VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

PM Lee participated in the APEC Informal Leaders' Retreat on Jul 16. (Photo: MCI) - 

Singapore intends to donate its COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative to other countries, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday (Jul 16). 

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders’ Retreat on COVID-19, Mr Lee said that countries whose vaccination programmes are ahead should make their excess vaccine supplies available to others.

"Within our region, APEC economies should support one another, both for the present and future pandemics. For example, through technical assistance to strengthen national public health capabilities, the last mile," he said.

Singapore's Ministry of Health said on Friday that more than 6.57 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination scheme, with more than 2.54 million having completed the full vaccination regimen.

The COVAX initiative, run by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, aims to provide "equitable access" to COVID-19 vaccines to people around the globe, said the WHO.

The virtual meeting on Friday was hosted by New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and was attended by world leaders, US President Joe Biden, Russia President Vladimir Putin, and China President Xi Jinping.

In his speech, Mr Lee said APEC members should take the lead to reconnect economies and pursue trade liberalisation. He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted international trade and the movement of people across borders.

"Understandably, countries are working towards more self-reliance, especially for essential goods, but we should not take this too far," Mr Lee said.

"Free trade is still essential to global economic recovery and prosperity and prompt implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement will make trade faster and cheaper, and strengthen our supply chains.

"We should also work together to restart international travel safely, by developing common standards for digital vaccine certificates and digital identities."

He added that the pandemic has "accelerated the switch to a digital economy", nothing that Singapore has piloted digital economy agreements with New Zealand, Chile and Australia.

These agreements align rules and standards, and "foster cross-border digital interoperability, data flows and trade", Mr Lee said.

"Beyond COVID-19, the green economy presents another growth opportunity. Like many APEC economies, Singapore is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change," he added.

Mr Lee mentioned the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a national strategy aimed at mitigating climate change and creating a green, liveable and sustainable city.

"But being a very small country, our own mitigation efforts will have limited impact," he said.

"It is only by working together with others that we can overcome this global challenge, and that is why Singapore is exploring green economy agreements to facilitate trade and investment in environmental goods and services, and strengthen environmental governance and capabilities."

In his speech, Mr Lee called for countries to work together to prepare for the next pandemic. 

"COVID-19 will not be the last, nor the most serious pandemic the world will face," he said.

He noted a recent report by the G20 High Level Independent Panel that makes a strong case for a major step-up in collective investments, including a scaled-up global surveillance system for emerging infectious disease outbreaks.

"To enable countries to act early to check the spread of emerging diseases, and get a head-start in developing test kits, vaccines or treatments; and secondly, we need a more agile global governance and financing mechanism that can swiftly plug gaps in global health security," said Mr Lee//CNA

Garuda Indonesia optimizes fleet utilization for cargo flight network expansion (garuda-indonesia.com) - 

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will optimize its export logistics business in a bid to bolster recovery of the company's performance.

"The growth trend of the national export sector is an imminent momentum for efforts to optimize supporting business lines," Garuda Indonesia President Director Irfan Setiaputra stated in Jakarta, Friday, July 16.

Setiaputra noted that these businesses are run by the company amid the brunt borne by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on cargo and charter.

Statistics Indonesia's report recorded a consistent increase in Indonesia's export traffic, with a growth rate of 54.46 percent in June 2021, much higher from that during the corresponding period last year.

Setiaputra was optimistic of positive sustained growth in Indonesia's export sector, thereby benefiting the company's business in future.

Until May 2021, the Garuda Indonesia Group recorded freight transport growth of up to 35 percent higher as compared to the same period in 2020.

That consistency aligned with the cargo business performance at the end of last year. The company managed to record air freight transport traffic that reached 99 percent of the cargo transport performance during the pre-pandemic period.

Garuda Indonesia will optimize fleet utilization for cargo flight network expansion to support direct call activities in top export commodities.

Moreover, the company will support Indonesian MSMEs, one of which is through the operation of two passenger freighter fleets that currently serve several domestic and international cargo flights.

"Now, the cargo business line is one of the main focus areas of Garuda Indonesia's business revenue in the midst of a fall in the passenger transport traffic that occurred since the pandemic struck last year," Setiaputra stated.

