VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Coastal Mapping Center and Coastal Environment Geospatial Information Agency of Indonesia will verify 46 islands in Lampung province. The verification is to confirm the islands’ data of last year. Head of Public Relations and Communication of Bureau of Protocol and Public Relations of Lampung provincial government, Heriyansyah confirmed on Sunday that the Agency will verify the islands. Heriyansyah said based on information of the Head of the Agency, Muhtadi Ganda, the verification and standardization of the name need time for 2 days. The islands which have been registered last year, are spread out in 13 islands in South Lampung regency, and 33 islands are in Tanggamus regency. In the visit to Lampung, Muhtadi Ganda also said that Indonesia has more than 17 thousand islands. Those islands must be reported to United Nationwide Conference on Standardization of Geographical Named (UNCSGN) under the United Nations.

Muhtadi also said that until 2017, the Geospatial Information Agency only reported 16.056 data names of the islands and their coordinates. The standardization for social economic, tourism and   reference administrative boundary’s development in the region must be integrated. Meanwhile, assistant I of provincial government and People’s Welfare sector, Hery Suliyanto said that the number of islands in Lampung province is as many as 132 islands. Some of them are unknown small islands. However, those islands have great natural resource potential. About the verification of the islands in Lampung, Hery also said that as national and strategic reference in decision-making of various parties, the step is also useful to avoid trade of small land to foreigners.

Gadjah Mada University expands its cooperation in Indonesia, including in the Eastern regions. In the program “Alumni Greet” in Papua cooperation with 3 regencies in West Papua, namely Sorong, Tambrauw and Raja Ampat was conducted. The event was held for 4 days from February 2 until 5, 2018 as the support of Gadjah Mada University to the alumni to promote the region. The University’s rector Panut Mulyono, said recently that the university came to greet alumni who have worked and served for Papua. The university will always give spirit and help to guard alumni to continue serving for nation and state.

The MoU of the cooperation was signed by Rector of Gadjah Mada University, Panut Mulyono, Sorong regent, Johny Kamuru, Tambrauw regent, Gabrial Asem and Raja Ampat regent, Abdul Faris Umlati. Gadjah Mada University’s, Panut Mulyono hoped the cooperation will help the university to conduct college three-teaching event, especially to 3 regencies in West Papua. He explained that the program includes education, research, and service to people.

The government through the Ministry of Marine and Fishery invited a number of State Owned Enterprises of banking to facilitate capital for fishermen who want to change their fishing tools to be more environmently friendly ones. Minister of Marine and Fishery, Susi Pudjiastuti said in press statement on Saturday, Bank Rakyat Indonesia is one of state owned banks invited by the Ministry to facilitate capital lending for fishermen to change their fishing tools. Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has observed the data, verification and validation of fishermen’s ships with environmently unfriendly fishing tools in Tegal, Central Java on Friday (2/2). Data collection was conducted to make sure that the size of the ships and fishing tools are environmently friendly in accordance with ministerial regulation on prohibition on the use of fishing tools of 'Pukat Hela' and 'Pukat Tarik'. On the occasion, Minister Susi discussed with the participants and called on them to be honest when fishing. Director General of Fishing of Marine and Fishery ministry, Sjarief Widjaja said that the purpose of the program is basically to accelerate capital facilitation, especially for micro business credit scheme and retail for fishermen. Sjarief Widjaja explained that the program is in cooperation with a number of banks and non-banking institutions like through MoU between the Ministry of Marine and Fishery and Bank Rakyat Indonesia -BRI. The program gave very interesting sheme with a variety of convenience to fishermen with interest only four percent, far below the interest of banks in general.

Paddy or rice is still the main staple food source of most Indonesian people. The dependency of Indonesian people on rice is the highest in the world that is equal to 139.5 kg / year. To ensure the availability of food, the stakeholders make various efforts. The government, in this case the Ministry of Agriculture, has launched a diversification of food to be run in 2018. This program is one of the efforts to reduce dependency on rice and flour. However, the replacement of rice and flour should be sourced from local commodities which are nutritious and safe for consumption.

To support food diversification program and to reduce rice consumption, lecturer of Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) West Java, utilized lindur (Bruguiera gymnorrhiza) as an analog-making-material rice by combining it with sago and chitosan. Analog rice is rice that is produced not by planting in rice fields, but bring produced in the factory by processing from existing food ingredients.

This innovation is done by Prof. Dr. Ir. Nurjanah, MS, lecturer as well as Professor of Aquatic Product Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) with two colleagues -Taufik Hidayat and Pipih Suptijah. This discovery is one of Prof. Nurjanah’s four works that was selected as four of the 109 Indonesian innovations in 2017 announced by BIC (Business Innovation Center) on 9 August 2017.

Lindur fruit used is one type of mangroves, that is commonly found in Indonesia and has the same carbohydrate with rice. According to Nurjanah, her team uses lindur fruit because this fruit is a source of carbohydrates, especially the abundant production in Indonesia. Nurjanah added that one of the efforts to avoid rice dependency of Indonesian people is to diversify food by using local carbohydrate source as food product such as analog rice.

