VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Pertamina is committed to fully supporting the Indonesian and global governments in facing current energy challenges. The company is also ready to collaborate on energy transition, decarbonization and energy trilemma issues.

"Currently, Pertamina's roadmap uses a strategy to decarbonize carbon-positive businesses, develop carbon-neutral businesses, and compensate negative carbon businesses, which will result in Net Zero Emissions," explained Pertamina CEO Nicke Widyawati, while delivering a public lecture at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", Naples Italy, Wednesday, October 18, 2023.

Regarding energy security, Pertamina will continue to support the Indonesian government's target to increase oil and gas production. Where oil production is targeted to increase to 1 million barrels per day and gas to increase by 12 BSCFD.

Pertamina also ensures the availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and sustainability of energy for the community. One of them is by rolling out programs that make it easier for people to access energy. Among others, the One Village One Outlet (OVOO) program, Pertashop, and the One Fuel Program in remote areas.

In line with that, Pertamina is also committed to decarbonization in its business activities and operations. One of them is by integrating chemical and biofuel plants. This is to ensure that the energy transition will not disrupt energy security.

Pertamina is committed to supporting the Indonesian government's commitment to achieve Net Zero by 2060. One of the efforts made is to change the way of operating and doing business to become a green operation.

As a form of commitment, Nicke continued, Pertamina has also allocated 15 percent of the total CapEx for the development of a low-carbon/green business portfolio. This figure is much higher than the average of other energy companies.

As one of the world's largest biofuel suppliers, Indonesia has developed a biofuel industry. Since 2008, biodiesel blended with palm oil fuel has been implemented, namely B5 until now B35.

"With this program we can reduce imports of fossil fuels, especially diesel, increase the use of renewable energy, and at the same time we reduce emissions, estimated to be equivalent to 28 million tons of CO2 in 2022 alone," Nikce added.

Nicke also added that Pertamina through its Power New Renewable Energy (PNRE) subholing also continues to build a broad Clean Energy business portfolio. This is the main focus to support Pertamina and Indonesia's decarbonization goals.

Pertamina, still according to Nicke, also began implementing Carbon Capture Storage (CCS)/Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology by conducting the first injection of C02 at Pertamina EP Jatibarang Field, West Java. "CCUS technology is a technology that can increase oil and gas production through CO2-EOR while significantly reducing GHG emissions," she explained.

Pertamina is also building strategic partnerships with Agroforestry SOEs to lead decarbonization efforts through the Nature Base Solutions (NBS) project. Where Pertamina has identified nine areas with GHG reduction potential of 11 million tons/year CO2e.

Until 2022, Pertamina has succeeded in reducing carbon emissions by 31 percent from all upstream to downstream operations. Pertamina believes that these strategic initiatives will be the driving force to achieve Pertamina's goal of becoming a global energy company that creates value and is committed to long-term sustainability.

"Our commitment to Sustainability is in line with the global movement that emphasizes the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into business strategies and sustainable development goals," Nicke concluded. (Pertamina)

VOINews, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has outlined four important aspects that need to be accorded attention to build connectivity within a country based on Indonesia's experiences.

"It must provide economic benefits; must be done equally and inclusively; pay attention to sustainability aspects; and support from human resource development and technology transfer," he said during a High-Level Forum held as part of the 3rd Belt and Road Forum at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on Wednesday.

The High-Level Forum raised the theme "Connectivity in an Open Global Academy."

The President said he considers the four aspects as the basis for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation for developing connectivity.

"We hope BRI can become a solution to develop connectivity and contribute to peace in the region for the sake of mutual prosperity," he added.

He then listed a number of measures carried out in Indonesia over the past nine years to improve connectivity.

"Indonesia believes that connectivity is the path to prosperity. Therefore, over the last nine years, we have built more than two thousand kilometers of toll roads, and also non-toll roads, new ports, and new airports," he informed.

