VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) for Asia and the Pacific have come up with a joint strategy to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, its chairperson stated. UCLG President Tri Rismaharini, currently Surabaya mayor, spoke of having held a limited meeting via teleconference with UCLG-Aspac members at the Surabaya City Hall on Thursday.

"We believe the COVID-19 pandemic can be handled as soon as possible so that matters can return to normalcy, and we can meet together directly," she noted as quoted by Antara.

The UCLG-Aspac members participating in the limited meeting comprised UCGL-Aspac Secretary-General Bernadia Irawati, Chair of UCLG Standing Committee of Women in Local Governments Chen Yini, Mayor of South Korea's Jeonju Kim Seung-soo, and Mayor of the Philippines' Iriga Madelaine Alfelor. The other participants were Malaysia's Subang Jaya Mayor Noraini Binti Roslan, Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance of Japan's Keio University Dr. Rajib Shaw, and Head of Incheon ONEA-GETI, UNDRR, Sanjaya Bhatia. Hence, Rismahirini has positively welcomed the launch of condensed guidance by local governments in Asia as one of the instruments to support the strategy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective cities. (ANTARA)

The Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Response recorded 3,512 confirmed COVID-19 cases all across the country's 34 provinces on Friday, as Gorontalo Province in Sulawesi reported its first positive case.As quoted by Antara News Agency, Achmad Yurianto, the government’s spokesperson for COVID-19 Response, informed the press on Friday that the death toll had reached 306 and 282 had recovered. he added the 219 new positive cases bring the total to 3,512, while 30 patients recovered, and 26 new fatalities were recorded.On Thursday (Apr 9), some 3,293 positive cases of COVID-19 were registered, with 252 patients having recovered and 280 other patients dead.Jakarta has remained the epicenter of the epidemic in Indonesia, with a record of some 50 percent of the nation’s total cases, notably 1,753 confirmed cases and 154 deaths on Friday, a spike from 1,706 positive cases and 142 deaths on the previous day//Ant

The coronavirus pandemic will turn global economic growth "sharply negative" this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. Kristalina Georgieva said the world faced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. She forecast that 2021 would only see a partial recovery. Lockdowns imposed by governments have forced many companies to close and lay off staff.

Earlier this week, a UN study said 81% of the world's workforce of 3.3 billion people had had their place of work fully or partly closed because of the outbreak. Georgieva, the IMF's managing director, made her bleak assessment in remarks ahead of next week's IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings. Emerging markets and developing countries would be the hardest hit, she said, requiring hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid. Just three months ago, we expected positive per capita income growth in over 160 of our member countries in 2020, she said.

"Today, that number has been turned on its head: we now project that over 170 countries will experience negative per capita income growth this year.

Georgieva said that if the pandemic eased in the second half of 2020, the IMF expected to see a partial recovery next year. But she cautioned that the situation could also worsen//BBC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC  and allies have agreed to cut output by more than a fifth, to counter the slump in demand caused by coronavirus lockdowns.

The group said it would cut output in May and June by 10 million barrels to help prop up prices. The cuts will then be eased gradually until April 2022.

OPEC Plus, made up of OPEC producers and allies including Russia, held talks on Thursday via video conference.

The group and its allies agreed to cut 10 million barrels a day or 10% of global supplies. Another 5 million barrels is expected to be cut by other nations.

It said the cuts would be eased to eight million barrels a day between July and December. Then they would be eased again to six million barrels between January 2021 and April 2022//BBC