VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has set a service fee for electric vehicle (EV) charging at public charging stations (SPKLUs).

The fee amount is regulated in a ministerial decree issued to help accelerate the EV ecosystem, provide business certainty, and transparency to the public.

"The cost of the service will make it more economical for business entities to invest in SPKLUs," said Havidh Nazif, the ministry's Director of Electricity Business Development, in Jakarta on Monday.

SPKLUs using fast-charging technology will levy a maximum fee of Rp 25,000 (around $1.66), while those using ultrafast charging technology will charge a maximum fee of Rp 57,000 (around $3.78). The fees will be charged for one-time charging.

The charging technology at SPKLUs for vehicles with four or more wheels includes slow-charging, medium-charging, fast-charging, and ultrafast charging.

The service fee is set as an incentive for SPKLU operators to offer fast-charging and ultrafast-charging services to EV owners and to support the development of the EV ecosystem.

The service fee will be evaluated every two years to determine the economic and reasonableness of the cost.

Nazif said that the number of electric vehicles in Indonesia is currently around 60,000, 15,000 of which are passenger cars.

"This number will continue to grow, and according to studies, the growth rate will be between 6 and 10 percent per year," he informed. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has reiterated that downstreaming efforts in various sectors constitute crucial measures to boost the economy, both at the national and regional levels.

The head of state made the statement while attending the inauguration ceremony of the national leadership council of the Indonesian Entrepreneurs Association (Apindo) in Jakarta on Monday.

"Prior to the downstream policy, the economic growth rate in Southeast Sulawesi was recorded at 7.0–7.5 percent. Now, the rate has reached 15 percent. Meanwhile, in North Maluku, the rate was only 5.7 percent. After downstreaming, it has reached 23 percent," he highlighted.

President Widodo expressed the belief that the aggregate of national economic growth would reach a remarkable rate if all provinces in Indonesia record a similar trend.

Furthermore, he emphasized that Indonesia would be able to become a developed country by fulfilling two conditions: optimizing its demographic bonus to develop human resource quality and implementing the downstream policy in various industries.

The government has been downstreaming nickel, which has resulted in an increase in the employment rate in Southeast Sulawesi and North Maluku.

According to the President, downstreaming efforts have significantly increased the absorption of nickel processing workers from 1,800 people to 71,500 in Southeast Sulawesi and from merely 500 people to 45,600 in North Maluku.

He also affirmed that the efforts have pushed the country to optimize its nickel reserves by producing processed products, thereby increasing the mineral's value from Rp31 trillion (around US$2 billion) to Rp510 trillion (US$33.8 billion) in total.

President Widodo then stressed that the government will apply the policy to other minerals, including copper, bauxite, and tin.

"We will even expand the policy implementation to non-mineral sectors, such as agriculture and fishery. Based on our calculation, such a step will help MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), farmers, and fishers produce value-added products," he said.

He then highlighted the fact that Indonesia is the world's largest coconut producer with at least 4.1 million families making a living as coconut farmers, and the world's second-largest seaweed producer with 63 thousand families carrying out seaweed farming.

By downstreaming the two commodities, farmers will be able to produce more products with higher added value, which, in turn, will multiply the profits generated, he added.

"All parties, including Apindo, should start thinking of finding a way to export many more commodities in a processed form. Furthermore, banks should also start considering providing funds for downstreaming efforts in the fields I have mentioned," he stressed. (Antaranews)

China should be able to meet standards set out in a major trans-Pacific trade pact, trade experts say, forcing members to make a politically uncomfortable decision on whether to let Beijing join a deal created to counter its growing influence.

Britain joined the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) at a meeting in Auckland this month just over two years after its application, clearing the way for members to consider others from China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Ecuador.

China's application, by far the biggest economy, is next in line if they are dealt with in the order they were received, although that is not a given.

When asked whether there was a time frame for when the next applications would be considered, CPTPP host nation New Zealand's Trade Minister Damien O'Connor said: "No."

The free trade agreement has its roots in the U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership, developed in part to counter China's growing economic dominance. The U.S. pulled out under President Donald Trump and it was reborn as the CPTPP with members including close U.S. allies Japan, Australia and Canada.

China wants to be part of the CPTTP because the ruling Communist Party places a lot of stock in its economic performance, which has suffered recently due to various trade restrictions, and because it sees the bloc's high accession requirements as fresh impetus for economic reform at home, analysts say.

