VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Batam, Riau Islands - The Riau Islands Provincial Tourism Office is optimistic that at least 3 million foreign tourists will visit the area in 2020. The number is above the mid-term regional development plan (RPJMD) target of 2.4 million foreign tourists.

"I believe there could even be up to 3.3 million visits," said the Head of the Riau Islands Tourism Office, Boeralimar in here, Sunday.

The prediction was based on the increasing trend of foreign tourists visiting Riau Islands. Throughout 2019, it was estimated that 2.9 million foreign tourists visited the area.

The provincial government, he continued, planned to revise the target number of foreign tourists in the RPJMD, as it was considered too low.

He further said that the increasing number of foreign tourists visiting Riau Islands was the result of a promotion efforts carried out jointly with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

"(The increase) is because of the promotions. One of the ways is through events," he said.

In order to further boost the number of foreign tourists visits, he encouraged the city district government to create new tourism destinations, to avoid tourists getting bored and for them to always have more reasons to return to the Riau Islands.

He further said that lack of varying choices can lead to tourists getting bored.

"For example, tourists from Singapore often only go for spa and culinary destinations," he said.

Meanwhile, Head of the Culture and Tourism Office of Batam City, Ardiwinata, said that the city government, together with the private sector, had designed a number of new tourist destinations to boost domestic and foreign tourist visits.

"Among those new ones are the Raja Ali Haji Museum and the Sultan Mahmud Riayat Syah Great Mosque," Ardi said.

He said tourism in Batam is not merely about shopping and the beauty of the island and the beach, but also culture and religion and for that reason, they wanted to highlight mosques and museum tourist destinations.

The Great Mosque of Sultan Mahmud Riayat Syah was inaugurated by Batam Mayor Muhammad Rudi, at the end of 2019. Until now, the mosque that is located in Sagulung has attracted a number of foreign tourists and domestic tourists.

Meanwhile, the Raja Ali Haji Museum, is still in revitalization, and is expected to be completed in 2020.

He is optimistic that with new tourist destinations, the number of tourist visits to Batam will increase. (ANTARA)

The Authority of the state-owned airport operator, PT Angkasa Pura I (AP I) at Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi Province, has strengthened precautionary measures by screening arriving international passengers for coronavirus.

The precautionary measures were partly implemented with the installation of a thermal scanner at the international airport to detect any foreign tourist suffering from the symptom of this novel (new) coronavirus, Sam Ratulangi International Airport’s Spokesperson Angga Maruli said in Manado, North Sulawesi, Thursday.

The foreign tourist arrivals were also given health alert cards because North Sulawesi Province has become one of the favorite destinations for foreign travelers, particularly those from China.

The inflow of Chinese travelers into North Sulawesi through the Sam Ratulangi International Airport could be categorized “high” while China was the source of the virus, he said.

The first case of coronavirus was declared by Chinese authorities after a person with pneumonia was hospitalized in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, according to an official statement of the World Health Organization (WHO).

As published in its official statement on January 9, 2020, WHO revealed that the “Chinese investigators conducted gene sequencing of the virus, using an isolate from one positive patient sample. “

As for the outbreak of the coronavirus, ANTARA quoted a WHO report from its official website Thursday that it was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan on December 31, 2019,

In addition to providing care to patients and isolating new cases as they are identified, Chinese public health officials have reported that they remain focused on continued contact tracing, conducting environmental assessments at the wholesale market, and investigations to identify the pathogen causing the outbreak.

WHO is closely monitoring this event and is in active communication with counterparts in China. In line with standard protocols for any public health event, an incident management system has been activated across the three levels of WHO (country office, regional office and headquarters) and the Organization is prepared to mount a broader response, if needed.

WHO further revealed that the preliminary determination of a novel virus would assist authorities in other countries to conduct disease detection and response. Over the past week, people with symptoms of pneumonia and reported travel history to Wuhan had been identified at international airports.

“WHO does not recommend any specific measures for travelers. WHO advises against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China based on the information currently available,” it said. (ANTARA)

Kudus, C Java - The Kudus district administration has set aside Rp35.4 billion to improve the infrastructure of 169 schools that incurred damage in the district area, Joko Susilo, the district government’s Education, Youth, and Sports Office head, stated.

Some 80 percent of the damaged educational institutions are elementary schools, while the remaining 20 percent are junior high schools, he informed journalists in Kudus, Central Java, on Thursday.

Improving educational infrastructure was part of the Kudus district administration’s efforts to offer conducive conditions for local teachers and students in classrooms.

Thus, teaching and learning processes in Kudus can run well, and good quality of education could be achieved, he noted.

The central government has vowed to focus on improving the quality of Indonesia's human resources in the midst of stiff competition among nations in this digital era.

The central government’s commitment is apparent from President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi's) statement on the bill on the state budget for the 2020 fiscal year and its financial note that he delivered at the House of Representatives’ (DPR’s) plenary session on Aug 16, 2019.

Jokowi expressed belief that by improving the quality of human resources, Indonesia will be able to realize its vision of becoming a developed nation.

"Through such determination, the 2020 fiscal policy is drawn up on the theme of 'A State Budget to Accelerate Competitiveness through Innovation and Improved Quality of Human Resources,'" he told members of parliament at that time.

To realize Jokowi's noble ambition is indubitably no easy task since Indonesia is still struggling to tackle the problem of stunted growth among children, and the quality of its human resources also varies.

As the world's fourth most populous country, Indonesia has yet to rank on the list of the world's most literate nations.

John W. Miller's study (CCSU, 2016) demonstrates that Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, and the Netherlands are the top 10 most literate nations.

The study conducted by Miller, a noted researcher at the Central Connecticut State University, further revealed that Indonesia had ranked 60th out of the 61 countries. Its ranking was just better than that of Botswana though lagging far left behind Singapore that ranked 36th and Malaysia, at 53rd position.

His study synthesized "literacy achievement tests (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and Programme for International Student Assessment) and literate behavior characteristics (population, newspapers, libraries, years of schooling)" (2016).

Miller stated that a nation's literate behaviors contribute to its success and failure in dealing with the demands of the world's knowledge-based economics.

In terms of the quality of higher education, Indonesia also seems to lag far behind Singapore, whose leading universities have garnered esteemed positions of best universities at both the regional and international levels as compared to those of Indonesia. (ANTARA)

Batam, Riau Islands - The Port Health Office has heightened health checks at the international ports in Batam City, Riau Islands in an effort to anticipate the breaking of the Coronavirus. "In accordance with standards and regulations, we have been on alert for this case starting from early January 2020," said the Head of Batam's Quarantine Control and Epidemiology Surveillance, Romer Simanungkalit in Batam, Riau Islands, Wednesday.

It is necessary to heighten health security measures at all international ports in the city, as these are the entry points for hundreds of thousands of foreign citizens every month, he said.

One of the initial checks is done using thermal scanners that have been installed in all ports, Simanungkalit said.

Every inbound passenger must pass the thermal scanner and have their body temperature checked. If it is high, officers will carry out further checks.

There are two major symptoms that would make a person suspect of having contracted the Coronavirus, namely a fever and the flu, as well as a history of having been infected.

The Batam Port Health Office has 11 thermal scanner devices that have been activated at international ports, both air and sea, including Sekupang, Harbor Bay and Telaga Punggur Harbor.

Special measures have also been taken for passengers from China arriving at the ports.

"When there are passengers from China, all officers would don their masks," he said.

The office also alerted ambulances at ports for suspected passengers with the Coronavirus entering and requiring further action.

"We alert the ambulance, and coordinate with the Health Office if there are passengers who need to be referred," he added. (INE/ANTARA)