VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The community still needs the third or booster COVID-19 vaccine dose even though COVID-19 cases have declined and the end of the pandemic is in sight, health expert Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama has said.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that as of October 5, 2022, COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia had declined by 17 percent.

The professor, in a statement on Sunday, noted that in accordance with the statement of the Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, people must make maximum efforts in the last phase towards the end of the pandemic.

"These maximum efforts include the booster vaccination that we all need," he remarked.

Aditama, who is the former director of infectious diseases at WHO South-East Asia and is currently a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Indonesia, said that Indonesia's vaccination coverage still needs to be increased because so far, only around 62 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

According to him, the community needs to get the booster shot because the world is not in a completely safe situation yet. Data showed that several European countries experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases in the last few weeks.

He added that aside from the COVID-19 vaccine, people should also get vaccines for other diseases, such as influenza, meningitis, and pneumococcal vaccines.

"For some diseases, including COVID-19, we really need to get vaccines, whether there is a pandemic or not," he remarked.

As part of efforts to boost community immunity, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 234,666,020 citizens.

According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of October 8, 2022, as many as 204,690,338 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 171,310,100 have been administered the second dose, 64,007,521 have taken the third dose or first booster, and 637,548 have received the fourth dose or second booster. (Antaranews)

The government needs to raise defense budget to increase the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s strength to thwart external threats to state defense, a lawmaker said.

Political support for the TNI's budget has not been maximum, Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I Utut Adianto said on Sunday.

He made the remarks during a talk show held at the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) on the occasion of the TNI's 77th anniversary .The talk show highlighted the history, pioneering and future design of TNI.

"Politics is a matter of support. The support for TNI's budget has not shown what was talked about in the era of the fifth Indonesian president, Megawati Soekarnoputri," he said.

Strengthening TNI is inevitable so that TNI must be strong, stay disciplined and receive budget support to strengthen national defense, he said.

"We want to see TNI getting stronger," he said.

He said the defense budget which reaches Rp134 trillion is far from enough. Ideally, the defense budget should be twice or thrice as much as the current defense budget.

Meanwhile, former Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal (ret) Agus Supriatna highlighted several challenges to TNI in the future.

"There are three things that I need to talk about to face the present and future challenges. We must have national strategy and policy, prepare human resources and procure primary weapon system," he said.

TNI's defense strategy policy must adjust to regional and global geopolitical challenges, he said.

"The defense strategy policy must focus on the present challenge and threat of war, namely asymmetric war, cyber war and proxy war," he said. (Antaranews)

Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for the ASEAN Economic Community, Satvinder Singh is optimistic that he can maintain the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 at 5 percent. According to him, the percentage is not much different from the target in 2022.

"I think it's more important that in 2022 you will see our two ASEAN (India-ASEAN-ed) regions will grow positive growth of 5 percent for this year. Next year, ASEAN will see another 5 percent growth of our GDP,” said Satvinder at an event organized by the India Mission to ASEAN, Sunday (9/10/2022) in Jakarta.

Several things are factors that support ASEAN's economic growth, which is able to survive 5 percent, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, in the last two years, the pandemic has urged us to move faster through digitization.

“So, digital growth in ASEAN countries contributes significantly to the growth we are seeing today. Second, our population is young, and our population is very active, says Satvinder.

"Cities want to grow, we want to improve lives. The government is very actively moving towards investment in infrastructure, to ensure that our economic growth is steady," he said.

Satvinder added that the removal of travel restrictions provided an opportunity for the resumption of business travel among ASEAN countries.

“You can see the travel business is starting, business activity is back again, and tourism is coming back to our area. So, I believe that despite the challenges we are experiencing today, we are on a very good path to recovery."

In July 2022, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) revised the economic growth of 6 ASEAN countries, in the Asian Development Outlook Supplement report. ADB raised its economic projections for the 6 ASEAN countries to 5 percent, whereas last April's projection was 4.9 percent.

In its release, ADB noted that the economic improvement in Southeast Asia was supported by increasing domestic demand due to the easing of social activities in several economic areas. ADB estimates that the Indonesian economy in 2022 will grow to 5.2 percent from the previous estimate of 5 percent.

ADB also forecasts Southeast Asia's GDP growth in 2023 at 5.2 percent. And, significantly raised Southeast Asia's inflation forecast for 2022 from 3.7 percent to 4.7 percent. Next year's inflation was revised up from 3.1 percent to 3.4 percent. (RRI)

Covid-19 vaccination remains important even though cases of infection have declined. The Covid-19 vaccination strategy to reach 70 percent of the total population must continue to be applied in all regions.

"Currently, the pandemic has not been declared over, neither by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the head of state," said the head of the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization Sri Rezeki to reporters, Sunday (9/10/2022).

Therefore, he asked the public to play an active role in the government's efforts to increase the coverage of Covid-19 vaccinations. This can be done by going to the puskesmas or vaccination center to get vaccinated.

"Starting from the first dose to the third dose or booster. Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is getting more under control, increasing vaccination coverage is very important in order to support the transition process to endemic," he said.

"The transition period to endemic must be supported by strengthening health protocols and increasing vaccination coverage. This is an important key so that the transition process to endemic goes well," he said.

In Indonesia, there are two emergency statuses set by the government related to the pandemic. The first is through Presidential Decree No. 11 of 2020 concerning the Determination of the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency.

"As well as Presidential Decree No. 12 of 2020 concerning the Determination of Non-Natural Disasters Spreading Covid-19 as a National Disaster. A total of two policies were taken by the Indonesian government referring to the determination of the status of the Covid-19 pandemic by WHO guided by the provisions of Public Health Emergency International Concern (PHEIC) since January 30, 2020," he said. (RRI)