VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga stated that one-stop services of the Regional Technical Unit for Women and Children Protection (UPTD PPA) will provide integrated services to victims of violence.

"The UPTD PPA will be a safe haven, a place for treatment, assistance, protection, recovery for victims, victims' families, and victims' witnesses," Puspayoga noted in a statement on Monday.

The minister expected that the victims would no longer need to reach out to different outlets to seek diverse forms of assistance, as it was provided in the integrated services.

The one-stop service is a follow up to Law Number 12 of 2022 on Crimes of Sexual Violence.

The UPTD PPA service would be held on a one-stop basis, in which victims would be received and treated on the spot and would not move from one agency to another, she explained.

A Presidential Regulation derived from the law will ensure workflow of all regulations for the implementation of this integrated service.

"The UPTD PPA is the (main aspect) for the protection of women and children in the regions, so its presence in providing the best services needs to be continuously improved. Moreover, the presence of the Crimes of Sexual Violence Law further strengthens the UPTD PPA's position as the first referral location for victims of violence to report," she remarked.

The minister emphasized that collaboration with its various partners was forged in the health sector, correctional institutions, law, and others, for the one-stop service.

The key to success in handling the issue of violence against women and children lies in commitment, real work, and collaboration from all sides, be it from the UPTD PPA to law enforcement officials and the ministry itself.

Her administration also welcomed measures by the Government of Semarang City, Central Java, that inaugurated the one-stop service for Semarang City. (Antaranews)

Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno participated in the 2022 Vegan Festival in Surabaya, East Java, the largest vegan festival globally.

The Vegan Festival 2022, which brought up the theme of "Wonderland Indonesia," is an international-scale event that aims to promote the vegan lifestyle or abstaining from eating meat, fish, dairy products, or eggs.

"Congratulations on the record achieved. This is the largest vegan festival in the world. We can beat big countries, like America and Australia, (by demonstrating) that Indonesia is holding the biggest Vegan Festival in terms of area and number of tenants and MSMEs. This shows our nation has lead, especially in the vegan culinary segment," he remarked while attending the 2022 Vegan Festival, as quoted from an official statement received here on Monday.

The event, which took place on December 8-11, 2022, became an initiative to reduce the greenhouse effect and global climate change.

The holding of the festival aligns with the ministry's program on sustainable tourism, as a vegan diet has a major impact on personal health and the environment.

The food is processed in a clean and organic manner, thereby reducing over-exploitation of animal products that compromise the balance of ecosystem.

"The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry always supports the development of the culinary industry. As a sub-sector of the creative economy, the culinary (sector) contributes 41 percent of the total GDP (gross domestic product) of the creative economy in 2020," he explained.

As one of the largest sub-sectors contributing to the creative economy GDP, vegan micro, small and medium enterprises must seize the opportunity to process and develop businesses that serve healthy food and support environmental sustainability.

Currently, the healthy food trend is being adopted all over the world, including in Indonesia, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when weather conditions are difficult to guess, thereby necessitating people to pay attention to the nutritional content and their diet pattern.

"According to research, titled 'Vegetarian, Vegan Diets and Multiple Health Outcomes,' it is shown that a vegan diet can reduce a person's risk of developing cancer by up to 15 percent, heart disease, stroke, and obesity," Minister Uno remarked

On the same occasion, Deputy Head of Belitung District and Advisor to Earth Festival Indonesia 2022 Isyak Meirobie remarked that the Vegan Festival 2022 is a form of commitment to positioning Indonesian culinary at the international scale.

"This Vegan Festival is a form of the Tourism and Creative Economy's commitment with volunteers and the Vegan Society of Indonesia, which from year to year (promotes) the very extensive local wisdom and Indonesian culture, so that it can place Indonesian cuisine in a higher position at the international level," he concluded.  (Antaranews)

The Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry stated that 30-percent allocation for public infrastructure utilization for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in 2022 had been met as a result of direct monitoring in some areas.

The stipulation of rental rates do not meet Government Regulation Number 7 of 2021, and it is seen that MSME players have yet to form cooperatives in various public infrastructures.

"I expect that through this initiative, an open discussion will follow to optimize the use of promotional space in public infrastructure and can offer solutions to the challenges that will still be faced onwards," deputy for SMEs at the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry Hanung Harimba noted in an official statement received here on Monday.

The regulation mandates ministries, agencies, regional governments, state- and region-owned enterprises, and private business entities to allocate space for promotion and development of MSMEs. The space must be at least 30 percent of the total land area of commercial areas, shopping areas, and strategic promotion places in public infrastructure.

Strategic promotion places include terminals, airports, seaports, railway stations, rest areas, and toll road services.

"This program promotes better recovery and improvement of MSMEs and the government also continues to strengthen a conducive MSME and cooperative business ecosystem, so that they are more competitive," Harimba elaborated.

The policy or initiative has led to 41.6 percent, or 263,459 square meters of public infrastructure commercial land allocated for MSMEs. In addition, there are 2,500 MSMEs in 117 Rest and Service Areas along the Trans Java toll road.

"In future, managers need to (utilize) public infrastructure area land as MSMEs' promotional space, such as by providing a place for fashion show activities, art communities, or media expose," he stated.

He explained that some issues were impeding MSMEs in terms of public infrastructure, such as a lack of synergy between regional governments and infrastructure managers, rental rates that failed to meet regulations, lack of variety in MSME products, and the need for regional governments' involvement in curating MSME products.

Hence, the use of promotional space in public infrastructure is expected to be optimized as the regulation had mandated. (antaranews)

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa asked the winners of the 2022 East Java Tourism Award (EJTA) to continue promoting the tourism sector in the region.

Parawansa said in a written statement  on Sunday that the event was expected to further promote tourism potential in each region in East Java Province.

"So promoting local potential is a very important part," she noted.

She pointed out that there were challenges in promoting local tourism potential, one of which was the need for adequate infrastructure to access naturally scenic, beautiful areas.

Therefore, she urged the village administration, regional government, and the East Java Government, to be able to improve access to these areas in order to meet those ends.

"The problem lies in infrastructure to access  areas that have extraordinary beauty. Together with the governments of the village, sub-district, district to the province to build shared accessibility," he said.

At the 2022 East Java Tourism Award event, there were also 11 award categories given, including the Natural, Cultural, and Artificial Tourism Attraction Award; Tourism Village Profile Video Contest; and the East Java Tourism Short Film Competition.

She believed that the video was able to promote the potential of the tourism sector in each region in the East Java region, as it would spark people's interest.

"Digital-wise, there are also short video competitions, and broadcasts of several village and regional tours. Of course this is very good for promotion of each other's regions," she reasoned.

On that occasion, he also saw the potential for young puppeteers to become heirs to wayang culture in Indonesia. It is expected that the young puppeteer's regeneration would also be able to boost the tourism potential in East Java.

It is noted that the participants of Dalang Muda award in 2022 comes from urban areas such as Surabaya, Malang and Gresik. Thus, dalang is no longer exclusive to Nganjuk, Blitar, Tulungagung and Ngawi regions, but is more evenly distributed in East Java.

"There is potential for regeneration for puppeteers from East Java which is more evenly distributed with those who are educated. They finish their studies, then improve in terms of cultural aspects, in my opinion this is great," she concluded. (Antaranews)