VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno during a working visit to Malang, East Java, on Saturday (October 16, 2021) - 

Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno has asked the Malang city government to apply for the ministry's thematic tourism village reopening trial following an improvement in the city's activities restriction enforcement (PPKM) to Level 3.

"You can apply for the tourism village reopening permit to the ministry, and we could supervise the trial, but it is essential to persist with the health protocol enforcement and ensure responsible travel," Minister Uno told Malang municipal officials in Malang, East Java, on Saturday.

If thematic tourism villages are allowed to reopen, the decision on whether to allow children under 12 to enter the tourism attraction or not will be within the discretion of the Malang  city government, he added.

However, children under 12 should be allowed entry if their parents have completed the second vaccine dose and cleared the mobile COVID-19 contact tracing application PeduliLindungi's screening, he advised.

"We will allow tourism attraction operators to decide whether to allow children under 12 to enter their premises. We will also authorize the regional government and local COVID-19 task force to decide on the same matter," the minister said.

He said his suggestion on the entry of children is based on reports that the number of visitors to several tourism attractions has remained low despite their reopening as most families have refrained from traveling due to the age restriction.

"Because most tourist attractions are family-based, it is understandable they are struggling to attract visitors if the minimum age restriction remains," Uno noted.

Malang government had earlier applied for tourism villages reopening trial, but the central authority had rejected the application on the basis that tourist attractions in the city were yet to satisfy several prerequisites for the reopening trial.

The government has instructed tourist attraction operators to implement PeduliLindungi's QR code as the main condition for reopening and commencing the operational trial//VOI-NK

FILE PHOTO: Flags are seen outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat building, ahead of the ASEAN leaders' meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, Apr 23, 2021. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan) - 

Singapore supports the decision reached by the foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to invite a non-political representative from Myanmar to a series of ASEAN summits at the end of October, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Saturday (Oct 16).

The decision made at the Emergency ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Friday effectively sidelines the leader of Myanmar's military junta, Min Aung Hlaing.

According to Reuters, Friday's meeting was called to address the failure of Myanmar's junta to adhere to a peace roadmap it had agreed to with ASEAN in April, aimed at tackling the fallout from the coup led by Min Aung Hlaing.

On Saturday, in comments made in response to media queries, an MFA spokesperson said: "This was a difficult but necessary decision to uphold ASEAN’s credibility given the unsatisfactory and highly limited progress in the implementation of the ASEAN Leaders’ Five-Point Consensus." 

Brunei will host the 38th and 39th ASEAN summits and related summits from Oct 26 to Oct 28. 

Brunei's Minister of Foreign Affairs Erywan Yusof was picked by his ASEAN counterparts in August as the bloc's special envoy to Myanmar. There have been calls for him to meet ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, something the Myanmar junta has already said no to.

The MFA spokesperson said that Singapore "commends" the efforts by Mr Erywan and reiterates its "full support" for the special envoy's mission and Brunei's ASEAN chairmanship.

"Singapore urges the Myanmar military authorities to cooperate with the Special Envoy to swiftly and fully implement the Five-Point Consensus," the MFA spokesperson said. 

In a statement on Friday, Brunei said no consensus had reached for a political representative to attend the meetings in Bandar Seri Begawan.

"As there had been insufficient progress ... as well as concerns over Myanmar’s commitment, in particular on establishing constructive dialogue among all concerned parties, some ASEAN Member States recommended that ASEAN give space to Myanmar to restore its internal affairs and return to normalcy," Brunei said.

The statement did not mention Min Aung Hlaing or name the non-political figure to be invited in his stead.

Brunei added that some ASEAN member states had received requests from Myanmar's National Unity Government, formed by opponents of the junta, to attend the summit//CNA

A parent is given hand sanitiser by a staff member at a pre-school in Singapore. (File photo: Matthew Mohan) - 

A S$4 million grant was launched on Saturday (Oct 16) to help pre-schools reduce the cost of adopting pre-approved digital solutions over the next three years. 

The digital solutions include e-payment and e-enrolment systems, the use of data analytics to analyse and automate operations, as well as virtual training for pre-school educators. 

These are covered under a three-stage industry digital plan, which lists the solutions pre-schools can adopt at each stage of growth, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) in a media release.

“ECDA and IMDA have pre-approved solutions that will assist pre-schools in their operations at different stages of digital readiness,” said the agency.

“These solutions are supported by certified vendors and have been curated to facilitate simple and quick adoption by pre-schools,” it added.

“Apart from pre-school management, operators and educators can look forward to new solutions for e-enrolment and data analytics for centre operations from early November. More pre-approved solutions will be added progressively.”

Announcing the Early Childhood Digitalisation Grant, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said: “Under the IDP (industry digital plan), your pre-schools can find IT solutions that we have approved. These can help them reduce the time spent on routine tasks and even help them to update your parents more easily.

“Pre-schools can also look out for new solutions to help them e-enrol children and use data analytics to make our pre-schools run better.” 

Operators can now submit their grant applications through the Business Grants Portal.

ECDA will also expand the development support - learning support programme to more pre-schools. The programme enables children who require low levels of early intervention support to access such services at their pre-schools.

