VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Digitalization has become a driving force for the economy to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging the industry to alter its business model, including public conduct during transactions, according to the Central Bank of Indonesia (BI).

"With the adoption of technology, growth can be higher," Filianingsih Hendarta, Head of the BI Payment System Policy Department, stated during an online discussion in Jakarta on Thursday.

Hendarta believes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about another change to speed up the use of digital transactions, so they expect this condition to become an opportunity for industries, especially banking.

Hendarta noted that Indonesia has vast capital to support digitization, including its 269-million populace and 338 million cell phone users.

He pointed out that Indonesia has the fourth-largest number of internet users in the world, reaching 175 million, and a demographic bonus, specifically a larger productive age population.

63 million MSME players have yet to benefit from digital transactions and businesses since data from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology points to only some 9.4 million players or around 14.8 percent.

BI noted that the volume of online trade transactions, or e-commerce, in the second quarter of 2020 increased to 383.5 million, from 275.8 million in the first quarter of 2020.

In the meantime, the nominal value of e-commerce transactions dropped from Rp58.5 trillion to Rp55.9 trillion.

For non-bank electronic money, the transaction volume in the second quarter of 2020 dropped to 659.3 million, from 782.6 million during the first quarter of 2020.

In the meantime, the nominal value of electronic money transactions reached Rp42.3 trillion, rising from Rp37.2 trillion during the second quarter of 2020.

In the meantime, the nominal value for digital banking transactions was reached Rp6,143 trillion in the second quarter of 2020 or decreased from Rp6,699 trillion during the first quarter.

The volume increased to 1,137 million transactions, from 1,070 million transactions.

"This reflects human behavior adapting to the digital era," Hendarta remarked. (Antaranews)

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing will prioritize food estate development in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra and construction of supporting infrastructure in Batang and Subang industrial zones under its 2021 budget programs.

The ministry has allocated a budget ceiling of Rp149.8 trillion for the programs, PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said during a hearing with Commission V of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

"Our requirement is Rp140 trillion, but we have allocated Rp149 trillion. There is no excess, but (the allocation has been made) because it's an additional task, namely the development of food estates and supporting industrial zones," he said.

The minister explained that they have planned the 2021 budget allocation based on President Jokowi's five visions and in consideration of the impact of COVID-19. On that basis, the ministry has drawn up six priority programs.

The first program will seek to increase food security. One of the major projects under the program will be the development of food estates comprising rice and cassava farming in Central Kalimantan and horticultural farming in Humbang Hasundutan in North Sumatra.

They will aim the second program at improving connectivity by continuing the construction and preservation of roads to support logistical efficiency and national competitiveness.

The third program will focus on improving the health of the environment and society by developing livable, quality, and affordable housing, and developing healthy and productive settlements.

The fourth program will seek to boost investment by providing infrastructure to support national strategic areas for industrial zone development, particularly related to investment relocation. This will include the development of five super-priority National Tourism Strategic Areas (KSPN) for tourism, following the previous five destinations that have been developed in 2020.

"This is one of the new tasks, namely (the development of industrial zones) in Batang with an area of ​​4,500 hectares and in Subang of about 1,600 hectares. This is a new concept because the land is state land. The government prepares all basic infrastructure, including roads, clean water, and employee housing. And investors will come free for 10 years or 20 years, as they will only pay the charges, "the minister remarked.

The fifth program will focus on strengthening the national safety net to reduce unemployment and maintaining purchasing power by carrying out cash-intensive programs, buying people's products, and funding training for local entrepreneurs.

The sixth program will seek to increase resilience to disasters and climate change to reduce disaster risk, speed up post-disaster recovery, emergency response, rehabilitation, and construction.

Basuki explained that the total budget ceiling of Rp149.8 trillion comprises Rp5.87 trillion in loans, Rp14.76 trillion in State Sharia Securities (SBSN), and Rp129.18 trillion in the national currency alone.

He said food estate development will cost about IDR 5.8 trillion, industrial zones IDR 12 trillion, cash labor-intensive programs IDR 18 trillion, drinking water supply facilities IDR 7 trillion, sanitation IDR 5.9 trillion, flood prevention facilities IDR 10 trillion, irrigation system facilities IDR 7 trillion, and housing development Rp. 8 trillion. (Antaranews)

Several members of the House of Representatives said that the palm oil commodity holds strategic value as a source of foreign exchange and to support the national economy.

Deputy Chairman of Commission IV of the DPR, Hasan Aminuddin, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the export value of palm oil products, including oleochemicals and biodiesel, reached around the US $20 billion in 2019.

