VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto visited the United States on February 13 to 15, to increase export and remove trade barriers between the United States and Indonesia.

On the first day, Minister Agus Suparmanto met representatives from the United States Trade Representative –USTR  in Washington. They discussed import duty relief facility or Generalized System of Preferences. Minister Agus explained that in the meeting on Thursday morning, the US Trade Representative had agreed on some matters that had not been  negotiated yet.

A number of un-negotiated matters including issues relating to joint insurance with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and new horticulture product import regulation after  the US won a lawsuit against Indonesia at the Dispute Settlement Body of World Trade Organization-WTO.  The Minister  hoped, the Generalized System of Preferences discussion can be finished before Indonesian President Joko Widodo visits Las Vegas to attend  the ASEAN-US Summit in mid March 2020.

On the second day, Minister Suparmanto received some US business people  representative joined in US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC). They discussed some trade barriers, including e-commerce sector. After the meeting, the Minister said, e-commerce regulation is purposely made to record businesses on electronic platform taking place in Indonesia. The regulation is aimed at protecting consumers in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, US-ABC delegation led by President and CEO of US-ASEAN Business Council Alexander C. Feldman hopes, Indonesia can increase the effort thereby it is ready to receive Information and Communication Technology investment, mainly in terms of regulation, infrastructure, and investment barrier reduction in that sector.

Minister Agus Suparmanto also explained about the development of Omnibus Law that will facilitate investors and businesspeople to invest in Indonesia. Omnibus Law was also called as a policy expected by businesspeople because there were many regulations burdening the businesspeople, especially related to licensing, that soon will be simplified.

In the meeting, there were also Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of Communication and Information Technology Johnny G. Plate, as well as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahendra Siregar.

Besides discussing on trade development, in the meeting Indonesian delegations also promoted investment, including development investment opportunity in the new capital city.

Afghanistan Election Commission last February 18, 2020, officially announced Ashraf Ghani was re-elected as President of Afghanistan for the second period. In this Presidential Election, Ghani won 50.64% over his rival Abdullah Abdullah. Afghan politics is in a polemic after President Ashraf Ghani's main rival rejected the results of the initial September elections. Abdullah's team submitted thousands of evidence of fraud about the initial results and said tens of thousands of votes for Ghani were fraud. He rejected the results of the count after being announced by calling himself "the winner based on clean votes."

Ashraf Ghani's re-election was also in the spotlight. Bearing in mind that in 2014, the second round was held amid complaints of massive fraud. After an agreement facilitated by the US, Ghani became president, sharing power with Abdullah in the Government of National Unity. These two figures have shared power over the past five years in a unity government formed by the United States after allegations of widespread fraud and corruption in the 2014 poll. The Taliban, which was overthrown by US forces in 2001 demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, and condemned the election as 'fraud'. The Taliban even urged Afghans to boycott the polls and threatened to attack security forces, blockade roads and target polling stations across the country. More than 72,000 security personnel were deployed to 49,402 national polling stations, while 410 polling centers were closed Saturday due to security concerns

With the completion of the Election process in Afghanistan, in fact the homework of the President-elect is still quite a lot. Among them, ensuring his political rivals support his leadership period to completion, and securing negotiations with the Taliban.

Hopefully Afghanistan can overcome the various problems being faced.

The location of Nunsui Beach is close to two other beaches: Laisana and Manikin Beached in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara -NTT. Precisely, the Nunsui Beach is at the Eastern part of Kupang City in Oesapa village, Kelapa Lima district, Kupang. It is not difficult to go to the Nunsui Beach because from Kupang, you can ride motorcycle and it only takes around 20 minutes.

The Nunsui Beach is called ‘Batu Nona beach’ by local people because there is a stone whose shape is like a woman. The stone is located near the seashore. Visitors can climb to the stone and see beautiful scenery of Kupang bay at the distance.

In addition, the visitors can also see beautiful sunset. While waiting for the sunset, they can enjoy the fresh air at the beach while sitting on stone’s bench. You can also catch fish from the bench.

If you are tired after playing sand on the beach or swimming while sun bathing, you can enjoy snacks such as corn roasted, Epe banana or young coconut ice which are offered by the vendors around the beach.

Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad, Iwan Suyudhie Amri conducted a seminar on palm oil. The seminar was attended by 160 people from various professions. The seminar with the title 'Health, Nutritional Benefits, and Potential Profitability of Palm Oil' is hoped to be able to give information to the participants and to protect sustainable trade of palm oil. The seminar was held at Marriott Karachi Hotel on Saturday (15/2). Ambassador Iwan stated that palm oil has contributed significantly in Indonesian and Pakistani economy. For Indonesia, palm oil is one of the main export commodities and for Pakistan, it is one of the biggest contributions for food industrial growth.

An initial agreement of planting of United States of America’s new investment in Indonesia is ready to be signed in March when President Joko Widodo makes a visit to the United States of America. This was stated by Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment,  Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan when being met by VOA in Washington DC on Thursday evening (13/2). Indonesian delegation which consisted of Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment,  Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Trade Minister, Agus Suparmanto and Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny G. Plate, on Monday (10/2), held a meeting with the US delegation which was led by CEO International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), Adam Boehler and some U.S. officials, including senior advisor of the White House, Jared Kushner. The meeting in Washington DC followed up a meeting with President Joko Widodo at the State Palace on January 10.  

Indonesia keeps trying to open a wider access of Indonesia’s export market to New Zealand. Some of them are labor and agricultural product market. This stated by Director General of International Trade Negotiation, Iman Pambagyo in a statement on Friday (14/2/2020). He was Head of Indonesian Delegation when attending the 7th Senior Official's Meeting on Trade and Investment Framework Forum (SOMTIF) in Wellington, New Zealand. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s delegation was led by Principal Adviser, Trade and Economic Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mark Trainor. On the SOMTIF, the Indonesian delegation fought for the access of Indonesian labor market in order to be able to enter New Zealand. In addition, the access for Indonesian tropical fruits, especially mangosteen, banana, pineapple, snake fruit (Salak) and mango products. Indonesia also requested New Zealand’s investors to invest in Indonesia in husbandry, tourism, high and vocational education, culture and creative economy. The cooperation which was offered in creative economy is like film and animation industry.