VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United States opened international aid offices in the Pacific Islands this week, bolstering support for the strategic region and pitting it more forcefully against China, which has been providing infrastructure loans to the area for years.

The vast ocean region, pivotal in World War Two, is in the spotlight again amid tensions over Taiwan. Taiwanese officials this week said China, which claims the island as its territory, could launch military drills soon to intimidate voters ahead of an election next year.

On Wednesday, a Chinese military delegation joined a U.S.-hosted conference of two dozen international defence chiefs in Fiji, highlighting the region's importance to both superpowers.

At the same time, USAID Administrator Samantha Power visited the two biggest Pacific Islands nations, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, opening offices there for the first time and pledging support for the region. The United States and PNG signed a defence cooperation agreement in May.

The USAID office in PNG will also serve Vanuatu, which has closer ties to China and Solomon Islands, which signed a security pact with China last year and which U.S. officials say has so far not agreed to any U.S. aid.

Speaking at the inauguration of the regional office in Fiji, Power said Washington had heard the Pacific's biggest request: "first and foremost, to be present."

"Our region is more secure with a strong U.S. presence in our Blue Pacific," Fiji's Assistant Foreign Minister Lenora Qereqeretabua said this week. In June, Qereqeretabua had led a delegation to China.

Meanwhile, Fiji Military Force Commander Ratu Jone Logavatu Kalouniwai said on Friday after the defence chiefs meeting, the geopolitical situation meant Fiji needed to develop networks to link up with "huge military establishments".

"The rules based order is the only thing that allows small countries like Fiji to become equals when we work with larger nations," he said in a video statement.

Former Chinese diplomat Denghua Zhang, a research fellow at the Australian National University, said as the U.S. and China intensify their rivalry, it will be difficult for countries to balance their aid relationships with both powers.

"China's goal is to obtain support from the Global South including Pacific island countries in its geostrategic competition with traditional powers," he said.

STRATEGIC CHESSBOARD

The events in Vanuatu this week highlighted the challenges Pacific nations face in seeking to benefit from both the United States and its allies, and China.

On Wednesday, in a parliament built by China, Vanuatu's Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau narrowly survived a no-confidence vote that was triggered by lawmakers fearing a security pact with U.S. ally Australia, the region's biggest aid donor, could jeopardise Chinese infrastructure loans.

The U.S. Coast Guard has yet to gain clearance to enter Vanuatu's port, as it does in other Pacific Islands, Coast Guard officials said. China's Peace Ark medical ship, however, docked in Vanuatu this week, and the deputy prime minister told the visiting navy delegation that Vanuatu valued its security and health ties with China.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare is also reluctant to accept U.S. support.

Sogavare was feted while visiting China in July to sign a policing pact, and on Friday, China handed over a national sports stadium. The project was the largest infrastructure donation China had made to the Pacific Islands so far, Chinese ambassador Li Ming said at the ceremony.

Next month, the United States plans to hold a summit of Pacific Island leaders at the White House, the second such meeting in 12 months, as it seeks to further counter China's influence.

Transform Aqorau, vice chancellor of the Solomon Islands National University, said that while regional governments appreciated the attention from the United States and China, the Pacific Islands would always prioritise their own welfare above a "global strategic chessboard".

"Despite the longstanding needs, major donors like USAID have been notably absent from substantial engagements in our region," he told Reuters.

"This new wave of investment brings hope but also raises concerns. We must ask why the interest is only now, at a time of intense geopolitical competition, rather than during the many years when our needs remained unaddressed?" (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Ministry of Industry (Kemmenperin) continues to strive to produce digitally-proficient industrial human resources (HR) through the Lean Monozukuri for Making Indonesia 4.0 (LeMMI 4.0).

The program is a form of collaboration between the ministry's  Industrial Human Resource Development Agency (BPSDMI) and the Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS) that was developed with Lexer Research and Fuso Machine Works to organize and simulate production and manufacturing processes.

"Automotive industry is one of the priority sectors of the Making Indonesia 4.0 program. Therefore, automotive industry companies that are carrying out technology transformation to Industry 4.0 need Industrial HR, who are able to adapt to the latest technology to strengthen the national automotive industry," Head of the ministry's BPSDMI Masrokhan noted in a statement here Friday.

The continuation of the implementation of LeMMI 4.0 was also introduced at Jakarta STMI Polytechnic, a vocational education unit under the ministry's auspices that has study programs related to the automotive industry.

Students were invited to study the importance of the role of LeMMI 4.0 and get motivated to be more enthusiastic in preparing themselves to face the challenges of the automotive industry in the Industry 4.0 era.

