VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (VOI News) - Minister of Technology Research/Head of the National Innovation Research Agency, Bambang Brodjonegoro in Jakarta on Friday, August 28 encouraged the development of scientific research that can accommodate the progress and challenges of the times.

Speaking after attending the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Sarwono Prawirohardjo Memorial Lecture XX, (twenty), Bambang explained that all research institutions in Indonesia must be able to adapt to the times.

Apart from being supported by strong basic research, Bambang said the current progress demands the birth of innovation which must also adopt the 4th industrial revolution (4.0), especially digital transformation.

"So, like it or not, all research institutions must continuously carry out transformations internally and also keep on the very dynamic developments in science and technology. If we look at the history of the development of science, those who are in front of it are always those who are the inventors of something," said Bambang Brodjonegoro.

Furthermore, Bambang also explained that the need for research in the field of science has an important meaning in creating the progress of civilization.

To create a better community life, Bambang also encouraged all research institutions to participate in facilitating researchers to innovate in the field of science.

It is expected that this innovation will bring about changes that have a direct impact on society. (VOI/Andy edit-mar/trans:AF).

Jakarta (VOI News) -  Chairman of the National Economic Recovery and Transformation Task Force Budi Gunadi Sadikin in Jakarta on Friday, August 28, noted that the government plans to continue assistance for small and medium micro-entrepreneurs to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

Budi admitted that the government has distributed 2.4 trillion rupiahs as assistance for micro-entrepreneurs for one week. Totally, the government has budgeted 22 trillion rupiahs for 9 million micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia to drive Indonesia's economy in the third quarter.

“They are classified as micro-entrepreneurs and being registered with the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Medium Enterprises (KemenKOPUKM) and then entering the banking system, banks can see the business of the micro-entrepreneurs,” said Budi Gunadi Sadikin.

It has not been touched and has not been seen by Indonesian banks. Thus, bankers are constantly looking for customers, naturally. They will see that currently there are about 15 million potential new micro-entrepreneurs that the government can provide bank credit to.

The government with the Coordinating Ministry for the Small and Medium Enterprises realizes that by doing this program as the first step, giving a grant of 2.4 million to a potential 15 million micro-entrepreneurs.

The government opens the opportunity to continue to the second phase of the program where the government can provide micro-business soft loans. 

So, the government has planned to discuss it with the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises and have discussed it with the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, and the government will carry out to follow-up program to be able to provide micro-business soft credit programs to MSME entrepreneurs which the government previously gave a grant of 2.4 million earlier.

In the last few weeks, Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that the disbursement of aid funds by the government is big enough. He said, in the social protection sector, the government has disbursed additional assistance of 7 trillion rupiahs, while in the MSME sector, additional assistance has reached 11.2 trillion rupiahs.

Budi hopes that this assistance will not only be short-term but also long-term in order to build fundamental economic changes. (VOI/Andy/trans:AF)

Minister of Transportation, Budi Karya Sumadi, said he hoped the newly inaugurated Yogyakarta International Airport (YAI) would attract domestic and foreign tourists, thereby helping aid economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new airport is located about 60 kilometers from the Borobudur Temple, one of Indonesia's five super-priority tourist destinations.

The means of transportation connecting YIA and Borobudur Temple must be improved by paying attention to and prioritizing health protocols to prevent COVID-19 transmission, the minister said in a statement here on Friday.

The government has made provisions for the operation of Damri shuttle buses, SetelQu, airport taxis, online taxis, and trains via Wojo station (about 10 minutes from the airport) to connect the airport with Borobudur, he added.

In future, the train line will directly enter the airport area, he continued.

"With this intermodal connectivity, we hope to restore the national economy by attracting more tourists to Yogyakarta. We are optimistic that in future, Yogyakarta International Airport will be able to have a positive impact on the national economy as well as improve the welfare of the community, especially in the surrounding Yogyakarta region and Indonesia in general," Sumadi stated.

He lauded state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I for providing a tenant area measuring 1,500 square meters at a YIA terminal, which can accommodate 300 MSMEs, and an area of 880 square meters in the Liaison Building, which can accommodate 170 MSMEs. The tenant area is named Kotagede Market.

As a substitute for the old Adisutipto Airport, YIA has built a Passenger Terminal with an area of 219,000 square meters, which can serve 20 million passengers per year, with an investment of Rp10.08 trillion.

For air-side facilities, the airport runway has dimensions of 3,250 meters x 45 meters with a PCN value of 93 F / C / X /, so it can serve even the heaviest and largest aircraft such as the Boeing B-777 and the Airbus A380.

The Yogyakarta International Airport currently serves 20 domestic routes and two international routes, namely Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and has great potential to add domestic routes (Manado, Kupang, Labuan Bajo) and international routes, such as Jeddah, Medina, Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Bangkok, the minister said.

For flight navigation services, the airport has an ATC tower building, administration building, and operational building, built on an area of 15,651 square meters with an investment of Rp87.1 billion.

The eight-floor ATC tower building is 39.5 meters tall and is equipped with facilities such as tower set, radar monitoring, VHF radio, direct speech telephone, and ATIS.

The airport has been structurally designed to withstand earthquakes, tsunamis, liquefaction, volcanic ash eruptions, and floods. Its design has involved a panel of experts from Japan and an Academic Expert Team from the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS), and the University of Diponegoro (UNDIP). The airport is also equipped with a Crisis Center building.

Parts of the airport feature local traditional art works and local wisdoms, represented by the Jasmine flower and Wijayakusuma (Epiphyllum oxypetalum), designed by 46 local artists from Yogyakarta. (ANTARA)

PHOTO : PERPUSNAS

The head of National Library Muhammad Syarif Bando appreciated Tegal’s Bunda Baca, Roro Kusnabilla Erfa, for the programme to increase the reading culture in her region. One of her programmes at Bunda Baca is literary tourism that could be to inspire the other region to adopt. It was said by Syarif Bando on the webinar with the theme of the participation of Bunda Baca in a new normal adaptation to push the literary culture within the communities, in Jakarta, Thursday, August 27. Syarif Bando said that there are four layers in literature.

"There are four layers in literary based on the UNESCO manifesto. First, we could not declare that we are literated if we do not have access to all new reading resources. UNESCO put the standard that people have to read a minimum of three new books a year. Second, we not only have many books and access but have the knowledge to understand those books. The only way is reading. Third, to have the ability to come up with the ideas, creativity and innovation to change the situation to bring the better. Four, the ability to create high quality of goods and services to sell to the global market" Syarif Bando said. 

Some of the programmes in the Literary Tourism are to visit the schools, local district, improving reading corners and forums, to develop the village literary that involves some 46 reading ambassadors//NK