VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi discussed cooperation in maritime affairs and fisheries with her Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Bihn Mihn, during the third joint commission meeting between the two countries.

The third Indonesia-Vietnam joint commission meeting was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement released on Tuesday (17/4).

At the meeting, Marsudi stressed that illegal, unreported, and undocumented (IUU) fishing posed a serious threat to the food security of a country.

For its part, she called on the Vietnamese government to step up cooperation to eradicate IUU fishing while, at the same time, encouraging sustainable fishery management.

In response, the Vietnamese government vowed to respond immediately to the "Draft Joint Communique on IUU Fishing" proposed by Indonesia.

During the meeting, the two foreign ministers also discussed the delineation of Indonesia-Vietnam Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), one of the issues that the two countries are still negotiating.

As of November 2017, the two countries have held 10 technical meetings to delineate the EEZ in accordance with the directives from the two countries` leaders.

Both the Indonesian and Vietnamese foreign ministers reiterated their call for the two countries to speed up negotiations.

"The finalization of EEZ is crucial, because it will bring about benefits and certainty for the two countries," Marsudi asserted.

The two ministers also exchanged views on a number of issues and developments in the ASEAN region. They further reiterated their commitment to always strengthen peace and stability in the ASEAN region. (antara)

Indonesia is trusted to host a junior-level bridge championship for Asia Pacific entitled Asia Pacific Bridge Federation (APBF) Open Youth Championship 2018 in Bogor, West Java on April 13-20 2018. This year, according to EkaWahyuKasih the Chairman of Indonesian Bridge Association (PB GABSI), there are seven Asian Pacific countries took part the event, including Indonesia.

“Seven countries participated this year, namely Australia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, The Philippines, Thailand, and the host - Indonesia. We open great chances for athletes from across the country to participate, and we sent almost twelve teams into four categories in the event,” said EkaWahyuKasih.

The four categories in the APBF Open Youth Championship 2018 are Junior U-26, Girls U-26, Youngster U-21, and Girls U-21. EkaWahyuKasih also said, PB GABSI did not send their national training athletes in the event because the national training athletes were focused on Asian Games 2018. (VOI/Steve/ART)

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has officially established April 26th as Disaster Preparedness Day (HKB). It is based on the condition of Indonesia as a disaster-prone country. Head of BNPB Willem Rampangilei on Sunday, April 15th in Jakarta said, Indonesia is difficult to escape from natural disasters since it is surrounded by Pacific ring of fire.

“We also know that our country is passed by the Pacific ring of fire. So that 150 million of our people live in earthquake prone areas, 60 million live in flood-prone areas, 40 million are vulnerable to landslides, 4 million are prone to tsunamis, and 1.1 million live in volcano-prone so at all times they are under threat,” Willem Rampangilei said.

Willem Rampangilei said disaster management is a common responsibility of  the  government, society, and business world. Therefore, BNPB specifically held Disaster Preparedness Day (HKB) commemoration which was also attended by  those elements. BNPB itself believes the HKB makes all elements of society more responsive to overcome the problem of disaster and  disaster management. Through this HKB activity, Willem Rampangilei expects to save more Indonesian lives from natural disasters. Especially to reduce the impact of disasters that he thinks is very complex and multidimensional. (VOI/Rezha/ART)

The Indonesian government has decided to drop 14 of its national strategic projects considering that no physical construction of the projects will be seen until the third quarter of 2019.

"If no physical construction of a project is seen not to begin until the third quarter of 2019 we will consider it as being canceled or dropped," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution said here Monday at a press conference at the presidential office after a cabinet meeting to evaluate implementation of national strategic projects in the first quarter of 2018.

Based on the evaluation some of the projects have been found not progressing well such as the Jambi-Palembang railway project, the railway development project in East Kalimantan, regional drinking water supply system in North Sumatra, Pelosika dam project in Southeast Sulawesi and special economic zone project in Merauke. Darmin said that those projects still had the potential to be revived as strategic projects in the future. He said the total value of the canceled projects reached Rp264 trillion.

According to the attachment of Presidential Regulation Number 58, 2017 on the amendment of Presidential Regulation Number 3, 2016 on Acceleration of the Implementation of national strategic projects there are 55 new projects and one aircraft industry program that are included in the national strategic projects to make the total number of national strategic projects into 245. Of the total, 10 have been finished and one is a new additional project in the education sector.

Following an evaluation the government decided to include 222 projects and three programs into National Strategic Projects 2018 consisting of 69 road development projects, 51 dam projects, 29 zone development projects including special economic zone, industrial zone and national strategic tourism zone, 16 railway projects, 11 energy projects, 10 ports, eight clean water and sanitation projects, six airports, six irrigation networks, six smelters, four technology projects, three housing projects, one farming-fishery, one sea wall and one education project which is the development of Indonesia International Islam University. 

Programs that are included into the National Strategic Projects are aircraft development program, agrarian and forestry programs. Darmin said the total value of the National Strategic Projects reached Rp4,100 trillion.