VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian state owned bus operator, Perum Damri plans to expand its business to Timor Leste to operate the bus-based passenger service in the country. President Director of Perum Damri, Setia Milatia on Thursday, April 5, 2018 in Jakarta said, Perum Damri has been serving the needs of transportation on the East Timor border with Indonesia. However, it wants the service to be expanded to the country. Therefore in the near future it will hold a special meeting in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara to discuss it with Timor Leste.

“It is still being discussed, later if I’m not mistaken,  we will discuss it next week in Labuan Bajo. Actually, we have existed, but only served around the border. So, the operators from Timor Leste will transfer the passanger to the country. We will disscus it more deeply. So, we can get to the other side or the country, not just on the border,” President Director of Perum Damri, Setia Milatia said.

Furthermore, Setia Milatia still can not specify the number of buses that will be operated in the country. This will depend on the number of requests from East Timorese and Indonesian people who need the services. In addition to operational expansion, Perum Damri also plans to revitalize a number of buses serving the public in Indonesia. Revitalization aims to encourage the improvement of services to the community. Recently Perum Damri has stated that by 2018 it will add 55 new buses with a budget of 90 billion rupiah to strengthen the existing fleet which consist of 2,200 buses throughout Indonesia. (VOI/REZHA/AHM)

Safe Travel application that will be launched by Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs  in the near future not only provides benefits namely to increase services and protection for Indonesian citizens who travel abroad, but also offers advantages such as to exchange certain points with various interesting offers in the homeland.

“This app also introduces batches system of points system. So,  you will get points if  doing many activity in this app. Later,  when you have landed, we have cooperated with several restaurants and so on. So, you can check the number of your points. More activities you’ve done in the application will create more points,” the Director of Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entity of Indonesia, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal in his press conference on Thursday, April 5th, 2018 in Jakarta said.

Lalu Muhammad Iqbal added in addition to the point system, the application of Safe Travel also provides reciprocity in the form of batches or rank to each user who reaches a certain number of points. According to Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, the higher rank achieved, the more profits gained by the users. One of the examples described by Lalu Muhammad Iqbal is, the opportunity to get a special invitation from Indonsian Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi along with other users who have high rank. Safe Travel application will be officially launched on 14 April, but now the application can be downloaded for Android-based smart phones through Google Play Store. As for the IOS-based smart phone, the applications can only be downloaded after it is officially launched. (VOI/Rezha/AHM)

Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the near future will launch a smart phone application or smartphone to improve the service and protection of Indonesian citizens abroad. The applications namely Safe Travel is specifically aimed at the citizens who are visiting or traveling abroad. After going through a one-year trial process the app will be launched on 14 April 2018.

“To improve the service and protection of Indonesian citizens abroad, our  product, namely Safe Travel, which is intended for the market segment is for the traveler. It combines between two applications that are responsible and fun. So, the motto is responsibly fun. This application have been tested for a year. Now, Alhamdulillah the application is ready in full version of Android and IOS. So, the full version on April 14 will be launched by Indonesian Foreign Minister,” said Director of Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entity. Lalu Muhammad Iqbal in his press conference on Thursday, April 5th, 2018 in Jakarta.

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Lalu Muhammad Iqbal added to access the application Safe Travel, Indonesian citizens must register themselves using their e-mail account and social media. In general, the application consists of eight main features namely, country info, travel list, insurance, tips, appeal, services, fun facts, and galleries that will appear on the main page. In addition, the application also features a panic button and the closest Indonesian representative information required by Indonesian citizens in an emergency state. The Safe Travel application also allows its users to share the latest information in the countries they visit and communicate directly with other users and the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (VOI/Rezha/AHM)

Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman, has proclaimed the optimization of 67 thousand hectares of swampland in Barito Kuala district, South Kalimantan, to support national food security.

According to Sulaiman, in Banjarmasin on Thursday, the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) has announced the optimization of one million hectares of swamplands and tidelands in nine provinces. The nine provinces include Riau, North Kalimantan, South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, Jambi, Papua, and Central Kalimantan. Especially in South Kalimantan, land optimization covers an area of 67 thousand hectares and is done with the help of the central government.

In order to realize these efforts, the Ministry of Agriculture has handed over 40 units of excavators, with each weighing 20 tons. Each machine is worth Rp2 billion. In addition to fertilizers and seeds, Kementan will also distribute pumping machines of 200-hectare capacity. Other needs will be borne by the regional governments of South Kalimantan Province and Barito Kuala District.

The cost of optimizing swamplands is around Rp3 million per hectare, and for tidelands, it is Rp4 million per hectare," he explained.

Prior to the optimization of swamplands and tidelands, Kementan proclaimed opening rice farms on idle lands, at a cost of about Rp16 million per hectare, to boost the additional planting area (LTT). Sulaiman estimated that swampland optimization will generate Rp60 trillion; by calculation, the cropping index reaches three times a year on one million hectares of land.

Sulaiman is optimistic that the productivity will reach 6-7 tons per hectare by referring to a pilot project in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, where the initial productivity was 2-3 tons per hectare, followed by seven tons per hectare during the third growing season. On the other hand, the optimization of swampland is also aimed at maintaining food sovereignty to up to 100 years into the future. ( antara )