VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Archive : Australian Embassy to Indonesia logo - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Celebrating 75 years of Australia and Indonesia diplomatic relations, the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, together with the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Canberra, is conducting a logo design competition.

The winning design will be used as the official logo of the 75th Anniversary of Australia – Indonesia Diplomatic Relations campaign throughout 2024. A series of activities will be held as part of the celebration, including a mural art collaboration, our annual Festival Sinema Australia Indonesia, Taste of Australia culinary festival, historical exhibition, and much more.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Friday (16/02/24), Indonesian and Australian creative talents are invited to submit up to three designs which reflect and represent the 75 years of close friendship and strong partnership between Australia and Indonesia. The design may be inspired by elements of both countries’ national emblems, culture and identity.

With the support and sponsorship from Qantas, the creator of the winning logo will receive one return economy ticket for Jakarta - Sydney/Melbourne or Sydney/Melbourne - Jakarta.

The competition is open for Indonesian and Australian citizens and residents, aged at least 18 years old at the time of submitting their valid entry.

Designs are accepted from 15 February until 3 March 2024//VOI

The South Kalimantan (Kalsel) Library Development Coordination Meeting took photo after the disscusion (Photo : Perpusnas) - 

Voinews, Jakarta - The National Library of the Republic of Indonesia (Perpusnas) initiated a program for 10 thousand libraries throughout Indonesia. This is done as an effort to build a reading culture in the community.

Acting Director of the National Library, E. Aminudin Azis, stated that the National Library has three priority programs that will be implemented in 2024, namely strengthening reading and literacy culture, mainstreaming Indonesian manuscripts, and library standardization and development.

"A reading culture must be built, because someone can be said to be literate after he can read well, read critically. "So, this reading culture must be developed early," he said at the South Kalimantan (Kalsel) Library Development Coordination Meeting held in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Thursday evening (15/2/2024).

He said that the National Library would create 10 thousand village libraries throughout Indonesia, where each library would receive a thousand books along with shelves for storage.

"We base it on existing data and proposals from districts/cities. The condition is that they have to assign people who will manage the library. The regional library will be the one to develop it in the future," he continued.

In the presentation presented, the village libraries are 600 village/subdistrict libraries for Social Inclusion Based Library Transformation (TPBIS), 4,604 TPBIS replication village/subdistrict libraries, 2,409 libraries proposed by the district/city government, as well as 2,387 community reading parks (TBM).

He explained that in this program village libraries and TBM would collaborate with school libraries. The hope is that children can take advantage of books from both places.

“Because the books in the village library and those at school are of course different. So, we hope that everyone can use this," he explained.

Collaboration between the village library and the school library is carried out with activities to increase interest in reading, such as holding a week program of reading two books, reading aloud, or storytelling.

"Building literacy is building a generation, so building literacy and a reading culture must be instilled from childhood," he added.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Friday (16/02/24), in accordance with the national priority program resulting from the arrangement, in 2024, the focus on strengthening community literacy skills will be carried out in village/sub-district libraries.

Responding to this, South Kalimantan Province Assistant for Government and Social Welfare Nurul Fajar Desira expressed budget support for the 10 thousand village libraries program. This project will involve the head of the library, local government and the local community.

“We will discuss the details of this plan with the heads of libraries in the districts/cities. We will also prepare to identify the number of villages in South Kalimantan that can participate in this program. "Discussions with friends in districts and cities will be the first step in preparing to implement this program," he said.

He emphasized the importance of thorough preparation, considering the expected positive impact of this program.

"We believe that as time goes by, other regions in Indonesia will adopt similar programs. Therefore, we are committed to ensuring that we are fully prepared to implement this program," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Head of the South Kalimantan Province Library and Archives Service, Nurliani, said that as many as 10 percent of villages in South Kalimantan Province already have libraries built using village funds.

"To create this program, we will collaborate with related agencies. We also collaborate with other stakeholders, such as PT PLN (Persero) Central Kalimantan Distribution Main Unit which has built two village libraries," he said//VOI

VOInews, Jakarta: The Indonesian Embassy in Vientiane spares no effort to invite Indonesian investors as well as to promote Indonesian products in Laos. Overshadowed by Indonesia's export deficit to Laos which reached USD 141 million, the Indonesian Ambassador to Laos Endah Grata Werdaningtyas in the Ranah Diplomasi program broadcast on the Voice of Indonesia YouTube account on Tuesday (13/02) said that Indonesian companies and business people need to actively invest in Laos.  "Laos is still the least developed country, so the approach must be for us to invest there, and we should open and facilitate our various companies and business players to invest, and we will continue to try to pursue this so that investment continues to be encouraged to balance the trade deficit," said Grata Endah.

In an effort to achieve balance in the export-import balance between Indonesia and Laos, Grata Endah conveyed the potential for investment development and market penetration of consumer goods in Laos. "Perhaps we can trade off the deficit due to imports of potassium or other minerals by increasing trade in other sectors such as consumer goods. "I see huge potential for Indonesian consumer goods, prices can be competitive, and its taste and packaging are also not inferior," she said.

The Indonesian Embassy in Vientiane sees that the Laos market is still dominated by products from Thailand, Vietnam, and China. Seeing these conditions, Grata Endah initiated Pojok Indonesia, or Indonesian Corner in shopping centers as a first step in introducing Indonesian products to the people of Laos. "I took the time to walk to several marts, shops, and even markets, indeed the presence of Indonesian products was still very minimal, and many products from Thailand, Vietnam, and China dominated. So now I am promoting daily consumption products by forming what we call the Indonesia Corner at the Supermarket in Viantine. "There will be a special corner for goods from Indonesia," she concluded.

VOInews, Jakarta: Indonesia-Laos trade volume reached USD194.2 million (in 2022), experiencing triple exponential growth from 2021, namely USD45.5 million (Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023). However, Indonesia experienced a deficit of USD 141 million. The Indonesian Ambassador to Laos, Grata Endah Werdaningtyas, said that the deficit occurred due to the import of potassium, which is the basic ingredient for fertilizer.

"In recent years we have experienced quite a large deficit due to potassium imports," said Grata Endah Werdaningtyas to Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday (13/02) in Jakarta.

However, Ambassador Grata Endah sees the trade deficit as a positive thing from a macroeconomic perspective. "I view this as positive if we look at the macroeconomic picture because the potassium we import is the main raw material for making fertilizer and we know how our domestic fertilizer needs are very high, and of course, it will help our fertilizer industry," she explained.

Meanwhile, according to Grata Endah, potassium obtained from Laos is much cheaper than similar mineral products imported from other countries. "From the results of our research and records, importing potassium from Laos is 30 percent cheaper than importing potassium from several other countries that are further away, for example, Canada. "So this in terms of helping our domestic industry, in my opinion, even though there is a deficit, the end product from fertilizer itself will help our industry," she said.