The aim is for every pre-school to appoint one of its staff as an inclusion coordinator from the second half of 2023. They will partner early childhood educators to identify children with “potential developmental needs” for early assessment, said ECDA.

They will also connect educators and parents with “relevant early intervention resources and services”.

Pre-schools can look forward to training for their inclusion coordinators from the end of this year, said Mr Masagos.

“Besides improving professional training and quality of pre-schools to benefit all children, we are making our pre-schools more inclusive and stepping up support for children with developmental needs,” said Mr Masagos. 

The programme will cover 60 per cent of pre-schoolers aged five to six by 2025, and 80 per cent of them in the long term, said ECDA in its media release.

MSF will also pilot a new Inclusive Support Programme at selected pre-schools for children that need medium levels of early intervention support, and will release more details later, said Mr Masagos. 

For children from low-income families, yearly top-ups to child development accounts will be introduced as part of the Growing Together with KidSTART initiative.

Each KidSTART child will receive S$100 for each year of regular attendance until they reach six-years-old, said an ECDA spokesperson in response to media queries. 

Children will also be eligible for an additional one-time top-up when they enroll in pre-school, they said. 

The one-time top-up will be more - S$200 - if they enroll between ages three and four, compared to S$100 for those who enroll at above age four, the spokesperson noted. 

The Government recently also announced a S$200 top-up in the Child Development Accounts (CDA) of all Singaporean children aged six and below, said Mr Masagos. 

“This will benefit all families by helping to offset the costs of raising a child. But we will go further. We will provide more support for families and children who enrol and participate regularly in pre-school and KidSTART activities through yearly CDA top-ups.” 

This is to encourage families towards early enrolment and regular attendance, said ECDA.

A larger top-up amount would be given to families who enroll their children in pre-school earlier, between ages three and four, it added.

The Growing Together with KidSTART initiative was launched in 2019 to raise community support for children from low-income families. It has garnered S$4 million in cash donations and sponsorships from businesses and individuals, said ECDA.

“We also want to enable every child to have the best chance to flourish in life. Regardless of their family background or resources,” said Mr Masagos.

“I am hopeful that with these new moves, we can better support children with diverse needs in our pre-schools, so that every child can shine and achieve their fullest potential.”//CNA

The Long March-2F Y13 rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft and three astronauts in China's second crewed mission to build its own space station, launches at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China October 16, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins - 

Three astronauts successfully docked with China's new space station on Saturday (Oct 16), state media said, on what is set to be Beijing's longest crewed mission to date and the latest landmark in its drive to become a major space power.

The three blasted off shortly after midnight local time (12am Singapore time) from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China's Gobi desert, state-run news agency Xinhua said, with the team expected to spend six months at the Tiangong space station.

After the launch, the China Manned Space Agency declared it a success and said the crew members "were in good shape", according to Xinhua.

The Shenzhou-13 vessel carrying the three then docked hours later with the radial port of the space station, Xinhua said in a brief dispatch on Saturday morning.

The mission - twice as long as its 90-day predecessor - will set up equipment and test technology for future construction on the Tiangong station.

Shenzhou-13, which means "Divine Vessel" in Chinese, is the second of four crewed missions needed to complete the space station by the end of 2022.

Mission commander Zhai Zhigang, 55, a former fighter pilot who performed the country's first spacewalk in 2008, said the team would undertake "more complex" spacewalks than during previous missions.

The astronaut team includes military pilot Wang Yaping, 41, who is the first woman to visit the space station after becoming China's second woman in space in 2013.

The other team member is People's Liberation Army pilot Ye Guangfu, 41.

A previous record-breaking space crew - making the first mission to Tiangong - returned to Earth in September after three months on the space station.

China's heavily promoted space programme has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon.

Tiangong, meaning "heavenly palace", is expected to operate for at least 10 years.

Its core module entered orbit earlier this year and the completed station will be similar to the Soviet Mir station that orbited Earth from the 1980s until 2001.

The long mission is set to "expand China's technological boundary" and verify the space station system's capacity for a longer duration of human occupation, Chen Lan, an independent space analyst at GoTaikonauts, told AFP.

"I don't think it is very challenging, as China's technologies (are) quite mature, though anything in space is always challenging," Chen said.

Saturday's blast-off came shortly after China launched its first solar exploration satellite into space, equipped with a telescope to observe changes in the Sun.

The Chinese space agency is planning a total of 11 missions to Tiangong through to the end of next year, including at least two more crewed launches that will deliver two lab modules to expand the 70-tonne station.

China's space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station, a collaboration among the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.

The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028.

Chinese space authorities have said they are open to foreign collaboration on the space station, although the scope of that cooperation is as yet unclear.

The country has come a long way since launching its first satellite in 1970.

It put the first Chinese "taikonaut" in space in 2003 and landed the Chang'e-4 robot on the far side of the Moon in 2019 - a historic first.

China in May became the second nation to land and operate a rover on Mars.

Astronauts on the Tiangong space station will have separate living spaces, exercise equipment and a communication centre for emails and video calls with ground control//CNA