VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOInews, Jakarta: The Indonesian Embassy in Suva, Fiji, encourages Fijian civil society to understand and encourage the strengthening of cooperation between Indonesia and Fiji in various fields through the establishment of the Fiji-Indonesia Friendship Association (FIFA). This was conveyed by the Indonesian Ambassador to Fiji Dupito D Simamora to Voice of Indonesia, via Zoom connection on Wednesday (8/5/2024). Ambassador Simamora revealed the support of the Fijian people for the formation of FIFA which became a forum for grassroots diplomacy of the Indonesian and Fijian communities.

"Many tribal chiefs, many political figures, even some rectors from universities and big businessmen in Fiji have declared themselves joining this association. So we think this is an important capital, so that now in the future FIFA will become our partner in various efforts that we make at the government level. And of course, later we hope that FIFA can consolidate relations between the two countries, especially after we celebrate 17 June as the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations or diplomacy between Indonesia and Fiji," Ambassador Dupito Simamora said.

Ambassador Simamora further explained that FIFA is intended to build trust between Indonesia and Fiji as well as understanding between the people of the two countries so that they are not easily instigated by NGOs or parties that are less friendly to Indonesia. "We want to encourage Fijian civil society to be able to understand and also support the cooperation that is being built between the two nations. This is one of the important infrastructure buildings of diplomacy in supporting cooperation in various fields, including education, vocational training, agriculture and most importantly for us in addition to understanding, a relationship of mutual respect and trust must be built between the two countries which is also agreed upon or supported by civil society so that they are not easily influenced by some NGOs that may be less friendly to Indonesia," Ambassador Simamora explained.

As quoted from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry website (kemlu.go.id), Indonesia has established diplomatic relations with Fiji since 1974, and has an embassy in Suva City which was established in 2002. The Fiji-Indonesia Friendship Association was inaugurated by the President of Fiji, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere on 26 March 2024 in Suva.

VOInews, Jakarta: The Ministry of Agriculture will build a 10,000-hectare modern agriculture cluster. As a first step, the development will begin in Bandung Regency, West Java by involving many parties including universities to attract millennials. This commitment was conveyed by Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman during a working visit to Solokan Jeruk Village, Bandung Regency, Tuesday (7/5/2024). "We want to create a cluster in West Java of 5,000 to 10,000 hectares. So, everything will use high technology that is in line with modern countries," said Minister Amran Sulaiman.

Mr Amran said the modern farming cluster is a future breakthrough to attract young people who are currently entering the demographic bonus. Later, millennials or gen z will operate drones, remote controls and other planting robots that can speed up production.

"There will be no manual planting. Everything is planted using machines, harvested using machines. We are enhancing our efforts so far with the use of technology and mechanisation," he said.

In the future, the Minister hopes that this modern agriculture cluster will trigger the expansion of modern agriculture in other areas so that Indonesia can become a model for Southeast Asia and ASEAN as a whole. "I want our agriculture to be an example for Southeast Asia and Asia. So fertilising is no longer manual but using drones," he added.

Bandung Regent Dadang Supriatna fully supports Ministry of Agriculture's efforts to build modern agriculture in his area. Moreover, he said, agriculture has proven to be the main support for economic growth in the Bandung area. "During Covid-19, Bandung's economic growth rate was minus 1.87 per cent, but now it has increased to 4.93 per cent. After we study and explore that it turns out, the majority of the main support in the economic growth rate of Bandung Regency comes from agriculture," he said.

Therefore, Dadang wants his people, who are mostly farmers, to make good use of all the programmes run by the Ministry of Agriculture, including pompanisation and modern agricultural clusters. "Thank you for your help and support so that we Bandung Regency farmers are ready to take steps to make Bandung Regency the location of future modern agriculture,"  Bandung Regent concluded.

VOInews, Jakarta: Fiji shared many similarities with Indonesia. Quoting an interview with the Indonesian Ambassador to Fiji, Dupito D. Simamora on the Voice of Indonesia's Ranah Diplomasi programme on Wednesday (8/5/2024) there are at least three similarities between Indonesia and Fiji.

First, according to Ambassador Simamora, like Indonesia, Fiji is also an archipelago republic. "Fiji is an archipelago in the southern Pacific with about 300 islands but the area is about almost four times the island of Bali, so all the islands in Fiji are about four times the size of the island of Bali," Ambassador Simamora said. Ambassador Simamora added that Indonesia is actually also part of the Pacific archipelago which is glued together by the Melanesian race of some Indonesian tribes with Pacific countries. Indonesia is an associate member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group as well as a dialogue partner of the Pacific Island Forum along with Fiji.

Like Indonesia, according to Ambassador Simamora, Fiji is a country that lives with ethnic and religious diversity. "Maybe it can be said to be the only country that is multi-ethnic and multi-religious because here in addition to the Melanesian group which is the indigenous population of around 65 percent, there is also a fairly large portion of indo-fijians or Fijians of Indian descent who were brought here to work on plantations, especially sugar cane plantations and that is also one of the characteristics of Fiji is that besides being multi-ethnic it is also multi-religious, or multi-religious. The largest is Christianity followed by Hinduism and then Islam and of course other religions. So if in other Pacific countries it can almost be said to be homogeneous although there are always minorities but here is the only heterogeneous country which may also be a kind of mini Indonesia but in a different composition, "continued Ambassador Simamora.

The third similarity, according to Ambassador Simamora, is that the Fijian people are generally sports lovers. If Indonesians are generally happy with football and badminton, while Fijians like rugby. "So I think there are similarities with Indonesia. But the pride of Fijians is rugby, so it is not surprising that in 2020 this country also won a gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo," concluded the Ambassador who began serving since August 2023.

 VOInews, Jakarta: Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI), which currently ranks among the 10 Islamic banks with the largest market capitalisation in the world, makes Indonesia's Islamic finance an attractive and potential market for domestic and foreign investors. This was conveyed by Adiwarman Azwar Karim, an Islamic finance expert at the Islamic Banking Outlook 2024 held at Flix Cinema, Ashta 8 District South Jakarta, Wednesday (8/5/2024). The event was attended by Islamic Banking leaders and Islamic finance practitioners in Indonesia.

"The first thing is that we are happy with the current developments. Bank Syariah Indonesia, for example, is in the top 10 largest Islamic banks in the world in terms of market capitalisation. This is an encouraging thing and gives a signal to the world that Indonesia is an attractive country and has great potential for investment in Islamic finance," said Adiwarman, who is currently Deputy President Commissioner of Bank BSI.

In his presentation, Adiwarman A. Karim outlined a roadmap for the development of national Islamic banking through the consolidation of sharia units per cluster. "We see that there will be consolidation, where banks that have small sharia business units (UUS) will consolidate with seven scenarios, where these small banks, UUS-UUS, assets will group themselves into several groups and become banks with larger sizes," explained the founder of Karim Consulting Indonesia.

Adiwarwan also stated the possibility of the birth of two giant Islamic Banks like Bank Syariah Indonesia, which currently has total assets of Rp 348.41 trillion as of February 2024. According to him, the presence of new large Islamic banks will increase the percentage of Indonesia's Islamic banking assets, which currently reaches 7.38% of Indonesia's banking share.