VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian President Joko Widodo encouraged Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Kadin to look for new export opportunities for products of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises–SMEs in Indonesia. This was conveyed when the President attended the closing of 2018 KADIN National Leadership Meeting in Solo, Central Java, Wednesday, 28/11/2018. He said efforts to encourage the export of Indonesian products are an essential factor to encourage Indonesia's macroeconomic development. He also pointed out that export activities have a major contribution in building the country's healthy economy, as well as maintaining the trade balance and current account.

“Please continue to explore the export opportunities that can be done by our entrepreneurs, especially our SMEs. In my opinion, the effort to export is very important. First, I mentioned earlier, exports are important in terms of our macro economy. Clearly, export is important for a healthy economy. Exports generate foreign exchange; this is clear. Exports are important to keep our trade balance and current account better," said President Joko Widodo.

Furthermore, President Joko Widodo also hopes that KADIN can encourage the improvement of the quality of SMEs in carrying out export activities. This can be done by encouraging export activities among SMEs. With the increasing frequency of exports carried out by the SMEs in Indonesia, President Joko Widodo hopes that the expertise and knowledge of the SMEs’ entrepreneurs can be increased so that they can compete globally in international markets. (VOI/Ndy/DP)

Indonesia Institute of Sciences  (LIPI) in cooperation with UNESCO held The UNESCO Asia  and  the Pacific Regional Training Workshop  on  Water Quality  and  Emerging Pollutants in Jakarta on Tuesday (27/11) . Senior Program Specialist of UNESCO Jakarta , Hans Dencker Thulstrup  attended the workshop representing Director of  UNESCO  Jakarta , Shahbaz Khan. On the sidelines of the workshop, Hans Dencker Thulstrup  to Voice of Indonesia said that clean water is  important to maintain human welfare, livelihood and healthy environment for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hans Dencker stated the importance of scientific exchange from experts so that that the SDGs program can be achieved and people in the world can get clean water for life survival.

"UNESCO looks particular at the contribution of science and the knowledge exchange knowledge for water pollutant effect sampling this case. So, what is happening with this workshop we have  and bringing expertise  from Indonesia and some other region to address particular issue of emerging pollutants, so these are new emerging  pollutant whether knowledge  may be limited , but we hope to enhance and strengthen that knowledge  for better management. So,  we try to  create association between knowledge management enhancement," said Hans Dencker Thulstrup.

Meanwhile, researcher of Limnology Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Ignasius Dwi Atmana said  that data and evaluation related to water pollutant in Asia and Pacific is considered insufficient, whereas observation, evaluation and report related to the emerging pollutant resource very substantial. Ignasius hoped that the workshop attended by 15 countries can answer the challenges for the sake of providing clean water. Moreover, Ignasius said pollutants can come from pharmaceutical, household and industrial waste continuously released to the environment. (VOI/Ahmad Faisal/AHM)

President Joko Widodo has asked his staff to work massively to prepare for a new round of industrial revolution 4.0. This was revealed in a limited meeting between the President and a number of working cabinet ministers, Monday afternoon at the Jakarta Presidential Palace. Regarding this matter, Minister of Research and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir said that he had made a number of significant changes in preparing universities to face a new round of industrial revolution. Some of these changes include starting to focus on digital education or e-learning.

"We can no longer leave the information technology. With this, e-learning will definitely occur. If higher learning institutions do not work or develop, they will be definitely left behind. The second thing is that this information technology process must be developed. What we need to pay attention to is how universities respond to study programs that exist in developing communities. Don't stick to the past," said Mohamad Nasir.

Furthermore, the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education M. Nasir explained that his party had given freedom for universities to determine the study programs that would be respectively developed without being bound by the provisions of the regulations. This is expected to open opportunities for college creativity in opening various study programs that are in line with the times. In addition, according to him, the ministry of research, technology and higher education also provides incentives for tertiary institutions by opening opportunities for collaboration between universities and industry. This is intended to encourage the development of the capacity of higher education students in developing potential in the industrial world. (VOI/Ndy/AHM)

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan explained that the government's policy to eliminate the export levy of crude palm oil (CPO) is carried out to ease the burden on the community due to the decline in the world’s CPO prices. This was conveyed after meeting President Joko Widodo on Monday afternoon at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. According to Luhut, the government's move to remove CPO export levies is temporarily carried out by monitoring the movement of the world palm oil prices. Meanwhile, according to him, the government has managed to collect CPO export levies of up to 30 trillion rupiah. The amount, according to him, will be used to improve the welfare of oil palm farmers as long as the export levies are eliminated.

"Yes, the palm oil prices continuously decrease, the government, the president in this case, see, we decrease it for the next 6 months, if I am not mistaken. Yes we see it first, right now the oil palm is to the small people, the president only looks at the small people, then we will see again the response from the market. We have more than Rp 30 trillion in funds there, the president also requested whether it could be used to help the small farmers," said Luhut.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution announced the decision to determine the export levy of crude palm oil (CPO) from US $ 50 per ton to zero US dollars per ton. This policy was taken in view of the adverse effects faced by the domestic CPO industry which had declined. The price of palm oil is currently dropping sharply from 530 dollars per ton last week to 420 US dollars per ton. This effort according to Luhut is intended to maintain economic stability within the country amid global economic instability. (VOI/Ndy/AHM)