VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 8 - The Indonesia-Papua New Guinea (PNG) Border Security Task Force personnel keep upholding their unity with locals in Papua Province by initiating a street cleaning program in Mosso Village in Muara Tami Subdistrict, Jayapura city.

Several members of the task force worked along with the Mosso villagers to remove dirt and debris from the village's street this week, the task force's commander, Major Anggun Wuriyanto said here Sunday.

The soldiers who joined the community service belong to the Army Strategic Reserves Command's (Kostrad's) Raider 413 Mechanic Infantry Battalion, he said, adding that the residents looked enthusiastic to join the street cleaning program.

"We hope the street cleaning activity will be a routine program to keep Mosso Village clean and healthy," Wuriyanto said.

He encouraged the village's youths to be the frontliners of efforts to keep their village clean, healthy, and secure.

ANTARA noted that Indonesian soldiers, stationed in Papua and West Papua, have demonstrated their care for local communities.

Last month, several soldiers from the 11/MA Combat Engineering Detachment (Denzipur) assisted the construction of the Asy-Syifa Islamic boarding school in Sidomulyo Village, Semangga Subdistrict, Merauke District, Papua Province.

The army personnel's community service reflected the Indonesian Military's (TNI's) care for improving the quality of education for children in Papua, according to Asy-Syifa Islamic Boarding School Principal K.POH Ach Sholeh.

Sholeh said he was so thankful for the combat engineering detachment's personnel who had participated in building the Islamic boarding school which was developed from a Quran recitation learning center.

The TNI was expected to keep upholding its unity with local tribal, community, and religious leaders, he added.

In showing their care for the development of human resources in Papua and West Papua, several soldiers, particularly those stationed near the Indonesia-PNG border areas, are also assigned to become voluntary teachers at schools.

Several members of the Indonesia-PNG Border Security Task Force in Merauke District, Papua Province, for instance, have adeptly shouldered this responsibility.

They have extended voluntary assistance to teachers at 12 elementary schools in the sub-districts of Sota, Neukenjerai, Eligobel, and Ulilin in Merauke District since July 2019.

They teach reading, writing, and mathematics to students, Commander of the task force at the Army Strategic Reserves Command's (Kostrad's) MR 411/PDW Infantry Battalion Major Rizky Aditya noted in a statement last year. (Antaranews)

Feb. 8 - Indonesia's economic growth in 2020, which contracted by 2.07 percent (yoy), was above the global average, according to Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha, expert staff in charge of state expenditure affairs of the Ministry of Finance.

"Although it's a minus, but the world level was minus 3.5 percent, it means we are much better than the world average. There were even countries with a minus far above 3.5 percent," he said in the Webinar on the Acceleration of Social Economy here on Sunday.

The peak of Indonesia's economic depression was minus 5.32 percent that occurred in the second quarter of 2020. It was because the government's stimulus had not been optimally accelerated, he said.

The Indonesian economy started to improve in the third quarter at minus 3.49 percent and minus 2.19 percent in the fourth quarter, thanks to the government's stimulus benefiting the public in particular.

The various stimuli provided by the government were the driving force for the Indonesian economy so that overall in 2020, its economy managed to grow at minus 2.07 percent.

Moreover, the social protection stimulus in the national economic recovery program (PEN), which has a wider coverage and better targeting, has been able to reach almost all of the 40 percent of the low income people, he noted.

The social protection stimulus was an intervention from the government in encouraging the consumption of all levels of society, he added. (Antaranews)

Feb. 5 -  South Korea unveiled a 48.5 trillion won ($43.2 billion) plan to build the world’s largest wind power plant by 2030 as part of efforts to foster an environmentally-friendly recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project is a major component of President Moon Jae-in’s Green New Deal, initiated last year to curb reliance on fossil fuels in Asia’s fourth-largest economy and make it carbon neutral by 2050. [S6N29P01A]

Moon attended a signing ceremony in the southwestern coastal town of Sinan for the plant, which will have a maximum capacity of 8.2 gigawatts.

“With this project, we are accelerating the eco-friendly energy transition and moving more vigorously toward carbon neutrality,” Moon said at the event.

Utility and engineering companies also attended, including Korea Electric Power Corp, SK E&S, Hanwha Engineering & Construction Corp, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., CS Wind Corp and Samkang M&T Co.

The companies will provide 47.6 trillion of the required funding and the government the remaining 0.9 trillion, Moon’s office Blue House said.

It said the project would provide up to 5,600 jobs and help achieve a goal to boost the country’s wind power capacity to 16.5 GW by 2030 from 1.67 GW now.

The envisaged 8.2 GW amounts to the energy produced by six nuclear reactors, or the effects of planting 71 million pine trees, officials said.

To date, the world’s largest offshore wind farm is Hornsea 1 in Britain, which has 1.12 GW capacity. (Reuters)

Feb. 5 -  Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) received a state visit from Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Friday.

On the occasion, Rendang, meat slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices, was offered in the lunch menu for President Jokowi and PM Muhyiddin.

"The rendang menu is typical of Indonesia, which of course, must also be enjoyed by state guests. Other items on the menus are all hot and warm," Head of the Presidential Secretariat Heru Budi Hartono remarked during a virtual press statement from the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Friday.

Hartono noted that the luncheon was served with strict adherence to health protocols. All dishes, including the cutlery, will be served directly at the table and have passed the sterilization process.

State guests will take food independently as part of the strict application of health protocols.

"During the luncheon, state guests will take food independently. Everything is served at the dining table, and all are sterile. There are forks, plates, and others that are prepared in a heated sterile place," he stated.

During the meeting, the two countries will discuss several matters, including economic cooperation, regional security, bilateral relations, and efforts to deal with COVID-19 by the two countries.

This state visit to Indonesia is Muhyiddin Yassin's first since being appointed as prime minister of Malaysia in March 2020.

As per tradition, Malaysia has always made Indonesia the first country to visit. (Antaranews)