Meanwhile, Taufik Hidayat added that this analogue rice contains many fibers and is very suitable consumed by diabetics. The team chose a combination of lindur-fruit with sago because according to him sago has important commodities that have not been utilized optimally. In addition, Prof. Nurjanah also uses chitosan as a binder and stabilizer. Chitosan is a natural polymer compound isolated from aquaculture waste such as shrimp, crab shells and others. Taufik explained that chitosan has the same properties as synthetic texture formers that can improve the appearance and texture of a product because it has a strong water and oil binding power and heat resistance. From the results of Prof. Nurjanah and two colleagues’ research, it ia found that lindur powder can be an alternative substitution of wheat because it contains a high carbohydrate that is 86.10 percent. While the best analog rice formulation is a combination of 70 percent of lindur flour, 30 percent sago flour, and chitosan 0.5 percent.

President Joko Widodo believed, ASEAN-India can be a center of economic growth in the Indian Ocean region, which will support the creation of prosperity and stability in the circle of Indo- Pacific. The President's confidence is due to many potentials that ASEAN and India have. One of them is the productive age population of about 1.5 billion people from almost two billion people. It was announced by President Joko Widodo in the Plenary Session of the ASEAN-India Warning High Level held on Thursday, January 25, in New Delhi, India.

Moreover, the optimism of world economic growth also has an important role. It is expected to rise to 3.7 percent by 2018 from 3.6 percent in 2017. Deputy for Protocol, Press and Media Secretariat President Bey Machmudin reported that President Joko Widodo also appreciated the ASEAN-India cooperation that has boosted the economic growth of each country.

The ASEAN economy is predicted to grow 5 percent, while the Indian economy is expected to grow 7 percent by 2018. However, there are still some unstable global conditions that ASEAN and India must face. Therefore, the President Joko Widodo invited ASEAN along with India to continue the Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership negotiations that will represent almost half the world's population.

Joko Widodo encouraged the strengthening of cooperation between Indonesia and Vietnam

President Joko Widodo encouraged the strengthening of cooperation between Indonesia and Vietnam on a number of issues. During a bilateral meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Summit in New Delhi, India, Friday, January 26, President Joko Widodo raised the discussion on two main points that need to be taken into consideration by both countries.

First, the President reiterated the importance of accelerating the settlement of negotiations on exclusive economic zone boundaries. Exclusive economic zones can also be accompanied by cooperation in the field of widespread terrorism and maritime handling. In this case the President welcomed the achievement of a preliminary agreement on the boundaries of the exclusive economic zone last November. The second focus the President attempted to address was the policy in the automotive sector enacted Vietnam.

The policy sets standards and agreements tans of imported vehicles to the country. Therefore, President Joko Widodo asked the Vietnamese Prime Minister to give Indonesia a chance to learn more about the policy. The president also encouraged six agreements in education, law, and gas utilization in the border region the continental shelf, the rural development, the strengthening of maritime security cooperation, and the coal supply signed last year, continue to be implemented.

Indonesia Participated in the 38^th FITUR, Madrid.

In order to promote Indonesian Tourism to the international market, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism participated in the 38th International Tourism exhibition, FITUR, in Madrid on 17-21 January. The exhibition that was opened by King of Spain Felipe VI (six) was attended by 165 countries, the tourism Minister of the member countries of the World Tourism Organization, and the world's top tourism officials. During the exhibition, the stand of the Indonesian pavilion was visited by approximately 5,000 visitors, business travel entrepreneurs, print and electronic mass media, as well as visitors who are interested to come to Indonesia for travel and business trips. For Indonesia, the Feature is a very appropriate momentum to attract Spanish tourists. The event also directly brought together Indonesian sellers with potential buyers from Spain.

Indonesia Indonesia has the largest coconut plantation in the world, with a total area of 3.86 million hectares (ha) or 31.2 percent of the total world’s area of about 12 million hectares. Approximately 98% of coconut plantations in Indonesia is community plantation, and the rest are state plantations and private plantations.

Spreading of coconut plantation is almost evenly distributed throughout Indonesia, with the highest share in Sumatra reaching 34.5 percent. Especially in the area of West Sumatra, coconut plantation area continues to be expanded as part of efforts to preserve the typical commodities of the area

Coconut is the most widely used by the community. Coconuts are used in various foods or the water can be consumed directly. Once picked, coconut fiber is disposed. Coconut fibers need to be disposed to get the coconut meat as the main part of fruit that the market is interested in. The risk of disposing coconut fibers can occur at any time. Not to mention, how to peel it manually that is less efficient in the middle of industry that requires large-scale coconut production, because it takes a long time

Regarding to this, a student of State Polytechnic Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, Ruri Jalil Jabar and his friends innovate to make a peeler of coconut fiber withl roller cylinder model. This tool can help to improve performance and reduce the risk experienced by coconut fiber peeler.

Not only made roller silinder, but Ruri and his friend previously also looking for the most effficient technique to peel coconut fiber automatically by a machine. Finally, they succeded to make coconut fiber peeler that works using motor rotation forwarded to speed reductor. The roller then separates coconut meat from its fiber perfectly. According to Ruri, the peeler still need to be enhanced in order to be used by small industries.

Ruri sair that pleny innovations made by Polytechnics students could be benefial for people. According to him, the most important thing that polytechnics students must be sensitive toward any problems occured in society thus they can give technical solution to solve the problem.

By this innovation, Ruri and his team hoped that they not only gave solution, but also to make achievement as the first champion of designing agriculture machine and tool at the 9th Agriculutural Technic Week in Aceh.