VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

National Monument of Indonesia - Hyatt

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicted sunny and cloudy weather in several parts of Indonesia on Sunday.

Based on BMKG forecast, the weather in the areas of Banda Aceh, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Tanjung Pinang, Padang, Medan, Banjarmasin and Jayapura will be sunny and cloudy.

Meanwhile, Serang, Jambi, Semarang, Pontianak, Palangkaraya, Pangkal Pinang, Denpasar, Gorontalo, Samarinda, Mataram, Kupang, Kendari, Manado, and Manokwari are also predicted to be cloudy.

However, BMKG predicted that light rainfall has the potential to occur in Bengkulu, Lampung, Mamuju, Makassar, Palu, Ambon, and Sofifi, while rain with moderate intensity has the potential to occur in Tanjung Selor//ANT

Head of Lampung Province BI Representative Budiharto Setyawan here on Saturday. (ANTARA/HO)

Bank Indonesia Representative Office in Lampung Province said the province's economy began to show signs of improvement at the end of 2020.

Lampung's economy has contracted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it began to show  signs of improvement at the end of the year," said Head of Lampung Province BI Representative Budiharto Setyawan here on Saturday.

He said Lampung's economy in 2020 contracted by minus 1.67 percent compared to the previous year.

The economic growth  was lower than that of  Sumatra, which was recorded at minus 1.19 percent compared to the year before, although it was better than the national economy which was recorded at minus 2.07 percent compared to a year earlier.

Setyawan explained that the improvement at the end of the year was supported by exports in line with the economic recovery of  the Lampung's main trading partners, especially the United States, China and India.The realization spatially puts Lampung's economy in eighth place out of 10 provinces in Sumatra in 2020.

Nominally, Lampung's economy in 2020 at the prevailing price (ADHB) and at constant prices (ADHK) (in 2010) were IDR 354.63 trillion and IDR 240.31 trillion respectively.

Annually, the development of Lampung's non-oil and gas exports in the first quarter of 2021 based on January 2021 data experienced a growth of 46.87 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, higher than the performance of the previous quarter which grew 32.08 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.

Such condition is in line with demand from major trading partner countries which continues to improve and is on an increasing trend after reopening due to the COVID-19 pandemic//ANT

A drive-through COVID-19 vaccination facility was launched for senior citizens at Surabaya University, Surabaya on Saturday (March 27, 2021). (FOTO ANTARA/Abdul Hakim)

East Java’s first drive-through COVID-19 vaccination service was launched for senior citizens in Surabaya University on Saturday.

“We feel extraordinary pride at the opening of the first drive-through vaccination service in East Java,” said vice president of regional public policy and government relations at Gojek, Gautama Adi Kusuma, at the opening of the drive-through vaccination service in Surabaya on Saturday.

The drive-through service is a collaborative effort between Halodoc and Gojek, supported by Surabaya’s regional administration, Surabaya University, and Husada Utama hospital.

This activity is meant as a long-term support for the government’s efforts towards accelerating COVID-19 vaccinations across the nation, Kusuma remarked.

Surabaya is the fourth venue for the drive-through vaccination service. Jakarta has two such venues and Bogor has one.

Kusuma expressed the hope that the service can be extended to other regions in Indonesia.

“I hope this service can cover all regions and the pandemic can end soon,” he said.At the launch, Surabaya’s regional secretary Hendro Gunawan said the regional administration warmly welcomes such services aimed at accelerating vaccinations in Surabaya.

“All people pay attention to this pandemic. If all stakeholders get involved like this, Insya Allah (God’s will), the pandemic will end and our lives will become normal again,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, Health Ministry’s acting director general for disease control and prevention, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said that the drive-through service is an example of good cooperation between the government and the private sector.

“The initial vaccination started on January 13, 2021. The first stage covered health workers, followed by public service workers. Until today, a total of 10 million people have been vaccinated,” he said.

Though the vaccination program is mainly centered on the community health centers (Puskesmas), vaccination facilities at other venues are also needed, such as colleges, malls, mosques, and so on, Rondonuwu added//ANT

Students in Manokwari, West Papua. The partnership program with companies would help vocational schools produce graduates with certified competencies and skills that meet the demands of the industrial sector (Antara/Toyiban)

Twenty-two companies have signed an agreement on a strategic partnership program with vocational high schools in Papua and West Papua, according to a top official from the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.

The agreement would boost efforts to strengthen the linkage between industries with vocational high schools in the two easternmost provinces, said Ahmad Saufi, director of partnership and linkage with companies and industries at the ministry's vocational education directorate, in Sorong city, West Papua on Saturday.

"Through this partnership, a link and match program can be strengthened,” he remarked.

The cooperation would help produce vocational school graduates with certified competencies and skills that meet the demands of the industrial sector, he said.The partnering companies and associations include PT Intan Marine Product Development, PT Alam Papua, PT Medco Papua, PT Astra, PT Freeport Indonesia, Petrosea Tbk, BTM Al-Hijrah Sorong, CV Asli Papua Konsulindo, and the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI/Sorong chapter).

They also include PT Cobota, PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), PT Panca Duta Karya (Sorong), Swiss-Belhotel (Sorong), PT Bank Papua Sorong, PT BNI 46 Tbk. (Sorong branch), PT Telkom Indonesia, Bank Mandiri (Sorong branch), PT Trakindo Sorong, Rumah BUMN BNI, West Papua's National Development Partnership Agency (LPKN), PT Salawati Motorindo (Sorong), and PT Pelayaran Belibis Papua Mandiri.

The development of human resources in Papua and West Papua remains a challenge. The Human Development Index scores of the two provinces lag behind other Indonesian provinces, with Papua and West Papua scoring 64.7 and 60.84, respectively, on Indonesia's 2019 Human Development Index.To improve the quality of human capital in Papua and West Papua, the Indonesian Finance Ministry has suggested that the regional governments allocate an endowment fund to finance human resource development and the education of native Papuans.

The fund can be allocated from Papua province's annual budget, director of the Finance Ministry's Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) Scholarship Program, Dwi Larso, stated.

The Papuan administration could adopt a similar endowment fund for education as the LPDP to support its human resources development efforts//ANT