"This collaboration is a good example of the Jakarta STMI Polytechnic in an effort to bring the vocational education world closer to the real needs of the industry, especially in the automotive sector, by involving all relevant parties, including from the Japanese government," Masrokhan remarked.

Several technological focuses in the LeMMI 4.0 vision are artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, virtual reality, advanced robotics, and 3D printing.

Director of the Asia and Pacific Division of METI Fukuchi Mami commended the collaboration that had been established.

"I hope that the Japanese and Indonesian public and private sectors will work together to bring growth to Japanese and Indonesian companies as they transition to advanced manufacturing leveraging digital technologies," he affirmed.

The automotive industry is prioritized for development in accordance with the Making Indonesia 4.0 road map, as it is considered capable of making a major contribution to the national economy.

In the second quarter of 2023, the automotive industry grew by 9.66 percent, higher than the performance of the non-oil and gas processing industry that clocked a growth of 4.56 percent (yoy).

The automotive industry has also absorbed a direct workforce of 38 thousand people as well as more than 1.5 million people, who work along the automotive supply chain from tier-1 to tier-3. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) holds the Indonesia Sovereign Rupiah Festival (Ferbi) to invite people to foster a love for the rupiah not only as Indonesia's currency but also as a symbol of sovereignty of the country.

"We hold Ferbi with the objective of interpreting rupiah as the symbol of sovereignty of Indonesia. Therefore, we organize it (the festival) on every occasion of the commemoration of Indonesia's Independence Day anniversary," BI Governor Perry Warjiyo stated at the festival in Jakarta on Friday.

Warjiyo elaborated that the national currency depicts elements of the sovereignty of the country, such as through the images of national heroes as well as Indonesia's cultural wealth.

He urged the people to learn to develop a better understanding of the rupiah, increase their love for the currency, and learn how to use it wisely.

According to Warjiyo, the status of the rupiah, as a symbol of sovereignty, is also reflected in its function as a means of payment in three forms: conventional banknotes and coins, card-based payment instruments, and digital payment instruments.

The government has devised the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) as a national standard for digital payment methods based on QR codes.

Moreover, BI further developed the QRIS by launching QRIS TUNTAS on Thursday (August 17) to coincide with the 78th anniversary of Indonesia's Independence Day.

QRIS TUNTAS provides convenience to people not having access to banking accounts, including those living in the disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions, so they can participate in various financial activities, such as cash withdrawals, transfers, and deposits.

The government expects QRIS TUNTAS to drive its efforts in expanding digital payment access to reach all elements of society in the hopes of increasing financial inclusiveness in the country.

The BI governor noted that the service fees of QRIS TUNTAS are quite affordable: Rp5,000 (US$0.32) for cash withdrawal, Rp6,500 (US$0.42) for cash deposit, Rp2,500 (US$0.16) for transfer with the amount below Rp100 thousand, and Rp2,000 (US$0.13) for transfer above Rp100 thousand.

"Hence, we strive to raise the spirit of Indonesian sovereignty. Let us love rupiah not only as a banknote but also as a symbol of sovereignty," he pointed out.  (antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Rosan Perkasa Roeslani was appointed as Chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Washington D.C. (ACW) 2023.

"I received the leadership baton as Chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Washington D.C. (ACW) from the Cambodian Ambassador to the United States Keo Chhea," Roeslani said in a statement received in Jakarta, Friday.

Roeslani, who concurrently serves as Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), was appointed as Chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Washington D.C. on August 16, 2023.

The ambassador said he is ready to continue the legacy and programs prepared by the earlier leaders, including increasing ACW's strategic involvement with the US Government, congress, the academic sector, the private sector, and other partners.

"I am grateful to receive this mandate, assignment, and trust as a form of responsibility to advance the involvement of the ASEAN community in the field of investment and trade with America," he said.

Ambassador Roeslani stated that his duties as the Chairman of ACW are in accordance with Indonesia that currently holds the ASEAN chairmanship for 2023 and is the country coordinator for the ASEAN-US partnership.

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

Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), in 2022, Indonesia had recorded a surplus in trade balance with the US of 16.57 billion US dollars. Last year, the value of Indonesia's exports to the US was recorded at 28.18 billion US dollars, while the value of Indonesia's imports from the US was recorded at 11.61 billion US dollars.

Meanwhile, data from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) showed that the United States ranks sixth as the country that invests the most in Indonesia in 2022, with a value of 2.12 billion US dollars.  (Antaranews)