VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 4 - Foreign Minister of Hungary Peter Szijjarto is expected to visit Indonesia soon and meet with his Indonesian counterpart to discuss setting up an investment fund, among other things, Hungarian Ambassador to Indonesia Judit Pach said.

“We are right now preparing for the Foreign Minister retreat to Indonesia, which will hopefully happen within the coming two weeks, and they will have a high-level bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi,” she informed during an exclusive interview with ANTARA on Wednesday.

However, the exact dates for the official visit have not been set yet as the embassy in Jakarta is still holding discussions with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, she said, adding that one of the issues that will be on the agenda of the talk is related to the establishment of joint investment fund.

“How we could speed up the establishment of this (investment) fund, and concerning the exact project we haven't discussed yet, much of (the) projects (will be) definitely in the infrastructure (sector),” she noted.

In early 2020, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had made an official visit to Jakarta and met President Joko Widodo. During their meeting, the two leaders had agreed to establish a joint investment fund of about US$500 million.

"Right now we are still in discussion how to establish the fund [...] (since) establishing such a huge fund would take some time [...] both Indonesia and Hungarian sides came to little hold due to the COVID-19 situation, because we need to reshape resources," Pach added.

Bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Hungary has been carried out in several sectors. For instance, in 2019, Hungary finished a huge water management project in 36 locations across Indonesia.

And just recently, Hungarian company Roatex won the tender for setting up an electronic payment system on Indonesian toll roads using multi-lane free flow (MLFF) technology. (Antaranews)

Feb. 4 - Malaysian Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s planned visit to Indonesia will forge bilateral relations and partnership between the two neighboring countries, the Foreign Ministry has said.

Muhyiddin is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia on Thursday for a two-day visit, the ministry said in a written statement released on Wednesday.

This will be Muhyiddin's first overseas visit since he took over as the Malaysian prime minister in March, 2020.

During the meeting with Yassin, the Indonesian government is expected to raise a wide range of bilateral issues, including protection of Indonesian migrant workers employed in Malaysia, economic and trade cooperation, borders, and travel corridor arrangement.

The foreign ministers of the two countries have held a bilateral meeting to prepare for the Malaysian PM's visit to Indonesia.

Malaysia is an important partner for Indonesia in various sectors, including trade, investment, tourism, and socio-cultural sectors.

Malaysia is Indonesia's fifth largest trade partner, with bilateral trade reaching US$16.5 billion in 2019, and the sixth biggest investor in Indonesia, with a total investment of US$1.35 billion in 2019.

Malaysia was also the biggest source of foreign visitors in 2019, with 2.98 million Malaysian tourists arriving in Indonesia during the year.

During their upcoming meeting, the leaders of the two countries will also discuss regional and global issues of mutual concern, including stepping up cooperation to counter the negative campaign against palm oil. (Antaranews)

Feb. 3 - The Group of Seven largest developed economies on Wednesday condemned the military coup in Myanmar and said it was deeply concerned about the fate of detained political leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in condemning the coup in Myanmar,” they said in a statement.

“We are deeply concerned by the detention of political leaders and civil society activists, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and targeting of the media.”

The G7 foreign ministers called on the military to end the state of emergency and allow unrestricted humanitarian access to support the most vulnerable.

“We call upon the military to immediately end the state of emergency, restore power to the democratically-elected government, to release all those unjustly detained and to respect human rights and the rule of law,” the G7 said.

“The November election results must be respected and Parliament should be convened at the earliest opportunity.” (Reuters)

Feb. 3 - The government will issue regulations on the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in mutual cooperation, Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto stated.

"Regarding the vaccination in mutual cooperation, the minister of health will prepare a Permenkes (Regulation of the Minister of Health)," Chair of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) stated at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, Wednesday.

"One of the aspects in the Permenkes related to testing includes the rapid (test) antigen. Hence, the antigen rapid (test) will be included in the Permenkes, so it can be used for screening," he remarked.

Vaccination in mutual cooperation or independent vaccination encompasses the provision of free COVID-19 vaccination services by corporations for employees.

The implementation of vaccinations in mutual cooperation by companies is part of the efforts to expedite the implementation of immunization in order to achieve community immunity against COVID-19.

The government is currently still implementing a free COVID-19 vaccination program, with priority targets for health workers.

The Ministry of Health is targeting vaccinations for a total of 1.5 million health workers to be completed by the end of February 2021.

After the vaccination of health workers is complete, the government will inoculate 17.4 million public service workers.

At a later stage, vaccination will be conducted on other groups of people.

President Joko Widodo has given the Ministry of Health a target to complete the COVID-19 vaccination for all targets within a year.

State-owned vaccine manufacturer PT Bio Farma (Persero) earlier confirmed that the COVID-19 vaccine for public service officers, including the Indonesian military and police, will be allocated at the end of February.

Bio Farma spokesman Bambang Heriyanto stated that the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM) will issue the lot release of the vaccine produced by Bio Farma, and the first batch of vaccine production is expected to be completed in mid-February.

"The vaccine will be allocated for public service officers, including the TNI (Indonesian Military) and Polri (the Indonesian Police), starting the end of February," Heriyanto stated at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday.

The COVID-19 vaccine bulk, after being processed into a vaccine, must undergo a series of rigorous quality tests conducted by the Bio Farma laboratory and BPOM to ensure that it has met the quality standards.

"To maintain the quality of the vaccines, Bio Farma applies an integrated vaccine distribution system equipped with an Internet of Things (IoT) dashboard in the process," he explained.

The shot will be named COVID-19 Vaccine and have a different packaging from the earlier distributed vaccine, CoronaVac. (Antaranews)