VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Jakarta Special Capital Region Transportation Agency is targeting Mikrotrans city transportation with Air Conditioner or AC facilities to operate in January 2022. Later, the AC Mikrotrans route is integrated with Jaklingko city transportation and targets passengers who get off at the train stations. The regions, which are included in the arrangement of stations, can be supported by the presence of the AC Microtrans. Besides being equipped with air conditioner, the Mikrotrans’ service that is integrated with Jaklingko will also be present by providing a different experience for passengers in terms of comfort and safety.

Mikrotrans city public transportation, which can accommodate nine to eleven passengers, is also equipped with other modern equipment. In fact, The AC Mikrotrans is equipped with standard safety facilities in the form of seat belts on each seat and a glass breaker hammer. The AC Mikrotrans also has CCTV for passenger safety during the trip. There are four CCTVs in the cabin which are installed at several angles, starting from the front side, driver, rear passenger, and rear area of the vehicle. To provide information during the trip, visuals from CCTV are also displayed on a 29-inch widescreen monitor. At the front side of the AC Mikrotrans car, a monitor is provided for the driver to monitor the condition of the passengers and their surroundings. It’s also equipped with an on-boat unit.  The AC Microtrans is also equipped with automatic doors for easy access in and out of passengers. In addition, the front, left and back sides are also equipped with running text as an information board.

Head of the DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency, Syafrin Liputo said that currently, the Mikrotrans city transportation is about to operate at three stations, namely Tebet, Tanah Abang and Gondangdia Stations. He also stated that this service is an effort by the Jakarta administrative to provide easy access to convenient, safe and reliable public transportation services for the people of Jakarta. It is planned that there will be around 60 cars for this AC Mikrotrans transportation.

Indonesia is focusing on developing infrastructure and ecosystem for research. Data of the Global Competitiveness Index 2019 mentioned that research productivity in Indonesia was 0.02% in 2015. This is still far below the ideal 15%. Therefore, it needs to be improved and supported by the government and private sector.

Head of National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Laksana Tri Handoko has recently explained that research conditions in Indonesia are not growing optimally, and are still dominated by the government. Some 80 percent of research was conducted by the government while only 20 percent was done by non-government.

Considering this situation, the government keeps encouraging the private sector to join in research and development activities. One of which is by preparing fiscal incentives to stimulate the private sector to do research and development. With this policy, a tax subject that conducts certain research and development in Indonesia can be granted 100% gross income deduction from the total cost for the activity.

With the fiscal incentive, it is expected that the private sector can actively join in awakening the spirit of research and development in Indonesia. The private involvement in doing research and development is very necessary so that the research and development ecosystem in Indonesia can grow further. Therefore, research productivity in Indonesia can keep increasing.

The Indonesian government through the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is temporarily banning coal export until January 31st, 2022 to guarantee coal supply for power plants. That was stated by Director General for Mineral and Coal at the ministry, Ridwan Jamaludin in a statement in Jakarta on Saturday (1/1).

Ridwan Jamaludin said, if export ban is not imposed, 20 coal power plants with 10,850 megawatt will shut down. He added that the coal shortage can affect more than 10 million customers of state-owned power company, PT PLN, from the people to the industries. This can disturb national economic stability. However, if the coal supply for the power plant is already fulfilled, the export ban will be lifted sooner. The government will evaluate after January 5th, 2022.

The government has several times reminded coal businesspeople to keep fulfilling their commitment in supplying coal to PT PLN. However, monthly coal supply for PLN is below the Domestic Market Obligation. That resulted in a coal shortage for PLN power plants at the end of the year.

According to Ridwan, a secure coal supply for a power plant is above 20 operational days. Until January 1st, 2022, from the 5.1 million metric ton government's obligation, only 35 thousand metric ton or less than 1,0 percent was fulfilled. This certainly could not fulfill the needs of every available coal power plant.

Ridwan further remarked that coal businesspeople understand and support the temporary coal export ban. He affirmed that if domestic coal obligation is followed, the national economy and investment climate will be maintained. At the same time, the ministry has asked PT PLN to do business efficiency and activities that support quality power for all Indonesians.

The Indonesian government will not use a military approach to overcome issues in Papua. But the government will use a comprehensive approach. It has firstly understood and realized that the issues of Papua issue cannot only be solved with a military approach.  This was emphasized by Presidential Chief of Staff General TNI (Retired) Moeldoko when held a meeting with the New Zealand Ambassador to Indonesia, Kevin Burnett at Bina Graha in Jakarta on Tuesday (4/1). 

Moeldoko further said that the comprehensive approach which is related to education, health and poverty alleviation will be prioritized by the government to deal with the problems in Papua because those must be resolved and important for Indonesia. Therefore, he explained that President Joko Widodo has issued Presidential Instruction No. 9/2020 regarding the acceleration of welfare development in Papua and West Papua. Moeldoko added that the program to accelerate the welfare in Papua and West Papua is led by Vice President, Ma'ruf Amin.

Kevin Burnett has been appointed to become New Zealand Ambassador to Indonesia since September 2021. Prior to serving as ambassador to Indonesia, he had been a New Zealand military officer for 35 years. He also said that Moeldoko's explanation is very useful and he really appreciated the efforts of the Indonesian government in overcoming Papua's issues. He also wants to visit Papua and shares a dialogue with the people in Papua directly. 

The bilateral relations between Indonesia and New Zealand have been stronger after the two countries signed the 9th Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) in July 2020. In the signed document, both countries agreed on 45 points of action plans that will become a reference for the development of cooperation in five years ahead.