In its financial report for the fiscal year 2020, Garuda Indonesia recorded operating income of US$1.4 billion, supported by scheduled flight revenue of US$1.2 billion, unscheduled flight revenue of US$77 million, and other revenue lines of US$214 million.

The state-owned airline also recorded a 35.13-percent decrease in flight operating expenses to reach US$1.6 billion as compared to US$2.5 billion in 2019.

"Garuda Indonesia is optimistic of it being more agile and adaptive in accepting the aviation industry’s challenges in future," Setiaputra noted//ANT

Sanglah Central General Hospital (RSUP Sanglah), Denpasar, Bali. (Antara/Ayu Khania Pranisitha/2021)/rst - 

Director of the Sanglah Central General Hospital (RSUP Sanglah) in Denpasar, Bali, Dr I Wayan Sudana ensured that beds and oxygen supply are available for COVID-19 patients.

"We have 205 beds in ICU and non-ICU rooms for COVID-19 patients. Our oxygen supply is available both in tank and liquid form," Sudana noted in a press release at Denpasar, Bali, today.

The doctor further confirmed that the RSUP Sanglah had 710 beds in total and had set aside 205 beds for COVID-19 patients segregated into ICU and non-ICU rooms.

Currently, the hospital's ICU rooms have 123 beds occupied by 94 patients. When converted to the Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR), RSUP Sanglah had 76.4 percent of the beds occupied.

Patients, with mild and moderate symptoms, occupy 61 beds from a total of 82 available beds. When converted to BOR, 74.4 percent of RSUP Sanglah’s non-ICU beds were occupied. Combined with the figure from ICU rooms, the BOR of RSUP Sanglah reached 75.6 percent.

"To support patients' recovery, we also need oxygen supply. We ensured until today that RSUP Sanglah had sufficient stocks of oxygen. We had two sources of oxygen from tanks and liquid supply," Sudana stated.

The doctor confirmed that the hospital had a supply of two oxygen tanks that lasted for two days and would be refilled at least every 48 hours.

According to a press release, RSUP Sanglah's daily needs of oxygen stood at 2,000-2,500 cubic meters (m3). Since the average supply doubled to 4,000-5,000 m3, oxygen supply is safe, and its distribution to patients is unhindered.

"We continue to monitor that this supply does not run out," he stated.

As the number of COVID-19 cases spiked in some regions in Indonesia, including Bali, since June 17, RSUD Sanglah has continued to prepare additional beds and oxygen supply.

"Daily monitoring would be conducted to avoid suboptimal services," Sudana noted while concluding his statement//ANT

United States Secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen speaks during a press conference at a G20 Economy, Finance ministers and Central bank governors' meeting in Venice, Italy on Jul 11, 2021. (Photo: AP/Luca Bruno) - 

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday (Jul 11) she was "very concerned" about the risk that new variants of coronavirus could pose to the global economic recovery from the pandemic.

"We are very concerned about the Delta variant and other variants that could emerge and threaten recovery," she told reporters following a G20 meeting in Venice, Italy.

"We are a connected global economy, what happens in any part of the world affects all other countries."

In their final statement issued late Saturday, G20 finance ministers warned that the spread of new variants was a "downside risk" to the economic recovery, while also warning of the dangers of differing paces of vaccination campaigns.

"We recognise the importance of working together to speed the process of vaccination and have the goal of wanting to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world's population next year," Yellen said.

She said "a lot has been done" to finance the purchase of vaccines by developing countries, but said the world needed to "do something more and to be more effective" with respect to responding to outbreaks around the world, such as sending therapeutics and protective equipment.

The G20 on Friday heard from a specially commissioned panel of experts who warned the world must invest much more - at least US$75 billion over the next five years - to prepare for and try to avert the next pandemic.

"While we're focused on the medium- and long-term ... we certainly realise we also need to do more in the near term," Yellen said.

The World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Health Organization "have formed a taskforce to work on this and we've asked that we have regular monthly reports on how that work is going and that we address this issue more fully in October" at the G20 ministers' next meeting.

"But certainly variants represent a threat to the entire globe," Yellen said//CNA