The absence of the world's largest economy incentivises China to meet the high entry requirements as "the hidden motive" for Beijing is to "defeat the scheme by the U.S. to use the CPTPP as a way to contain China," said Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University.

A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said its application was in line with efforts to deepen reform and expand trade cooperation with other countries.

TECHNICAL HURDLES

The CPTPP requires countries to eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs, make strong commitments to opening services and investment markets and has rules around competition, intellectual property (IP) rights and protections for foreign companies.

"The conventional wisdom is... that 'Oh well, it's too high level and China with its state-owned enterprises (SOE) couldn't get into that agreement. So therefore it's not going to happen.' I think that is completely wrong," Tim Groser, a former New Zealand trade minister and chief trade negotiator said.

He said there was a desire by at least some in China to use the agreement to drive reform such as in SOEs.

However, China offers SOEs subsidies and could struggle to meet the requirement to be an open and market-driven economy. And while IP rights are improving, there continue to be high-profile cases of IP theft from Western companies.

The CPTPP also has a focus on digital trade and prohibits forcing foreign companies to store local data in country - for example, in China. Beijing's data sovereignty laws have only become tighter in recent years.

"If a country's economies rules are really quite far apart from what CPTPP says, then inevitably there's quite a big question about whether they could undertake really, really massive reforms," said Graham Zebedee, Britain's CPTPP chief trade negotiator, without commenting specifically about China's application.

Trade experts noted the pact does have exemptions, such as protections for national security, and China showed it could liberalise when it joined the World Trade Organization.

"The CPTPP is important for us. Not because it'll be easy but exactly because it will be difficult and tough," China's Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong said in a recent speech. He said potential accession was an "impetus to the domestic reforms" that would be undertaken.

SHADOW OF POLITICS

Ultimately the decision will be political rather than technical, because a deal to allow a new entrant must be agreed upon by all members. Australia, for example, has said it would not endorse China's application while Beijing continues to block the import of Australian goods including wine and barley.

Furthermore, the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand last month signed a statement condemning economic coercion that was widely seen as referring to China's behaviour at a time when many countries are looking to lessen supply chains' reliance on Beijing.

Hopes also remain that the U.S. might reconsider its early CPTPP withdrawal, creating a dilemma for signatories given their veto power and the risk China, if admitted, could block a future U.S. entry.

"I think Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico, they have to all act on their own. The U.S. walked away, so they shouldn't really try to restrict others to talk with other partners," said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization think tank and a former member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference political advisory body.

When asked if the U.S. would reconsider joining the CPTPP, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Wellington last week it is focused for now on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which aims to improve supply chains and business conduct but is not a free trade agreement.

China has backed a rival Asia-Pacific trade pact called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which excludes the U.S. and involves cutting tariffs rather than opening up economies and dictating labour and environmental standards as the CPTPP does.

For CPTPP members, China's application is not the only political dilemma. Taiwan is also seeking to join the pact, in a move opposed by China that member trade negotiators remain unsure about.

"It's a consensus. So ultimately it depends on what everyone decides at the table," said Natalie Black, Britain's trade commissioner for Asia Pacific. (Reuters)

The European Union is ready to strengthen cooperation with the Philippines on maritime security, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday, as she stressed the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

She was speaking after a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila where the two leaders discussed a range of issues from security and trade to climate change.

"We are ready to strengthen the cooperation with the Philippines on maritime security in the region by sharing information, conducting threat assessment and building the capacity of your coast guard," she said in a joint press conference with Marcos.

The Philippines is a fulcrum of the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, with its maritime territory encompassing part of the South China Sea, a strategic and resource-rich waterway over which China also claims sovereignty.

Von der Leyen on Monday reaffirmed the EU's support for a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing's expansive claims, saying the ruling is legally binding and provides the basis for resolving disputes peacefully.

But China, whose "aggressive" actions in the South China Sea have been the subject of hundreds of diplomatic protests filed by the Philippines, does not recognise the landmark ruling.

"An Indo-Pacific free of the threats of coercion is key to all our stability, to our peace and to the prosperity of our people," said Von der Leyen, whose Manila visit was the first by a European Commission president in nearly six decades.

The leaders also discussed relaunching negotiations for a free trade agreement, which have been stalled since 2017. The talks were originally launched in 2015 with the aim of concluding a deal that covers tariffs, non-tariff barriers to trade, and intellectual property among others.

Von der Leyen also said the European Union will support the Philippines' fight against climate change, which is a priority for Marcos as he pushes to increase renewables in the country's power mix to 35% by 2030. (Reuters)