energy transition.
"I come to Jakarta at the start of my term of office as a special envoy and (on the occasion of) Germany's G7 presidency and Indonesia's G20 presidency to listen and learn the situation in Indonesia as well as to look into how we can deepen cooperation with one another," Morgan said at a press conference at the German Embassy here on Wednesday.
During her visit to Indonesia from May 9 to 11, 2022, Morgan met with several government officials, businesspeople, academics, researchers, and civil society members.
In the face of the climate crisis, all humans are in the same position, she said. Concrete and ambitious global actions are needed to achieve the main target of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, in accordance with the mandate of the Paris Agreement.
With Germany holding the G7 presidency and Indonesia holding the G20 presidency this year, the two countries hold appropriate positions to address global challenges, she added.
"We are struggling together for the same goal--clean and affordable energy transition that will create jobs and new opportunities for our peoples," she remarked. (Antaranews)
May
Minister presses for improving women's access to financial services
Written by Nur Yasmin
Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati strongly believes that women's access to financial products and services should be improved, so that they would have a positive impact on economic development.
"Increasing women's access to formal financial services will not only secure their families' lives but will also empower them with the involvement in MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)," the finance minister stated during the webinar "Digital Transformation for Financial Inclusion" monitored in Jakarta, Wednesday.
According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, some US$13 trillion, or 11 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), could be recorded if all countries in the world increased gender equality for women.
"If we can realize the potential of women in the economy and labor market, we might be able to generate economic activity worth US$28 trillion, or 26 percent of the world's GDP by 2025," Indrawati emphasized.
However, currently, women still face difficulties in accessing financing due to the absence of identity cards or the lack of permission for them to manage assets on their own.
"This creates a huge barrier for women to access funding and capital from financial institutions because they have no guarantees," she pointed out.
Women can also be encouraged to access funding by utilizing digital platforms, but for this reason, their digital literacy levels and skills should be improved.
"Without literacy and education, it will be difficult for women to open accounts to access financial products," she stressed.
Indrawati cited as an example that women in Indonesia currently had accounts to access formal financial products, among others, to get assistance from the government, but this account was not used widely.
Improving financial literacy is also important for women entrepreneurs, so that they can develop their businesses.
"Women entrepreneurs, with a good level of financial literacy, can manage their business and household finances better and benefit from financial products to develop their businesses and secure future finances according to their needs," she stated.
Gender Equality Deputy at the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Lenny N. Rosalin earlier urged formal finance institutions in Indonesia to become more gender inclusive.
In a press statement issued on Monday, Rosalin expressed belief that this will help expand women's access to financing.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted women more than men, specifically women in industries, such as restaurant and hotel, as well as domestic workers, in addition to informal sectors, such as MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises)," she noted.
According to Rosalin, women workers have been affected more by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a rise in gender inequality due to a reduction in women's workforce participation.
Access to financial services for females, specifically entrepreneurial women, would allow the general public to get out of the poverty pit, the deputy explained.
In addition, financial inclusion contributes to a nation's financial stability as a whole. (Antaranews)
May
G20 discusses financial readiness to face pandemic: Minister
Written by Nur Yasmin
One of the agendas discussed at the G20 was global financial readiness to face the pandemic, according to Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto.
"The discussion in the G20 is financing readiness because all of them must have a pull of funds globally," Minister Hartarto stated while delivering a keynote address at the 2022 Green Economy Indonesia Summit: "The Future Economy of Indonesia" virtually in Jakarta, Wednesday.
The minister noted that one of the G20 agendas from the working group payments and health is to provide funding for research and technology, especially to prepare vaccines worldwide.
Coordinating Minister Airlangga conveyed that the lessons to be learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic were ensuring to wear masks, conducting social distancing, and finding ways to dispense vaccines universally and quickly, especially for lung-based diseases.
"History has proven that with COVID-19, the time to market vaccines, from research to production can be cut to one year, which normally took half a decade or five years," Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto pointed out.
During the two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted that in the first quarter of 2022, the economy was able to grow 5.01 percent on an annual basis. This growth was higher than those of several other countries, including China and the US, and slightly below that of Vietnam.
"We have maintained this five-percent economic growth from the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022," Coordinating Minister Airlangga remarked.
In addition, growth in the first quarter no longer came from government spending but from export and import activities and investment activities conducted by the public.
Regarding the risk of an increase in COVID-19 cases after the homecoming period, Coordinating Minister Airlangga said the Ministry of Health had noted that 99 percent of the people on the island of Java already have immunity, both from the administered vaccines or being exposed to COVID-19. Until now, despite 80 million people going home, there is no indication of a spike in COVID-19 cases.
"Although based on the data from the last two years, the cases increased after the 24th day, but once again it was emphasized that the rising cases were related to the new variants of Delta and Omicron. We hope that no more variants develop," he affirmed. (Antaranews)
May
Indonesia explores internship cooperation with United States
Written by Nur Yasmin
The Manpower Ministry held a bilateral meeting with the United States delegations to discuss cooperation on internship on the sidelines of the second Employment Working Group (EWG) meeting in Yogyakarta.
