VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A screenshot of President Joko Widodo on Saturday (January 29, 2022). He said has the government is working hard to oversee a major transformation in Indonesia that will enable the nation to compete at the global level. (ANTARA/Indra Arief) - 

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said that he is optimistic the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI) will find new ways and strategies to face the rapid changes and challenges the world is witnessing currently.

He made the remarks while opening the ICMI's national working meeting virtually from the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, on Saturday.

"The challenges we are facing, including those that will be faced by ICMI in the future, are increasingly difficult; but ICMI, as a forum of scholars, will always be able to find new ways, new strategies for facing challenges and the fast-changing world today," the President remarked.

The theme of the ICMI's national working meeting is in accordance with the agenda of the nation, namely transformation for finding the right way to deal with the changing times, challenges, and opportunities, he noted.

Change often comes unexpectedly, such as the COVID-19 pandemic that has raged across the world, including in Indonesia, for the last two years, Jokowi said.

“There are many things that are beyond our imagination when we make plans. Uncertainty can come suddenly without us expecting it,” he added.

He further said that he believes that victory can be achieved by the Indonesian people not only thanks to good planning, but also because of the speed of transformation and adaptation to existing challenges and opportunities.

He also emphasized the importance of working efficiently and effectively, as well as utilizing the capabilities of scholars and technology.

He assured that the government is working hard to oversee a major transformation in Indonesia that will enable the nation to compete at the global level, which is getting increasingly hypercompetitive.

“We have to open the widest possible job opportunities, we have to prosper the farmers, fishermen, industrial workers. We must facilitate MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprise) actors to advance to digitalization. We must support domestic products increase. Hence, we must facilitate large, medium, and small investments from within and outside the country," he added.

Indonesia's structural transformation agendas include cessation of raw material exports for the sake of industrial downstreaming, transformation of the digital economy, and the construction of the State Capital (IKN) in East Kalimantan, Jokowi said.

“The capital city development (IKN) program is an important part of that transformation. The IKN program is not just moving buildings, moving the government. Moving the capital is changing the way of working, changing the mindset based on a modern economy, and building a more just and inclusive social life," he remarked//ANT

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto (left) during a conversation with Minister of Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud MP (right) in Jakarta (1/27/2022) (ANTARA/HO-Coordinating Ministry for the Economy) - 

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto praised the Australian government's offer in the Agriculture Visa Program when he welcomed the visit of Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud MP in Jakarta.

Hartarto noted that the program provided an opportunity for Indonesian workers to hone their skills and increase their knowledge in Australia and to work in the agricultural sector.

"We praise the Australian government's offer in the Agricultural Visa Program. However, taking into account the different agricultural conditions in Indonesia and Australia, various preliminary trainings and adjustments should be conducted, especially those related to readiness to live in Australia and readiness to face other social issues," Minister Hartarto noted in an official statement on Saturday.

The offer of the program was delivered in line with the people-to-people link cooperation provided in the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) scheme, such as the Skills Exchange Program, Workplace-Based Training, and Increasing Quotas for Work and Holiday Visas.

The meeting also discussed various forms of cooperation in the agricultural sector that included trade in cattle, beef and cow's milk products as well as trade in wheat and urea fertilizers. Both ministers also discussed implementation mechanisms in the agricultural sector followed by ways to reduce technical barriers and efforts to boost production in order to increase the trade volume between the two countries.

"Weather conditions and cattle depopulation affect the supply and price of cattle in Australia. However, pragmatic policies have been adopted by the Australian government to address these challenges and meet market demands,” Minister David Littleproud MP stated. 

As the largest wheat producer on earth, Australia is the main supplier to meet Indonesian wheat needs. Wheat is a raw material for instant noodles, pasta, and biscuit industries. Indonesia's wheat imports from Australia had increased in 2021, but the increase in imports of raw materials is in line with the increase in exports of Indonesian wheat derivative products, with high added value to other countries.

With regard to Indonesia's G20 Presidency in 2022, Minister Hartarto invites the Australian Government to cooperate and support Indonesia's initiatives to make various agendas a success.

He also invited Australia to participate in supporting Indonesia's three G20 priority agendas: global health, digital-based economic transformation, and energy transition issues.

Speaking in connection with global health issues, Minister David Littleproud echoed Australia's commitment to sending 20 million doses of vaccine to the Indo-Pacific region by mid-2022. Meanwhile, regarding the issue of energy transition, both ministers share the same view on the need for a commitment to reduce emissions, use new and renewable energy, and develop the production of electric cars and batteries//ANT

Coronavirus controls in Beijing have been ramped up ahead of the February Winter Olympics (Photo: AFP/Kirill KUDRY) - 

When Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics, crowds poured onto the streets of the Chinese capital bursting with national pride. Two decades later, locals are noticeably lukewarm about the Winter Games.

