VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Ten supervisory boards in ASEAN established an organization namely ASEANSAI in Bali in 2011. It was aimed to increase transparancy and accountability in the governments and public institutions in Southeast Asia. During his speech on Asean, Aseansai, AIPA joint seminar, in Jakarta on Tuesday (Feb 26), the Indonesian Vice President, Jusuf Kalla mentioned that the cooperation in the form of auditing is important to give transparency system and accountability for each countries. 

“The cooperation in the form of auditing is important to provide us a system of transparency and also economic accountability of each country, openly. We want ASEAN to cooperate fairly. The aim is to advance these regional countries in various fields. Therefore, I would like to express my appreciation to the BPK and invite all supreme audits of all countries to jointly establish a close relationship, so that they can bring something beneficial for a good governance,” said Jusuf Kalla.

Related to this, the whole ASEAN institutes in cooperation with ASEAN Secretariat strengthen the importance of good governance promotion which is the most important element in the ASEAN Vision 2025 "Moving Forward Together". The joint seminar of ASEAN, ASEANSAI, AIPA is participated in by 100 senior staffs and representatives of three organizations as well as other entities in ASEAN. This program is also supported by the German government through several projects such as ASEC 2025, SUPPORT TO ASEANSAI and AIPA for ASEAN, that will be implemented by the German company for International Cooperation-GIZ. (VOI/NK/DP)

Islam is one of religions that develop rapidly in Russia. There are at least 25 million Muslims in Russia or 10 percent of the country’s total population. To provide information about Islam in the country, Russian Mufti Council and Indonesian Religious Affairs Ministry held photography exhibition titled Islamic Tradition in Russia. The exhibition is held until March 18, 2019 at Bayt al-quran and Istiqlal Mosque Museum at Indonesian miniature park -TMII. Vice chairman of Russian Mufty Council, Rushan Abbyasov said that through the photography exhibition he hoped Indonesian people can obtain new information about Muslim life in Russia. When he met on the sidelines of the exhibition in Jakarta on Tuesday (26/2), Rushan Abbyasov explained that Russia is a country that upholds religious freedom. 

“We want to speak and get the picture about Islam in Russia. About the history of Islam in Russia. About modern situation in Russia. Because many people don’t know about this situation. Now alhamdulilah we have freedom. We have good cooperation relation between our Muslim community with the government, with the parliament, with all state structure, we have good interface religion dialogue between other culture,” Rushan Abbyasov said.

Rushan Abbyasov moreover added that religious freedom is proven by building 8 thousands mosques, Islamic institute and Islamic academy in the last 28 years. On the same occasion Indonesian Religious Affairs Minister, Lukman Hakim Syaifudin explained that Russia has the same religious life with Indonesia where people with different religions can live together. Russian Ambassador to Indonesia, Lyudmila Vorobieva, explained that the exhibition is important for Russia as a media to remind local people of diverse religious backgrounds. (Retno/Sekar/Trs : NK/AHM

The Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Politics of Law and Security Wiranto on Tuesday at the President's Office ensured that the 2019 General Election democratic party would run safely. This was conveyed in response to the concerns of a number of parties who are worried about riots during the election. According to Wiranto, the police have compiled the Election Vulnerability Index since some time ago. Based on the index, vulnerability prior to and during the election will certainly not occur. He also appealed to all Indonesian people to continue to support efforts to make the election successful by using their respective voting rights.

"From the index of Election vulnerability in the previous 6 months we have already known the score. Which areas are not too safe. Not safe why? From that index, 6 months earlier, we continuously made efforts to neutralize these vulnerabilities. So that our calculations are from the security forces and also help with the holding of elections, so the 2019 election will take place safely. Therefore don’t trust it. Stay in Indonesia, become a good voter, don't be abstain, don't leave Indonesia," said Wiranto.

Wiranto further said, he along with the Police and Election organizers continue to coordinate to ensure the 2019 General Election ran smoothly. He also hoped that the political elite in the country would not disturb the security stability of the election by issuing baseless controversial statements. (VOI/Ndy/AHM)

Three main producers of natural rubber in Southeast Asia -- Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia -- agreed to cut down rubber exports by some 200 thousand-300 thousand metric tons to tackle the commodity’s decreasing price.

The three nations had come up with a scheme called the Agreed Export Tonnage Scheme (AETS) during their meeting at the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC), on Feb 22, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution elaborated that the implementation of AETS will be valid in the next three months.

All details regarding AETS will be discussed further during the Senior Official Meeting (SOM) ITRC on Mar 4 in Thailand.

"The three countries agreed to reduce rubber exports by 200 thousand to 300 thousand per year. Further details will be discussed by each respective government official on this coming Mar 4th," Nasution stated.

In terms of each country`s contribution of rubber production, Thailand was the highest, with 52 percent; Indonesia, 38 percent; and lastly Malaysia, 10 percent.

This rubber export reduction policy is important to restore the fundamental price of natural rubber, which is presently priced at US$1.45 for one kilogram. Meanwhile, for a farmer, the price is even lower, ranging from Rp7,000 to Rp7,500 per kilogram.

"The reason why this reduction is necessary is to show the market that we do not have a sufficient surplus," Darmin remarked.

He also added that the futures market at one of the world`s commodity exchanges in Shanghai had made an assumption of the supply of rubber being surplus. However, in reality, the world`s rubber market had only 167 thousand tons surplus out of the production of 13.5 million tons and consumption at some 13.4 million tons.

Apart from the reduction of rubber exports, two other strategies that the ITRC has come up with are the Demand Promotion Scheme (DPS) related to domestic consumption in each country and Supply Management Scheme (SMS) concerning the commitment to replant natural rubber. (ANTARA)