In a statement on Wednesday, Manpower Minister Special Staff Hindun Anisah noted that the US is currently opening 11 million jobs and developing an internship program to provide work experience for the young workforce.
G20 is an international forum comprising 19 nations that work together to handle major issues. Indonesia is chairing the forum this year.
EWG is a G20 working group under the Sherpa Track that has been mandated to broker joint commitments on promoting employment and decent workplaces to encourage sustainable, equitable, and inclusive economic growth.
"During the meeting earlier, we explored if there is a possibility to receive internship from Indonesia," Anisah noted.
This internship is a good opportunity to go to the US, which is deemed to have workers with better skills, she stated.
The work culture in the US is similar to Japan, which is based on tenacity, she remarked.
Based on their internship experience in Japan, the participants from Indonesia acquired hard skills and derived the benefit of the nation's working culture.
She expects that the cooperation with the United States will also provide the same impact wherein not only will it offer technical skills but also soft skills.
If the cooperation concerning internship is realized, then the internship participants will get the opportunity to fill the 11 million job openings available in the US.
During the meeting, Indonesian and US delegations also discussed skill development for mediators.
Indonesian mediators still lack mediation-related skills, such as communication and negotiation, Anisah explained.
"If it is possible, we wish to cooperate to develop capacity building for negotiation and communication technique," she remarked. (Antaranews)
May
2nd EWG meeting highlights global manpower issues
Written by Nur Yasmin
The second G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) meeting, which opened in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, highlighted global manpower issues, including unemployment and the decent work gap.
The meeting focused on the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and entrepreneurship as priority issues.
"(The meeting) focused on developing entrepreneurship, building business agents' resilience, and improving productivity to adapt to a change in the labor market so that it will help mitigate the issue of unemployment and the increasingly wider gap of decent work," secretary general of the Indonesian Manpower Ministry, Anwar Sanusi, informed in a written statement received in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2nd EWG meeting, Sanusi said the COVID-19 pandemic has made manpower issues more complex.
He then appealed to all countries to focus not only on recovering the labor market but also on accelerating labor force absorption in the wake of the pandemic.
He said the recovery policy must also support the continuation of businesses, allowing for more innovation, productivity growth, and sustainability. This must also cover MSMEs, which function as important economic drivers in developed and developing countries.
"Indonesia's (G20) Presidency, in the manpower sector, encourages the role of G20 to continue to improve cooperation initiatives, policies, and programs that ensure the creation of sustainable job opportunities, the sustainable effort of supporting business agents and entrepreneurs, and (the development of) an inclusive labor market in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic," he added.
Hopefully, the efforts will encourage recovery from the current economic crisis as soon as possible through the creation of entrepreneurs and the strengthening of MSMEs for expanding job opportunities.
To that end, the creation of a conducive business environment and the informal transformation of MSMEs must be encouraged and the development of entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurship culture must be supported in order to develop new entrepreneurs.
It will also be necessary to strengthen business mentorship for new entrepreneurs and MSMEs, and build business agents' and MSMEs' resilience by improving their capacity, providing technical assistance, and protecting their rights and interests as well as those of employees.
"Indonesia always prioritizes productive and harmonious dialogs and encourages the achievement of concrete outcomes and real action through collaboration among G20 stakeholders, as part of efforts to create a joint commitment to struggle for the priority goal of the (G20) Presidency," he said. (Antaranews)
May
RI, Saudi Arabia discuss placement, protection of migrant workers
Written by Nur Yasmin
Indonesia and Saudi Arabia discussed the placement and protection scheme for Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) during a bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the second meeting of the G20 Employment Working Group (EWG).
EWG is a G20 working group that has been mandated to broker joint commitments on promoting employment and decent workplaces to encourage sustainable, equitable, and inclusive economic growth.
"The meeting was quite productive as we have discussed several issues regarding the One Channel System agreement (on the workers’ placement),” secretary general of the Manpower Ministry, Anwar Sanusi, remarked in a statement received here on Tuesday.
The discussion also included the cooperation agreement on information technology systems between Saudi Arabia’s job market app MUSANED and Indonesia’s online-based integrated employment service, SISNAKER, he added.
The secretary general held the meeting with the Deputy of Minister of Labor of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Alzahrani, in Yogyakarta on May 10, 2022.
He informed that during the meeting, the two parties also talked about the extension of the Technical Arrangement for the One Channel Placement System (SPSK), which has expired.
Basically, the two countries hold the same views regarding the agreement, however, there are a number of issues that must be agreed upon, he said.
"A technical team will immediately follow up on the result of the bilateral meeting. Hopefully, the discussion will be continued at the higher levels, including the ministerial level, and the ministers will immediately approve the technical arrangement," Sanusi added.
During the meeting, the two nations also discussed opportunities for placing Indonesian formal sector workers in Saudi Arabia since the kingdom is carrying out a national economic transformation currently, he said.
"It (the economic transformation) will open up a lot of job opportunities. Thus, as directed by our Manpower Minister (Ida Fauziyah), in the future, we will send more skilled workers to the country—not domestic workers," he added.
