VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 5 - President Joko Widodo's discussion with five governors on handling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic concluded that reducing the infection rates were paramount to successfully handling the pandemic, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated.

"Yesterday, Mr. President invited five governors to discuss about the COVID-19 pandemic. I happened to be requested to accompany him and see how we share our experiences in handling the pandemic," Sadikin remarked here on Thursday.

The invited governors are Anies Baswedan from Jakarta, Ridwan Kamil from West Java, Ganjar Pranowo from Central Java, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X from Yogyakarta, and Wayan Koster from Bali.

Sadikin affirmed that China and India were able to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Several cities in the administrative areas of the five governors are also able to tackle the pandemic.

"We conclude that the best way to handle the pandemic is reducing the infection rates," he emphasized, adding that by doing so, the burden on hospitals could be well-managed, so that they could be prepared for conducting the vaccination program.

Thus, the main mission of Indonesia's collective fight against the COVID-19 pandemic was reducing the infection rates. In this regard, several action programs were implemented, such as "Jogo Tonggo" and "resilient village", he remarked.

Action programs, such as "Jogo Tonggo" in Central Java, "resilient village", and "alert village," that were implemented in various rural areas in Indonesia were deeply rooted in Indonesia's unique culture.

"The programs are appropriate to help reduce the COVID-19 infection rates since they are implemented at the micro level, such as in families and neighborhoods," he stated.

As of February 4, 2021, Indonesia had witnessed the addition of 11,984 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 1,111,671 cases, while the number of new recoveries reached 9,135, thereby bringing the total count of people fully recovering from coronavirus to 905,665.

Indonesia's death rate was recorded at 30,770 after 189 other people succumbed to the disease over the past 24 hours.

The Indonesian government has been grappling to win the battle against the global pandemic of COVID-19 since it announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

The government has not only enforced the public activity restriction policy in the Java and Bali Islands since January 11, 2021, but also conducted a national vaccination program that commenced on January 13, 2021.

Since January 26, 2021, Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate had exceeded one million cases following President Widodo’s official announcement of the country's first COVID-19 cases in March. (Antaranews)

Feb. 5 - The Indonesian government is formulating strategies to strengthen COVID-19 handling, deputy chief of the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has said.

The strategies include launching a massive campaign on health protocols, developing a central isolation facility, accelerating the vaccination program, and limiting mobility, he added.

“We have to improve the strategy on COVID-19 handling to increase public discipline,” Pandjaitan, who is also the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said here during an online discussion on COVID-19 handling on Thursday.

The government, he said, has three primary targets in the fight against COVID-19 — reduce daily cases, lower mortality rate, and increase recovery rate.

The first strategy is encouraging change in public behavior through a massive health protocol campaign, and aggressive tracing and testing, the minister informed.

"We hope that dissemination of information and the campaign can be conducted massively involving various institutions, such as the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Education and Culture Ministry," he said.

The next strategy is developing a central isolation facility, Pandjaitan said.

"The use of Wisma Atlet in Greater Jakarta is the right policy, hence we can use it as an isolation center, reduce family clusters, and help overwhelmed hospitals," he stated.

The government is also encouraging provinces with the highest number of positive cases to provide a central isolation facility, he revealed.

"We will improve the management of medical treatment by ensuring adequate hospital capacity, medicines and health care equipment," he said.

Yet another strategy, he added, is accelerating the COVID-19 vaccination program, under which vaccines are being administered to medical workers, public service officers, vulnerable groups, and in priority regions with high positivity rates.

"Vaccination is still ongoing, we are targeting to reach 70 percent of herd immunity in 12 months," Pandjaitan stressed.

Reducing mobility is also crucial to control coronavirus transmission, he noted.

"Based on our experience, it will need mobility reduction of more than 30 percent to control the cases," he said.

Meanwhile, head of the Indonesian Epidemiology Association (PAEI), Hariadi Wibisono, said the source of most of the COVID-19 positive cases could not be detected.

"Therefore, we need to intensify the 3T moves — testing, tracing and treatment," he remarked.

The government should provide affordable and accessible COVID-19 testing and tracing that involves all elements of the society, he said. (Antaranews)

Feb. 5 - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir expressed hope that Indonesian BUMN companies would emerge as a global preference.

"I also hope that many more Indonesian state-owned companies would become preferences in the global business, taking into account the fact that competition is now open," Thohir noted in Jakarta, Thursday.

The BUMN minister commended the inclusion of Mandiri, BNI, and BRI into the Forbes ranking list along with Telkom.

"From the start, we, at the Ministry of BUMN, were keen that the transformation we conducted was based on the three aspects of accountability, transparency, and professionalism," he emphasized.

During the journey of transformation, Thohir expressed belief that the BUMN group should also be based on focus laid on its business as well as its long-term strategic plan after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In accordance with the Ministry of BUMN’s roadmap, we also hope that BUMNs would go global," Minister Thohir stated.

Four BUMN -- PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, and PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk -- were included on the list of the world's largest public companies in the 2019 version of the business magazine Forbes.

Forbes released a list of the two thousand largest global public companies in the world in 2019. The companies selected are spread across 61 countries, with the criteria for the largest global public company referring to the size of market capitalization, sales or revenue, profit, and assets in 2018.

The international community’s recognition and praises for the performance of these BUMNs demonstrates the seriousness of BUMNs to unwaveringly realize their long-term vision as service providers and deliver optimal performance. (Antaranews)

Feb. 5 - Indonesia, as chief of the ASEAN Committee in Rome (ACR), has encouraged strong cooperation between Italy and the regional grouping in disaster management.

“We (Italy and ASEAN member states) are located in natural disaster-prone regions. ASEAN member states are aware of the importance of this disaster management effort, both at national and regional levels, through ASEAN," said Indonesian Ambassador to Italy, Esti Andayani, in her capacity as the ACR chief, in a written statement issued by the Indonesian Embassy in Rome on Thursday.

She made the remarks at the opening of an online training course on civil protection organized by the Italian government for ASEAN member states and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Aid for Disaster Management (AHA Center).

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

The online training course was opened virtually on Wednesday (February 3, 2021) and attended by officials from the Italian Foreign Ministry, the Civil Protection Department, ASEAN ambassadors to Italy, Italian ambassadors to ASEAN member states, representatives from the AHA Center, CIMA Foundation, and Italian research institutions, among others.

"Of course, the online training course this time demonstrates the importance of (establishing) cooperation (and) sharing experience, knowledge, and skill in the field of disaster management and proves the ASEAN-Italy partnership is useful for all of us. We, the ACR, will surely continue to support any effort to enhance the cooperation," Andayani said.

She then listed several important achievements of the ASEAN in natural disaster management, including the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) of 2005, the establishment of the AHA Center in Jakarta in 2011, and the Declaration of One ASEAN One Response, ASEAN Vision 2025 on Disaster Management, and the AADMER Work Program 2021-2025.

The training course organized by the Italian government comprised two courses, one on early warning systems and another on disaster risk management.

Twenty-four participants from ASEAN member states, the AHA Center, and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) attended the course. (Antaranews)