VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 19 - Ensuring the availability of clean water and sanitation for all Indonesian people must become the government's priority, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic situation, Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, has said.

"The development and accessibility of clean water and sanitation must become a priority even in a pandemic situation because this is part of building community resilience and immunity," the minister stated in Jakarta on Friday.

The availability of clean water and sanitation reflects the welfare and basic quality of life of Indonesian citizens, so the government must continue to make efforts to provide such infrastructure to people who do not have access to it, she added.

This, Indrawati said, is in line with Article 28 H, Paragraph 1, of the 1945 Constitution, which states that everyone has the right to be physically and mentally prosperous and have a good and healthy living environment.

The United Nations, in Resolution No. 64/292 of 2010, has also explicitly stated that the right to water and sanitation is part of human rights.

"This is also one of the points of the 6th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Indrawati noted.

She said the provision of clean and sustainable drinking water resources in Indonesia has reached a good level and continues to increase every year.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), access to safe and sustainable drinking water services has continued to increase in the country, rising from 62.75 percent in 2017 to 65.28 percent in 2018 and then to 84.91 percent in 2019.

But, she emphasized, this extraordinary increase should not make the government complacentbecause around 15 percent of Indonesian people still lack access to proper and sustainable drinking water sources.

Moreover, according to Indrawati, the availability of clean water and sanitation will greatly help relieve the burden on women, especially housewives, in carrying out their daily tasks.

“This (issue) is personal for me because this is something I hope can really help a lot of our society," she remarked. (Antaranews)

Feb. 19 - Tens of millions of workers in developed economies will have to retrain for secure careers in post-COVID labour markets reshaped by the pandemic and the remote working revolution, a report by consultancy McKinsey said on Thursday.

The analysis by MGI, McKinsey’s economics research arm, concluded the pandemic’s biggest impacts will be concentrated in four work areas: leisure and travel venues; on-site customer interaction such as in retail and hospitality; computer-based office work; and production and warehousing.

Its scenarios suggested more than 100 million workers in the countries covered by the study - Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain and the United States - may need to switch occupations by 2030, up to 25% more than expected pre-pandemic.

“These workers will face even greater gaps in skill requirements,” it warned, noting that job growth may concentrate more in high-wage jobs as middle- and low-wage jobs decline.

“Workers without a college degree, women, ethnic minorities, and young people may be most affected,” it added .

Other types of work - such as medical care and personal care - may see less change because there is little alternative to the high level of proximity they require.

Overall, the study found that remote work and virtual meetings are likely to continue - less extensively than at the pandemic’s peak but still with considerable knock-on effects for real estate, business travel and urban centers.

While leisure travel and tourism are seen rebounding, McKinsey estimated some 20% of business travel may not return after the pandemic as companies and workers acknowledged a lot of earlier travel for face-to-face meetings was superfluous.

“This would have a significant knock-on effect on employment in commercial aerospace and airports, hospitality, and food service,” it noted. (Reuters)

Feb. 19 - Foreign ministers of the so-called Quad grouping of countries seen as a forum to stand up to China in Asia agreed that democracy must be restored quickly in Myanmar and to strongly oppose attempts to upset the status quo by force, Japan’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia met virtually for the first time under the Biden administration and discussed Myanmar, COVID-19, climate, and Indo-Pacific territorial and navigation issues, the State Department said in a statement.

“We’ve all agreed on the need to swiftly restore the democratic system (in Myanmar),” and to strongly oppose all unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters.

“I stressed that, with challenges to existing international order continuing in various fields, the role we, the countries that share basic values and are deeply committed to fortifying free and open international order based on the rule of law, play is only getting bigger,” Motegi said.

The State Department said Blinken and his counterparts discussed counterterrorism, countering disinformation, maritime security and “the urgent need to restore the democratically elected government in Burma.”

They also addressed the “the priority of strengthening democratic resilience in the broader region,” it said.

The State Department said the four reiterated a commitment for the Quad to meet at least annually at ministerial levels and regularly at senior and working levels “to strengthen cooperation on advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region, including support for freedom of navigation and territorial integrity.”

Myanmar’s military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup. The United States has responded with sanctions and urged other countries to follow suit.

President Joe Biden has said working closely with allies will be key to his strategy toward China, in which he has said the United States will aim to “out-compete” Beijing.

Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in a telephone call last week to strengthen Indo-Pacific security through the Quad.

The United States and other Quad members are concerned about China’s extensive maritime claims in Asia, including in the South China Sea, where Beijing has established military outposts in disputed waters. In the East China Sea, China claims a group of uninhabited islets administered by Japan, a dispute that has plagued bilateral relations for years. (Reuters)

Feb. 19 - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) is driving digitalization in the operation of Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPR), or secondary banks, in anticipation of the fast dynamics of digital service developments.

"We are currently digitizing strategic initiatives for secondary banks," OJK senior executive analyst, Roberto Akyuwen, said during a webinar on provision of banking services using a hybrid cloud in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to him, the scope of digitization carried out at BPRs covers information aggregators, complete products and services, increasing the ability to submit reports targeted daily (from monthly or quarterly earlier).

He explained that the OJK has also carried out digitization initiatives for microfinance institutions and even sharia players, namely through the Micro Waqf Bank.

Digitalization of BPRs is also aimed to increase financial inclusion in the community, given the existence of BPRs close to customers in the suburbs, rural areas, and even in isolated areas, Akyuwen said.

At present, from Sabang to Merauke, there are 1,669 BPRs working in the micro and small market segments, of which 1,506 are BPRs operating conventionally and 163 are sharia BPRs, he informed.

Based on total assets, he said, as of December 2020, the market share of the BPR industry is pegged at 91.21 percent, or Rp155 trillion, a growth of 3.64 percent on an annual basis.

As for sharia BPR, it has a market share of 8.79 percent, or Rp14.95 trillion, reflecting a growth of 8.67 percent annually, he added.

OJK noted that the number of micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia has reached around 58.92 million, or around 98.68 percent of the total business players, and small business actors, or around 716 thousand (1.20 percent), are still cash-based, so they are a target for the direction of digitization.

Akyuwen then urged national banks, including secondary banks, to make adaptations, to take initiatives, and collaborate in the digitizing effort. (Antaranews)