Besides developing large infrastructure, the government has built connectivity through the construction of small infrastructures spread across all villages in the country, he noted.

"There are more than 320 thousand kilometers of village roads and 1.7 million meters of bridges. We also continue to expand digital connectivity to reach the outermost areas or borders," he added.

According to him, connectivity infrastructure needs to be developed in Indonesia since the country has 17 thousand islands and also to accommodate health and education needs.

"All of these efforts are expected to boost Indonesia's economic competitiveness and investment, as well as being a foundation for strong and sustainable growth," Widodo said.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, interim Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment as well as State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, and Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun, accompanied the President at the event. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (PAN-RB) Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas met with Australian Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten, to discuss efforts to digitize public services.

"In the meeting, we talked about the practices of digitizing public services carried out in both countries. We gained insights from Australia's experiences, and we also outlined Indonesia's efforts to expedite the transformation of its public services," he noted in a written statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Minister Anas remarked that President Joko Widodo had placed the acceleration in the transformation of public services as one of his priorities.

The minister further stated that during his visit to Australia, he had led the Indonesian delegation to meet with representatives from the Australian Public Service Commission, Services Australia, Data Transparency Commission, Australian National university, and Digital Transformation Agency.

Based on the meetings, Anas said that he arrived at a conclusion that gradual and sustainable efforts were required for the transformation of public services.

"In some cases, such as in Australia, incremental and gradual changes tend to be more effective (in transforming public services). We know, however, that such changes also have advantages and disadvantages," he remarked.

The minister then affirmed that the Indonesian government's efforts to transform public services have been on track.

Anas also observed that the efforts of Indonesia and Australia to transform their public services have been met with similar obstacles, such as sectoral egos, wide coverage, and existing digital literacy gap between certain regions and major cities.

"To realize a transformation, especially in government services, it is essential to build trust between the government and the people and among government institutions. Furthermore, elites must commit to producing regulations that will bind all government institutions," he elaborated.

According to Anas, the Indonesian government had been striving to transform public services, with a special focus on health, education, and social services, by optimizing the digital space without neglecting offline services.

"We hope that Australia will become a strategic partner, so we can work together to develop the digital ecosystem for the sake of providing the best services to the people," he stated. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday for meetings seen as setting the stage for a visit by President Vladimir Putin, who has stepped up cooperation with politically isolated North Korea.

Lavrov's two-day visit comes a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip to Russia, during which he invited Putin to Pyongyang and discussed military cooperation, including over North Korea's satellite program and the war in Ukraine. 

Putin's foreign minister, who last visited North Korea in 2018, will hold talks with his North Korean counterpart, according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia's TASS news agency reported that Lavrov may brief the North Koreans on the results of Putin's visit to China, as well as discussing Putin's potential visit.

Calling each other "comrade", Putin and Kim toasted their friendship last month with Russian wine.

Courting Kim allows Putin, who says Moscow is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, to needle Washington and its Asian allies while potentially securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim on Tuesday called relations between North Korea and Russia "worrying," after the White House said last week Pyongyang had recently supplied weapons to Russia.

A growing number of reports by the U.S. government and Western researchers have documented with satellite imagery what they say are North Korean weapons shipments to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the Western allegations were not based on evidence.

"They report about it all the time - they don't provide any evidence," Peskov said, according to TASS. Peskov said Russia would continue to build its relations with North Korea.

On Monday the British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) released dozens of high-resolution commercial satellite images that it said showed two Russian ships with connections to Russia's military logistics networks making multiple trips to North Korea.

The two ships had moved several hundred containers to and from a port in North Korea since August, the RUSI report said.

Although acknowledging it was impossible to confirm their contents, the report said containers of the same size and colour were later seen being delivered to a recently expanded Russian munitions storage facility near the border with Ukraine.

North Korea is heavily sanctioned over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and U.N. Security Council resolutions - approved at the time with Russia's support - ban cooperation with Pyongyang on military issues as well as in a range of other areas. (Reuters)