The second G20 EWG meeting is taking place in Yogyakarta from May 10–12, 2022. Its main focus issues are entrepreneurship, the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises, as well as social protection for employees. (Antaranews)
May
Diplomatic Forum Discusses Pandemic to Endemic Transition in Indonesia
Written by Nur Yasmin
VOI News on Tuesday held a webinar Diplomatic Forum at the Orchadz Industri Hotel Jakarta, themed “Pandemic to Endemic: How the World Can Learn to Live with Covid”.
The speaker panel were including the Ambassador of India to Indonesia, Manoj Kumar Bharti, Act. Director of Health Surveillance and Quarantine of the Health Ministry, Endang Budi Hastuti, Minister Counselor for Tourism of the Malaysian Embassy Junus Suhud, epidemiologist Dicky Budiman, analyst of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Tauhid Ahmad, and former director of WHO Southeast Asia Tjandra Yoga Aditama.
The panels discussed about Indonesia’s readiness to make the transition from the Covid-19 pandemic to the endemic.
Endang Budihastuti said that it is possible to do the transition as the people are vaccinated, however, the virus will never go away.
“Even the descendants from avian flu still exist. The virus is mutating and our immune system continuously learning, gradually the virus only trigger mild symptoms. Omicron variants, for example, have milder symptoms than prior variants.
She also said that there’s a probability that Indonesia will reach the endemic by next year, based on the pattern of previous flu-based pandemics and endemics.
“We can see the epidemiological pattern of Covid-19, which started in 2020, now in 2022, it's weakening. If there is no new variant that is more infectious than omicron, then maybe in 2022 or 2023 we can reach endemic,” Endang said.
Dicky Budiman noted that Indonesia might reach the endemic is possible also due to the support of the government’s handling which is strategic and science-based.
“We’re lucky that our President is taking an approach based on data and science on the pandemic. I observe some other country is rather political in their approach, but it’s not the case for the Indonesian government,” he said.
Ambassador Manoj Kumar Bharti spoke on maintaining and developing the livelihood of the tourism sector amid the pandemic, where he delivered the steps taken by the Indian government.
“Our tourism is badly hit, and to boost it, the government is granting free visas to 500,000 visitors from 2020 onwards. The Finance Ministry of India also gave special relief packages as many as 1 million rupees to the tourism stakeholders and travel guides,” he said.
He advised loosening tourism restrictions and quarantine procedures to attract more tourists to Indonesia.
“I see that the government gave a lot of relief packages to the tourism industry, but restrictions such as having to quarantine for 3 days in hotels could weigh down visitors. Once the restrictions are lifted, Bali will receive lots of tourists including from India,” he said.
Diplomatic forum is presented by VOI News twice a year, where the speakers and participants include ambassadors and embassies representatives, taking on topics that are relevant to current international dynamic and events. (VOI)
May
Indonesia's economy grows 5% in Q1, surpassing US, China
Written by Nur Yasmin
Indonesia’s economy swelled 5.01 percent in the first quarter of 2022, surpassing the growth of several nations, including the United States, China, and South Korea, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has said.
"Our economic growth in the first quarter has been stable, almost similar to the one in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was 5.01 percent," he informed during a press conference streamed on the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel on Monday.
Indonesia's economic growth is considered to have surpassed that of a number of nations such as China (4.8 percent), Singapore (3.4 percent), South Korea (3.07 percent), the United States (4.29 percent), and Germany (4.0 percent).
"In terms of global economic growth, it is estimated to be 3.6–4.5 percent. However, several institutions have estimated that Indonesia’s economic growth is between 5.0–5.4 percent," Hartarto informed.
The positive news on the economic front has been followed by total workforce of 4.2 million with the addition of 4.56 million workers. This means that almost everyone entering the workforce can be absorbed.
"The number of full-time workers is 88.42 million, or has risen by 4.28 million people. The surge in economic growth is also mirrored by the rise in the created workforce," the minister said.
The number of part-time workers has risen to 36.54 million, an increase of one million. Meanwhile, the number of workers who are partially unemployed has declined by 770 thousand to 10.65 million.
All sectors from the supply side have, on average, experienced positive growth, starting from warehousing, industry, service, agriculture, and construction.
A similar phenomenon has also been observed on the demand side, including in household consumption, investment, and export-import, the minister noted.
Throughout Ramadhan, the spending index has increased along with the rise in traffic and passengers.
According to observations, the spending index in Kalimantan has increased to 199.6, Sumatra 178, Java 137, Maluku and Papua 145.5, and Bali as well as Nusa Tenggara 72.9. (Antaranews)
May
RRI Voice of Indonesia Presents : Diplomatic Forum : HOW THE WORLD CAN LEARN TO LIVE WITH COVID - 19
Written by Januar IlhamRRI Voice of Indonesia Presents : Diplomatic Forum : HOW THE WORLD CAN LEARN TO LIVE WITH COVID - 19
RRI Voice of Indonesia Presents : Diplomatic Forum : HOW THE WORLD CAN LEARN TO LIVE WITH COVID - 19