The exports of palm oil and its derivative products contributed to the country's better trade balance.

"Indonesia must be grateful to have an extraordinary gift from God in the form of profuse palm oil, which is a source of foreign exchange and supports the national economy," he remarked.

Aminuddin noted that palm oil plantations, usually in remote areas, with poor infrastructure, could drive development in such areas to become economic centers.

He expects the role of palm oil to become increasingly important, especially as it pertains to the increasing demand for support for sustainable food and energy supply.

Seconding this view, a member of the House's Commission IV Luluk Nur Hamidah stated that palm oil has become a strategic commodity owing to its enormous contribution, both to open up job opportunities and foreign exchange for the country.

The lawmaker regretted the black campaigns on palm oil imposed by the international community.

"European countries, which are export destinations, are doing this. Yes, there are economic interests that are deliberately designed with environmental issues in mind," Hamidah noted.

The international community aggressively black campaigning with an approach that seemed scientifically acceptable that products from palm oil were detrimental to health and environmental issues.

Hamidah cited as an example of the use of research approaches, for instance, products from palm oil being viewed as having saturated fats unhealthy for the heart.

"They reject palm oil because it does not support a healthy lifestyle. The second point concerns environmental issues. Hence, we are being caught from both ends, in terms of health and environmental issues," Hamidah stated.

Hamidah called on the government to counter black campaigns through concrete steps taken properly, such as supervision and guidance, to prevent environmental damage caused to palm oil plantations. (Antaranews)

Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, spokesperson for the Covid-19 Task Force said that the percentage of active cases from March to August is going downward.

"From March to August it gradually decreased. In March, the average active case was 91.26 percent, continued to decline in April to 81.57 percent, May 71.53 percent, June 57.25 percent, July 44.02 percent, and in August active cases in Indonesia decreased to 23.64 percent," he said during a press conference in Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Active cases of COVID in Indonesia as of 1 September 2020 were 42,009 cases or 23.7 percent. While the world average is 26.67 percent. This means that the figure in Indonesia is still classified as lower than the average figure in the world.

According to him, this gradually improving condition must be maintained, so that active cases in Indonesia continue to decline every month until the Covid-19 pandemic completely disappears.

In line with active cases, the development of Covid-19 patient death cases nationally has also gradually decreased every month.

September 1 data, there were 7,505 cases of death with a percentage of 4.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Wiku said the mortality rate was peaked in April.

Judging by the graph, in March the average was 4.89 percent, then in April it doubled to 8.64 percent, then in May it decreased to 6.68 percent, in June it was 5.56 percent, July was 4.81 percent and August fell again to 4.47 percent.

"Although the percentage of national mortality rates has experienced positive changes, the magnitude is still above the world average (3.32 percent). This is what we must fix together so the national mortality rate can be reduced to below the world average," he said.

The recovery rate per month is also improved. The number of recovered patients as of September 1 was 177,571 cases. There is a very fast rate of increase in March-August, higher than the world average of 70 percent.

In March, the average recovery rate was 3.84 percent, then more than doubled in April to 9.79 percent, continued in May 21.97 percent, and increased again in June 37.19 percent, on July 49.40 percent and as of August 30, 2020, the recovery rate reached 72.17 percent.

For the level of positivity rate, Indonesia shows an increase every month. In June it was 11.71 percent, up in July 14.29 percent and August 15.43 percent.

"The positivity rate in Indonesia reached its peak on August 30 at 25.25 percent. The big challenge is to reduce the positivity rate to meet the safety standards recommended by the WHO by 5 percent," Wiku said.

According to the latest update on the risk zoning map, there are 65 high-risk districts/cities (red zone), 230 medium risk districts/cities (orange zone), 151 medium risk districts/cities (151 districts/cities, 42 districts/cities no new cases and 26 districts/cities are not affected or are included in the green zone.

When viewed from May until now, the high-risk area from 21.01 percent decreased to 12.65 percent.

Meanwhile, the risk area is medium from 32.30 percent to 44.75 percent. Then the low risk rose from 27.63 percent to 29.38 percent. Unaffected areas decreased from 19.07 percent to 13.23 percent.

Wiku added that increasing testing, tracing, and treatment is the key to accelerating the handling of Covid-19.

Innovations to protect medical personnel have also been carried out and use personal protective equipment (PPE), quality cloth masks, including 100 percent Indonesian-made ventilators.

"We have also been ordered by the president (Joko Widodo) to coordinate with regional leaders, to ensure that the handling of Covid-19 is carried out well and suppress the spread of the Covid-19 virus," Wiku said. (RRI)