VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 24 - Hiring of workers with digital skills has grown substantially in the last three years across the APEC region, according to a recent report issued by the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group and received here on Tuesday.

The report highlights the gap between workforce supply and demand and emphasizes the urgent need for member economies to invest in digital up-skilling and reskilling of their workforce.

Research by LinkedIn and Burning Glass Technologies in the 'APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Report - Trends and Insights' has found that the digital hiring rate across the region increased three-fold between 2016 and 2019.

While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a hiring slowdown in the first quarter of 2020, the report predicts continued strong demand for digital talent, with a greater than one-fold increase in March, 2020 compared to the previous year.

"Digitalization offers us many opportunities and challenges, the most pressing one is to address and manage the discrepancy between industry and education and training systems, where the former moves and innovates a lot faster than the latter," said Park Dong Sun, chair of the APEC Human Resources and Development Working Group.

"COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation and adoption in almost all aspects of our lives, it is extremely critical for policymakers to look into measures to support the up-skilling and reskilling of our workforce," Park added.

The report stresses the importance of reskilling workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as many are looking for new opportunities, and it is "necessary to have at least baseline digital skills". It is also critical to equip new workers with digital skills so they can thrive in the workforce, the report states.

Moreover, as businesses are forced to adjust to a more digital work environment, workers may need to expand their skill set in order to work efficiently and effectively from home or other locations.

In addition to efforts to measure the digital skills gap, the initiative also announced the finalization of a digital readiness checklist designed to help APEC governments, employers, and academia understand their levels of preparedness for jobs in the digital age and to support their efforts to up-skill and reskill workers amidst COVID-19.

"Digital skills and remote work have become critical to retaining employment and to economic survival, with occupations requiring higher levels of digital skills more likely to offer remote work opportunities during these challenging times," explained Andrew Tein of Wiley, co-chair of the APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Forum.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also exposed the risks for those whose jobs are least digital, such as workers in the front-line services sector. As these least digital jobs are also least open to remote work, workers in this sector are negatively affected, according to the report. This dichotomy may deepen inequality if they do not have the necessary digital skills to transition to other jobs.

"We must come together to prepare the current and next generation of workers to have the digital skills necessary to succeed in the new economy," said Jennifer Thornton of the Business-Higher Education Forum and co-chair of the APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Forum.

"A skilled workforce is key to our continued success and to increasing opportunity across APEC economies," she concluded. (Antaranews)

Feb. 24 - Indonesia has begun to feel the impact of public activity restrictions (PPKM), with many regions witnessing a decline in the number of active cases, spokesperson for the COVID-19 Response Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, said.

Public activity restrictions at the district and municipal levels are currently entering their third phase and have coincided with micro-level social restrictions at the neighborhood association and community unit levels, he informed at a press conference held by the COVID-19 Response Task Force at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Building in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"Active cases in seven provinces still fluctuated and began to decline in the third phase of public activity restrictions," he said.

Active cases in the provinces of Jakarta, West Java, Banten, Bali, and Yogyakarta showed a downward trend after the third phase of public activity restrictions kicked in, or five weeks after the public activity restrictions were enforced, he added.

Active cases in East Java began to decline when the second phase of public activity restrictions came into effect, he added.

However, active cases in Central Java have fluctuated and have even shown an upward trend since the first phase of public activity restrictions, he noted.

"This suggests that the enforcement of public activity restrictions has, since the first phase, had a positive impact on the development of active cases in most regions," he said.

As expected, the impact of the public activity restrictions could be felt in the fourth week, he added.

Therefore, the positive impact of micro-scale social restrictions will be visible when they enter the third phase, he said. (Antaranews)

Feb. 24 - The Embassy of Bangladesh in Indonesia and the UNESCO held a webinar on International Mother Language Day 2021 on Tuesday. The event is part of the celebration of “Mujib Year” to promote Bangladesh abroad.

The webinar was attended by representatives from Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Education and Culture Ministry, UNESCO, Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Ministry, and academics.

Ambassador of Bangladesh to Indonesia Air Vice Marshal Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman delivered an opening speech which refers to all language martyrs who sacrificed their lives to establish the mother language of Bangla on Feb. 21, 1952, including the Greatest Bangali of all times, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The figure led the struggle for the dignity for the Bangla language.

Professor Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, Professor of International Relations and Director of Centre for Genocide Studies in University of Dhaka, Bangladesh presented his keynote paper which highlights the history of the Bangladesh and Bangla language.

Several attendees including Arko Hananto Budiadi, senior diplomat at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dr. Dora Amalia, acting head of center for language and literature at the Education and Culture Ministry, and Arief Rachman as the Executive Chairman of National Commission for UNESCO. (VOI)

Feb. 24 - The vaccination program has run in accordance with the plan, with some seven million doses of the vaccine been distributed nationwide, spokeswoman for COVID-19 vaccine at the Health Ministry Siti Nadia Tarmidzi noted in a written statement released on Wednesday.

The roadmap stipulates that some 1.46 million healthcare workers will receive the vaccine shots until April 2021, Tarmidzi remarked.

In the meantime, the number of senior citizens and public service officers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is estimated to touch 21.5 million and 16.9 million respectively, the spokeswoman revealed.

The government is eyeing to vaccinate 181,554,464 people, or 70 percent of Indonesia’s total population, with the objective of creating herd immunity against the coronavirus.

Tarmidzi believes that the availability of vaccines will undoubtedly ease the implementation of the vaccination program and depend on the production capacity of vaccine producers.

"We have ordered the vaccine and are awaiting its delivery," she stated.

The spokeswoman drew attention to four ways to fulfill the COVID-19 vaccine requirements that comprise purchasing the finished vaccine, being part of the Covax facility and producing vaccine under a cooperation scheme between domestic and foreign pharmaceutical firms, and developing the local vaccine Merah Putih named after the national flag.

Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Prof. Wiku Adisasmito had emphasized recently that the government’s plan to vaccinate 181.5 million Indonesians against the coronavirus hinges on the availability of vaccines.

"As we know, the vaccine stocks are limited, and all (vaccine producers) are striving to speed up production," Adisasmito remarked during an online discussion originating here on Saturday (Feb 13)

The spokesperson opined that in addition to limited vaccine stocks, a mutation of the virus could pose a threat to the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to people in the country.

The number of people to be vaccinated does not align with the availability of vaccines, he pointed out. Consequently, all countries, including Indonesia, are competing with one another to obtain vaccines from suppliers, he pointed out.

"Certain Indonesian regions, including Jakarta, can achieve the target of vaccinating one million people in a day. However, other regions will encounter difficulties in achieving the target due to geographical constraints," the spokesperson pointed out.

Hence, the vaccination program may last longer or be faster than expected, he stated.

To expedite the vaccination program, the current vaccine stocks should suffice for 181.5 million Indonesians, Adisasmito pointed out. (Antaranews)