The build-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which start next Friday (Feb 4), has been largely muted, with an absence of the ubiquitous slogans, extravagant floral arrangements and flags from last time.

"The enthusiasm is not as strong as in 2008," said one Beijinger surnamed Liu, who preferred not to give his full name.

Winter Games generally attract less attention than Summer ones, but the apparent ennui could also be down to a changing Chinese perception of their country's power.

"In 2008, the economic stature of the country was not yet so high in the world so we thought hosting the Olympics was a symbol of national rebirth," Liu told AFP.

"Today, the Games are a sporting event like any other."

Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China has become the second-largest economy in the world and the warmer image it pushed back then has been replaced by a fiery nationalism.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has presented a far more muscular attitude to world affairs.

"2008 really was China showing that it was firmly on the global stage," said Heather Dichter, sports historian at De Montfort University in England.

Simon Chadwick, sports industry expert for Emlyon Business School, said: "It was almost like the relaunch of brand China - it was a coming-out party, it was an announcement that China was back on the global scene.

"China perhaps feels less dependent on the rest of the world (now) and in a position of strength, which means that it no longer worries so much about the external gaze."

In addition, with Beijing 2022 the second Olympics to be held under a coronavirus shadow, measures brought in to ensure that the Games are COVID-safe have left many of the capital's residents feeling locked out.

Two years of a global pandemic have upended the organisation of all big sports events, but China has maintained a strict "zero-COVID" policy, keeping its borders largely closed since spring 2020.

Beijing is counting on the Games to showcase the success of this approach, which it has repeatedly hailed as mirroring the success of its system of top-down governance.

"If there is a resurgence of the epidemic during these Games it will clearly be a failure for China and potentially backfire for Beijing," said Carole Gomez, specialist in sports geopolitics at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.

The Games will have no international spectators and only a small number of invited domestic fans.

Foreign athletes will be locked in a tight bubble and all Olympic sites are sealed off from the rest of the city.

During a recent rehearsal of the opening ceremony at the "Bird's Nest" stadium, police blocked off all the streets leading to the main Olympic Park for as much as a kilometre away.

Local Jiang Haoliang told AFP he has little interest in the Olympics.

"Most people won't be able to attend in person," he shrugged.

The reduced enthusiasm for the Games might also be down to the simple fact that winter events generally arouse less public interest than Summer Olympics.

This is particularly true in China, where government efforts to build interest in winter sports have been ramped up in recent years but started from a nearly non-existent base.

And while China is a superpower in the Summer Games, it is a relative minnow in winter sports.

"Winter sports in China tend to be much more the domain of the affluent middle classes," said Chadwick.

"For some of the events, like curling, it might be somewhat an esoteric event that doesn't capture the popular imagination the same way."

But these Games also land in a very different China to the more outward facing country from two decades ago.

A more nationalistic Beijing is riding heightened tensions with Western nations and some of its neighbours, with confrontations escalating since Xi became president in 2013.

Foreign media has been facing mounting challenges in recent years in the country, while the space for any form of domestic criticism has tightened dramatically.

"The ideological heat has been turned up," said Chadwick. "And so we don't know how susceptible people have become to this portrayal of outsiders as somehow being hostile, as well as being potential transmitters of the virus."//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Paxlovid, a Pfizer's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pill, is seen manufactured in Ascoli, Italy, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on November 16, 2021. Pfizer/Handout via REUTERS - 

Britain will start rolling out Pfizer's COVID-19 pill to vulnerable people next month, the health ministry said on Friday (Jan 28), targeting the treatment at people with compromised immune systems for whom the vaccine can be less effective.

The health ministry said that Pfizer's antiviral treatment Paxlovid, a combination of Pfizer's pill with an older antiviral ritonavir, will be made available to thousands of people from Feb 10.

"It is fantastic news that this new treatment, the latest cutting-edge drug that the NHS is rolling out through new COVID-19 medicine delivery units, will now be available to help those at highest risk of COVID-19," National Health Service medical director Stephen Powis said.

"Trials have shown it can reduce hospitalisation and risk of death by 88 per cent, meaning we'll be in the best position to save thousands of lives."

Britain has ordered 2.75 million courses of Paxlovid, and the government said that it would set out further details on access to the treatment soon but that people who are immunocompromised, cancer patients or those with Down’s Syndrome could be able to access it directly.

It is the second antiviral being rolled out in Britain after molnupiravir, a pill made by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics which is being deployed to patients through the Panoramic trial//CNA