The composite share price index (IHSG) at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) strengthened on Wednesday morning, as the Asian regional markets rose.

The IHSG gained 9.51 points, or 0.15 percent, to 6,413.32. The index of the 45 most liquid stocks inched up 2.32 points, or 0.23 percent, to 1,028.43.

Valbury Sekuritas chief researcher Alfiansyah has forecast that the IHSG's movement on Wednesday will be swayed by domestic and foreign sentiments.

"However, there will be a positive catalyst from the US market following a share price hike during Tuesday's trading, thereby opening room for the Asian market and serving as a trigger for the stock market at the BEI and the IHSG reference index to strengthen in today's share trading," he remarked.

Asian regional markets that weakened on Wednesday morning comprised Nikkei, decreasing 108.87 points, or 0.5 percent, to 21,729.75; the Hang Seng plunging 253.15 points, or 0.89 percent, to 28,719.53; and the Straits Times Index sliding 8.86 points, or 0.25 percent, to 3,381.99.  

The Indonesian government has allocated Rp492.5 trillion in the 2019 state budget to enhance the quality of human resources and educational facilities.

"Under the state budget policy, 20 percent of more than Rp492.5 trillion (of the state budget fund) this year is earmarked to improve the quality of human resources, including civil servant and non-civil servant teachers, infrastructure and facilities, and pupils," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated after attending a function marking the 38th anniversary of PGRI University in Semarang, Central Java, on Tuesday.

The minister underscored the need for the business world to participate in the promotion of human resources.

"Hence, we recently used the fiscal incentives or provide tax reduction of 200 to 300 percent for vocational education and for research and innovation," he noted.

While addressing the event to mark the 38th anniversary of PGRI University, she remarked that the government had continued to optimally utilize the state budget fund and fiscal policy to tackle various issues in the educational world.

The government has continued to prioritize the use of 20 percent of the state budget fund to increase the Indonesian children's access to quality education, he emphasized.

To help increase the access of less fortunate children to quality basic educational services, the government has launched the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) and schools' operational funds.

This year, a total of 20.1 million students received assistance under the PIP scheme as compared to 19.5 million a year earlier. In the meantime, the number of students receiving school operational funds had increased sharply to 60 million in 2018. (ANTARA)

Several global experts are taking part in "the 2nd International Conference on Global Science, Technology and Society (STS) organized by Hasanuddin University (Unhas) in Makassar, South Sulawesi, from July 24 to 27.

The Global STS is a follow up to the first such conference held at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore in 2014.

Chief of the event's organizing committee Dr Rijal Idrus said in Makassar, capital of South Sulawesi province, on Wednesday that the Global STS is a platform for the exchange of scientific works among international researchers in the field of science, technology and society (STS).

"We hope (the conference) will create productive debate and exchange of sciences among global researchers in the STS field," Dr Rijal Idrus of the faculty of pedagogy of Hasauddin University said.

Among the global experts who have confirmed participation in and will deliver their keynote address to the conference will be Professor Michael MJ Fisher of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, Dr Adam Brumm of Griffith University in Australia, Assoc Prof Sulfikar Amir of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Dr Sara Beavis of Australian National University and Prof Wen Lin Tu of National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

The conference is themed “between the land and the sea, knowledge transformation and new knowledge production”. Several sub-themes to be discussed at the conference include sustainability governance, biodiversity and conservation,; social changes and green development; climate change and anthropocene; disaster and resilience; cities and urban transitions; medical and public health; digital system and big data; and energy politics.

Secretary of the event's organizing committee, Dr Eng Ilham Alimuddin, said the Global STS conference or seminar is different from other conferences because it takes place near Fort Rotterdam Fortress.

The venue is expected to serve as special attraction for foreign researchers to take part in the event, he said.

"This place has historical value and is a symbol of Bugis Makassar cultural development which is important for global researchers to know," he said.

The Global STS conference is organized by Unhas in association with Nanyang Technological University as co-host and the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (API).

Some 70 researchers from the US, Europe and ASEAN member states will present their papers in the conference. (ANTARA)

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has endeavored to close the digital skills gap in Asia-Pacific by 2025 through collaboration, noted a written statement issued by the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group, received in Jakarta, Wednesday.

A survey on digital skills in the workforce revealed that job seekers are currently ill-prepared to work in the digital economy since they do not possess the requisite skills.

According to the Closing Digital Skills Gap survey, 75 percent of the respondents – constituting employers, government officials, and academics – report a significant skills mismatch. In the absence of more upskilling programs to increase digital expertise, the survey has cautioned that several workers might lose their jobs to automation.

"Skills mismatches hurt workers and the broader economy. Productivity declines when key jobs remain vacant. The APEC requires more skills training programs to reduce the global shortage of highly skilled workers that may soon exceed 38 million people," Chair of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group Dong Sun Park remarked.

Park made the statement at the 2019 APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Forum, which launched the survey prepared by Wiley, an education and professional training solutions provider.

The forum, being held in Singapore, has brought together representatives from 16 APEC economies to explore policy options that can boost digital skills and the digital economy – a key priority set by Chile, the APEC 2019 host.

The digital economy is rapidly evolving, but education systems are failing to keep up and adapt at the same pace. As a result, several companies and organizations across many sectors, from healthcare to financial services and retail, are unable to fill positions requiring skills in data collection and analytics – and the vacancies cost billions of dollars of lost revenue annually.

However, over half the survey respondents acknowledged that the curricula at several academic institutions fail to adequately bring digital skills into classrooms.

More than 50 percent of the respondents also report that government agencies possess a low understanding of the digital skills landscape.

"It was an eye-opener to learn that up to 45 percent of the survey respondents said that they do not update job requirements every year. Let’s track these insights, so we can prepare the right strategies to close the skills gap and foster more growth and prosperity across the region," Andrew Tein, chief of staff to the CEO at Wiley and co-chair of the forum, remarked.

Hence, at the forum, participants finalized a roadmap to support and increase upskilling and reskilling programs carried out by employers, governments, and educational institutions across APEC.

Implementation of the roadmap builds upon the work of APEC’s Data Analytics and Raising Employment initiative, or Project DARE, which developed and implemented a set of industry-driven recommended actions to strengthen data science and analytics competencies, or DSA.

The Project DARE framework has informed the work of eight universities, companies, and associations to date, including the Analytics Association of the Philippines, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE).

"With the imminent need to facilitate the transition of workforce in the age of disruption, Project DARE provides a tripartite platform for governments, academia, and businesses across APEC economies to discuss human capital development in data science and analytics," Dean of HKUST’s School of Business and Management Kar Yan Tam remarked.

"This platform connects all of us closely together to manage the transformation wisely," he stated.

The roadmap also recommends the sharing of government statistical methodologies and best practices owing to insufficient information on how governments track and organize data on their workforce. Increased sharing of information and best practices can facilitate the establishment of a more standardized approach to upskilling. (ANTARA)