Coffee has a significant role for Indonesia and become a source of income for 7 million coffee farmers, with some foreign exchange contributions. Coffee significantly contributes to environment conservation and provides many jobs. Agriculture Minister, Syahrul Yasin Limpo stated at the opening of the National Coffee Day in Jakarta, Wednesday 11.
"Coffee is one of the Indonesia prime commodities. Coffee is the commodity which has a source of foreign exchange. Being a provider of many jobs with growing strongly and it is an industrial raw material that needed nationally and globally. This is encouraged the growth of agribusiness areas andcontributed to supporting the implementation of existing environmental conservation" Minister said.
Mr Limpo explained that the extent area of the national coffee plantation is 1.23 million hectares with a production of 717, 9 thousand tons. Mr Limposaid that the number of farmers is around 7 million families and absorbing about 67.9 thousand workfoce. Syahrul said that in 2018, the value of Indonesia's coffee exports has reached 815.9 million US dollars with a volume reaching 279, 9000 ton//Brg
The Indonesian government has prepared the second round of fiscal stimuli to reduce the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the Indonesian economy, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo said.
"God willing, Mrs Finance Minister (Sri Mulyani Indrawati) will announce the second round of fiscal stimuli in details," Warjiyo said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The second round of fiscal stimuli includes four procedural aspects and four fiscal incentives.
The procedural aspects include streamlining export regulations or procedures, reducing restrictions or procedures, particularly on the import of raw materials, expediting the import process for 500 importers and making efficient use of logistics systems.
The fiscal incentives include scrapping the income tax on corporate bodies, micro and medium scale businesses, relaxing import duties, lowering income tax tariffs and providing tax subsidies.
Warjiyo said the government issued the stimuli to boost domestic consumption and production activities, which come under pressure due to various upheavals, including the coronavirus outbreak.
"(With the suspension of income tax) employees who have, so far, paid income tax under article 21 will have sufficient salaries. The suspension of income tax under article 21 and other obligations is also granted to micro and medium businesses," he said.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Tuesday (Feb 10) that the government had prepared a wide range of stimuli, including the suspended withholding of income taxes under articles 21, 22 and 25.
The government also plans to raise the maximum limit of expedited tax refunds from Rp1 billion to Rp5 billion. (ANTARA)
Jakarta (VOI News) - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is continously doing its best for the safety of Umrah pilgrims from all over the world including Indonesia. Related to the spread of the corona virus (Covid-19), until now the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is still suspending the implementation of the pilgrimage for pilgrims around the world who want to perform Umrah. This was stated by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Indonesia Essam bin Abed al-Thaqafi in a special interview with Voice of Indonesia at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday (11/03). According to Ambassador Essam bin Abed al-Thaqafi, his side was still waiting for the results of a concrete effort by the Saudi Arabian authority to prevent the spread of the corona virus (Covid-19)
“All what the Saudi government is doing is because the safety of pilgrims and the safety of those are performing Umroh and Hajj to Saudi Arabia. Indonesia is part of the world . When we suspend umroh temporarily, it means for the security and for the safe of those who are coming to Mecca and Medina. You know millions of people around the world come to Mecca and Medina. Now Saudi Arabia is doing the best just to make Mecca and Medina free of the disease and hopefully Insya Allah very soon everything will be back to normal. Hopefully in Ramadhan we’ll start receive Umroh performance,” said Ambassador Essam bin Abed al-Thaqafi.
In addition, Ambassador Essam bin Abed al-Thaqafi said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not been able to decide about the implementation of the Hajj in 2020 as it is going to be held in the next 4 months. (VOI / Ahmad Faisal / AHM)
Jakarta - Deputy Foreign Minister Mahendra Siregar stressed that Indonesia could not accept the European Union (EU) energy policy which blamed biofuel from palm oil as a cause of deforestation, describing it as discriminatory.
Mahendra considered the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the Derivative Act released by the EU as a major challenge that would prevent the development of more productive and constructive relations between Indonesia and the EU.
"While the focus of the EU renewable energy policy is only limited to deforestation, in fact the environmental damage caused by vegetable oil in Europe goes further than that," Mahendra said, when opening the "Policy Dialogue on Strategic Bioenergy between Indonesia and Sweden" in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Citing the results of research published by Dr. Erich E Dumelin from the University of California, USA, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the productivity of palm oil is some 4 to 9 times greater than other vegetable oils.
In addition, palm oil only requires 19 kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer to produce 1 ton of oil, while other vegetable oils, such as canola (rapeseed), require up to 183 kilograms of the same fertilizer to produce 1 ton of oil.
The results of the study, published under the title Life Cycle Assessment of Palm Oil and Vegetable Oils, and the Environmental Impact of Palm Oil and Other Vegetable Oils (2009), also showed that palm oil only needs 0.01 kilograms of pesticides to produce 1 ton of oil, while to produce 1 ton of rapeseed oil requires the use of 35 kilograms of pesticides.
Referring to the research, Deputy Minister Mahendra emphasized the importance of using the correct perspective when talking about bioenergy or sustainable products, by looking at all parameters in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Indonesia, he said, did not arbitrarily choose one or two parameters of the SDGs to disguise the real destruction that had occurred.
On the contrary, Indonesia considers that the EU's renewable energy policy is only based on one or two targets, which is not appropriate because it does not use comprehensive and objective parameters which are internationally recognized.
"Indonesia will only accept fair treatment on this issue, because the development of vegetable oil must actually meet all SDG parameters. Apart from that, it cannot be accepted because it is discriminatory, " said Mahendra. (ANTARA)