VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo, on Tuesday, monitored the damage caused to the West Sulawesi Governor's Office by the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck last Friday.

During the visit, the head of state was accompanied by Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Chief Doni Monardo, and West Sulawesi Governor Ali Baal Masdar, the State Secretariat's Press Bureau noted in a press statement released on Tuesday.

The photograph received from the press bureau shows nearly all buildings in the gubernatorial office compounds been destroyed. Heavy-duty equipment and trucks were readied to clear away the debris of collapsed buildings.

According to the BNPB Center for Operation Control, the quake had claimed 84 lives as of Monday at 8:00 Western Indonesia Time (WIB).

Of the total, 11 were found in Majene District and 73 in Mamuju District.

The quake also inflicted injuries to 64 people in Majene and 180 people in Mamuju as well as compelled 4,421 people in Majene and 15,014 people in Mamuju to flee their homes.

West Sulawesi Governor Ali Baal Masdar has declared a 14-day emergency response status on January 15-28.

The head of state remarked that during his visit to West Sulawesi to ensure the evacuation of victims, the distribution of relief aid among the affected people, management of logistics, and evacuee tents were well-managed.

The head of state remarked that the central government will reconstruct the destroyed gubernatorial office and assist residents in repairing their damaged houses.

The president also offered deep condolences over those who lost their lives in the disaster.

"May their bereaved families remain sincere and patient," he stated. (Antaranews)

The National Transportation Safety Board (KNKT) will release its preliminary report on the investigation in the Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 flight crash next month, or 30 days following the incident.

"We hope that in 30 days after the crash, we would be able to deliver a preliminary report, and once it is published, we will show it to the public," Head of the KNKT Aviation Safety Investigation Sub Committee, Nurcahyo Utomo, noted in a statement in Jakarta, Tuesday. On Sunday (Jan 18), Utomo spoke of his side having conducted an investigation with a team from the US comprising 11 people, with four from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), four from Boeing, two from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and an airplane engineer from General Electric.

"This is in accordance with ICAO Annex 13 where the country that makes aircraft designs has the right to participate in the investigation. This time, two investigators from TSIB Singapore are participating in the investigation in accordance with the cooperation of ASEAN countries," he stated.

Utomo noted that the KNKT had also downloaded all data from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), or the black box.

"In accordance with what was earlier stated, we have also downloaded the FDR data, and we can say that we retrieved the data. It has been downloaded successfully, with a total of 370 parameters, 27 hours, or 18 flights, including the ill-fated flight," he stated.

However, Utomo stated that the data will continue to be explored again, and until now, it is not available to be shared or published.

"However, from the data obtained, there are some leads that we can explore further for the data we require for investigative purposes, and we also really hope that the CVR would be found to support the data we obtained from the FDR," he remarked.

The FDR black box was found on January 12, 2021, three days after the accident.

The KNKT had earlier also announced that the Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 aircraft system was still functioning and able to transmit data before it crashed into the waters of Kepulauan Seribu on Monday, January 9, at 2:40 p.m. local time.

The KNKT has collected the ADS-B radar data from the Indonesian Aviation Navigation Service Provider Corporation (Airnav Indonesia).

The data indicated that the plane was airborne at 2:36 p.m. local time, flew towards the Northwest, and at 2:40 p.m. local time, reached an altitude of 10,900 feet. The plane then reportedly began descending, and latest data on the aircraft indicated that it was flying at an altitude of 250 feet.

According to other data obtained by the KNKT from KRI Rigel, the debris, or wreckage, is spread over an area sized 100 meters wide and 300-400 meters long. (Antaranews)

National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Operations Director Military Brigadier General TNI (Mar) Rasman confirmed a Basarnas ship colliding with a Transportation Ministry's ship during Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 search operations in the Kepulauan Seribu waters.

"The Basarnas ship incurred slight damage, but it did not hinder the operations," Rasman remarked upon confirmation in Jakarta, Tuesday.

The Basarnas operations director explained that the Basarnas ship had collided with a ship belonging to the Ministry of Transportation's Directorate General of Sea Transportation that was part of the SAR operation. The incident took place in the early hours of Tuesday owing to bad weather, he noted.

Strong ocean currents developed in such weather that made the two ships unstable, thereby resulting in them colliding while anchoring.

"The currents were so strong that when the ship was anchored, it was not well under control and eventually drifted too close to the other ship and led to a collision," he explained.

Despite the collision, Rasman explained that the agency's ship continued to conduct search operations for victims of the Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 and was currently in the waters of Kepulauan Seribu.

The combined search and rescue (SAR) operation is currently into its 11th day and is on its second extension until January 21, 2021.

The joint SAR team deployed some 60 ships from several agencies in addition to 21 boats and marine main equipment as well as dozens of ambulances.

The joint SAR team is also supported by three ships with the ability to detect underwater objects, including the KRI Rigel Ship, Baruna Jaya, and the Ara Ship. (Antaranews)

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday said the global lender needed more resources to help heavily indebted countries, citing a highly uncertain global economic outlook and a growing divergence between rich and poor countries.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who has long advocated a new allocation of the IMF’s own currency, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), said doing so now would give more funds to use address both the health and economic crisis, and accelerate moves to a digital and green economy.

Under outgoing President Donald Trump, the United States, the IMF’s largest shareholder, has blocked such a new SDR allocation, a move akin to a central bank printing money, since it would provide more resources to richer countries since the allocation would be proportionate to their shareholding.

Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson, the new chair of the IMF’s steering committee speaking at an online news conference with Georgieva, said it was clear the need for liquidity remained great, and she would consult with member countries on options for expanding liquidity.

Andersson, the first European to head the International Monetary and Financial Committee in more than 12 years and the first women, started her three-year term here in the role on Monday.

Georgieva said the IMF had rapidly increased concessional financing to emerging market and developing economies, including through donations by member countries of some $20 billion in existing SDRs. That would continue to play an important role, but further steps were needed, she said.

“It will continue to be so important, even more important, for us to be able to expand our capacity to support countries that have fallen behind,” Georgieva said.

She said a new SDR allocation had never been taken off the table by IMF members, she said, adding that some members continued to discuss it as a possible move. A possible sale of gold from the IMF’s reserves would have “some opportunity costs” for the IMF, but would be up to members, she said.

She said she expected the Group of 20 major economies to extend the current moratorium in official debt service payments by the poorest countries, now slated to end in June, but much would depend on the pace of vaccinations in coming months. (reuters)