VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 3 - Vice Health Minister Dante Saksono said Indonesia has received the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech.

"Alhamdulillah (thank God), today we got 10 million (doses of the) bulk vaccine. This bulk vaccine is raw material that Bio Farma will turn into (ready-to-use) vaccines," he said at an online press briefing in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The first and second batches of the vaccine received from Sinovac comprised 1.2 million and 1.8 million doses of ready-to-use vaccines, respectively, while the third and fourth batches comprised 15 million and 10 million doses of semi-finished vaccines, respectively.

Indonesia has received 38 million vaccine doses from the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm since the time the first batch arrived in the country on December 6 last year.

The government plans to use the vaccines to support a mass free vaccination program targeting 181.5 million of the country’s total population of 267 million.

"Another 185 million (doses of the) vaccine from Sinovac will be delivered in stages," Saksono informed.

Bio Farma, which has secured a certificate of good drug production from the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM), will process the bulk Sinovac vaccines to make finished vaccines.

Indonesia has ordered COVID-19 vaccines from several sources: 125 million doses from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd; 100 million doses from US-Canada's Novavax; 100 million doses from UK’s AstraZeneca; 100 million doses from Germany-US' Pfizer; and, 16-100 million doses of free vaccines from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) through multilateral cooperation. (Antaranews)

Mar. 2 - The global oil market is rebalancing after damage to demand wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic was met with curbs on output by producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the group’s president said on Tuesday.

“Crude prices are relatively stable ... we see a certain balance between demand and supply,” OPEC president Diamantino Azevedo told Reuters in an interview.

“However, due to the pandemic situation the world is living through and with new waves arriving, we could have a situation of smaller demand due to confinements. Vaccination of the global population against COVID-19 will certainly increase demand”.

OPEC and other key exporters such as Russia, a grouping dubbed OPEC+, meet on Thursday and are expected to discuss allowing as much as 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) back into the market to address demand likely to be unlocked later in the year as vaccine programmes gather pace.

But Azevedo, Angola’s minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum, who occupies OPEC’s rotating presidency, warned that any worsening of the pandemic could lead producers to tamp down output.

“The production levels that were desirable at the time of the latest adjustment could naturally be affected downward due to... the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants,” he added.

Azevedo insisted that foreign interest in developing oil resources in Angola, Africa’s second-biggest exporter, remains high after cratering oil prices briefly led a halt on oil drilling in the depths of the pandemic last year.

“We don’t have any (energy) major planning to leave Angola at the moment,” he said. “Although there is a drop in investment globally, investors in Angola are interested in keeping the same level of investment.”

Crude production from Angola’s existing fields, which has been declining since 2008, is due to dwindle to almost nothing by 2040, according to government projections.

It has pinned its hopes on keeping international partners engaged to avoid its offshore oil and gas resources turning into stranded assets, though there is a risk the industry, increasingly sensitive to environmental concerns, may seek greener projects elsewhere.

“We’ll do everything to keep our industry attractive,” Azevedo said. (Reuters)

Mar. 2 - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has said Indonesia has still not opened all international flight routes, particularly for foreign tourists, this year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Now, there are travel bubbles based on bilateral agreements," the minister said while speaking at the 2021 MNC Group Investor Forum here on Tuesday.

But, currently, a limited number of international flights have been opened in Indonesia, mainly to cater to people who need to travel for some specific purpose and for essential trips.

Meanwhile, to encourage tourism, the government is relying on domestic tourists while urging them to adhere to health protocols so that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled, the minister said.

Hence, following the rollout of the nationwide vaccination program, the government has been preparing a policy package for tourism, he added.

/“Domestic tourists are serving as our PR, and we hope the vaccination program can help us achieve herd immunity as 70 million people are expected to be vaccinated by the middle of the year. That will be a game-changer for the tourism sector,” he remarked.

In addition, the government is preparing a policy to further support hotels, restaurants, and cafes, he informed.

"We are working on it. We will find a solution so that the operation in that sector is not too complicated. The government is currently reviewing it," he said.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Office in Jakarta, the number of foreign tourists visiting Jakarta dived 94.3 percent to 1,244 in January, 2021 from 21,858 in December, 2020.

“Compared to the same month last year, the number of tourist arrivals in January, 2021 also plummeted 99.28 percent,” said chief of the BPS Office in Jakarta, Buyung Airlangga, during an online press conference on Monday.

South Korea (90) led in the number of tourist arrivals in January, 2021, followed by Saudi Arabia (66), China (61), the United States (52) and Japan (44). (Antaranews)

Mar. 2 -  The Indonesian government will continue to step up the realization of state expenditure in order to boost economic growth in the second quarter of 2021, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has said.

“We hope there will be further (economic) recovery. We have expedited (the realization) of state expenditure, including through the social protection and economic recovery programs,” Hartarto said during an online discussion here on Tuesday.

The government has allocated a budget of Rp699.43 trillion (US$48.94 billion) under the national economic recovery program (PEN), he noted.

The budget for PEN would focus on five sectors. Of the total budget, Rp176.3 trillion (US$12.34 billion) has been allocated for the health sector, Rp157.41 trillion (US$11.01 billion) for social protection, Rp125.06 trillion (US$8.75 billion) for priority programs, Rp53.86 trillion (US$3.77 billion) for business incentive, and Rp186.81 trillion (US$13.07 billion) for support for micro, small, and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) and corporate funding, he added.

"We are also encouraging people to buy domestic as well as MSME products," he stated.

Hartarto assured the government would balance efforts taken for economic recovery and COVID-19 handling as the two issues are closely related.

COVID-19 handling will improve public confidence and thereby help increase consumption, which will, in turn, boost the economy, he explained.

"We have to keep the balance between pandemic handling and the economic recovery program. The government will focus on efforts to recover consumers' confidence by accelerating the vaccination program," the minister said.

The government is targeting to inoculate 182 million people out of the total population of 270 million under its vaccination program.

"We want to reach the 70-percent vaccination target to achieve herd immunity. We have to apply stringent health protocols," Hartarto said. (Antaranews)