VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

To control the price of rice, Ministry of Trade has conducted market operations in some regions prone to price hike since November 2017. Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita said that the price hike is caused with the scarcity of medium rice that also leads to price hike. At a media gathering held on Friday, January 12, Minister Enggar explained that market operations were not able to reduce the price of rice caused by lack of supply. To that end, the Ministry of Trade also agrees with the Association of Indonesian Retailers -Aprindo and rice distributors to sell premium rice at the highest retail price. Another attempt by the government is to import rice. This choice is taken because high price increases inflation rate and the rice contributes high to the inflation.

"...Import is not something taboo and basically in trading, there is import, and there is export. So, this is a contemporary solution until the price is stable and harvest time comes," Enggartiasto said.

Minister Enggar further explained, the type of imported rice is not grown in Indonesia or special rice and will enter the market as medium rice. The amount of rice to be imported is 500 thousand tons and comes from Thailand and Vietnam. The import rice will enter Indonesia before the harvest and the harvest outcome shall be purchased by Bulog with set price. (Skr)

An International Relations Observer of University of Indonesia, Beginda Pakpahan in Jakarta on Friday encouraged ASEAN member states to maintain centrality in facing challenges within the region. After celebrating its 50th-year anniversary, according to him, ASEAN is still facing challenges namely the Korean Peninsula issue, and South China Sea dispute, including global terrorism in Southeast Asia.

In addition to maintaining centrality in ASEAN, Beginda also encouraged ASEAN member states to be able to develop their regional cooperation scale in indo-pacific and Asia Pacific. Thus, they have to maintain peace and stability both regionally and internationally.

"...ASEAN should strive to maintain unity as well as to maintain the centrality of ASEAN in response to this. That's the first. This means that if ASEAN is united and ASEAN has a centrality in the formation of regional architecture, it will help ASEAN and other countries in maintaining peace and stability and prosperity in the region of Southeast Asia and East Asia. And this effects on the global course. Secondly, we hope ASEAN cooperation can open also cooperation to indo-pacific circle that exists in for example Indian Ocean because there is IORA there and also to Asia Pacific because there is APEC there. This can help to maintain peace of stability as well as regional security and hope also at the global level," Beginda said.

Furthermore, to enhance the role of ASEAN member states both at regional and global level, Beginda Pakpahan said that ASEAN member countries should be able to improve coordination in choosing strategic issues, including in responding to existing challenges. This effort can be done to build a common leadership in ASEAN, including eliminating the emergence of rivalry of big countries that intend to gain influence in ASEAN. (ndy)

An international relations observer of University of Indonesia, Beginda Pakpahan hoped in Jakarta on Friday that Indonesia can balance foreign policy measures amidst the challenges of international uncertainty that are currently engulfing the world. He said that the uncertainty in international relations is suspected to be happening in some countries in the western part of the world. This is indicated by the widespread conflicts that occur both in the internal state and within a region.

To anticipate the existing phenomenon, Beginda said, Indonesia by relying on active free foreign policy will be able to play a major role in the regional and global arena in order to safeguard the national interest.

"...So, it should be balanced and also strategic in choosing policy. And I see active and free foreign policy can still be used. For example, when multilateralism relations are in challenge, we can try to do bilateralism; we can try to do limited pluraliteralism which can roughly support the economic and political interests of Indonesia, and can also maintain the stability, peace and security at regional and global levels. Because, it is mentioned in our Constitution," Beginda Pakpahan said.

Earlier in an Annual Press Statement, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that the 2018 world situation would still be filled with various challenges and uncertainties. She said, political and security instability at the global level remains the biggest risk factor in 2018. Facing such challenges, the Minister said that Indonesia would prioritize partnerships to respect international law by continuing to develop multilateralism. In addition, she also remarked that Indonesia will also build partnerships to strengthen regional and global cooperation. (ndy)

The government of Indonesia under the leadership of President Joko Widodo has a long-term orientation in economic development through infrastructure development that takes a long time. Towards the implementation of the elections in conjunction in 2018, it is expected that the infrastructure development can be completed so that domestic conditions can be more stable. This was conveyed by economic observer from the University of Indonesia who also served as Program Director of INDEF (Institute for Development of Economics and Finance), Berly Martawardaya in a special interview with Voice of Indonesia in Jakarta more recently.

"...So, we see that the government has long term orientation by focusing on the infrastructure. So, the infrastructure takes more than one year or even three years to be built; that's complicated one. So, that's why, we see that the situation must be stable within the two years. So, we hope some of the infrastructure is already finished this year," Berly said.

Berly also expects that with the completion of infrastructure development, foreign investors will be interested to come to Indonesia and invest their capital before the political year or the change of regime in 2019. (Rezha)