VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday unprecedented public spending to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily by the United States, would push global growth to 6% this year, a rate unseen since the 1970s.

The IMF raised its 2021 growth forecast from 5.5% less than three months ago, reflecting a rapidly brightening outlook for the U.S. economy, which the IMF now sees growing by 6.4% in 2021 -- the fastest since the early 1980s.

The U.S. forecast was raised by 1.3 percentage points from the IMF’s 5.1% 2021 projection in late January and nearly double the rate it estimated last October.

IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said the improvement was largely due to increased fiscal support, including a new $1.9 trillion U.S. aid package, accelerated vaccinations and continued adaptation of economic activity to overcome pandemic restrictions.

“Even with high uncertainty about the path of this pandemic, a way out of this health economic crisis is increasingly visible,” Gopinath told a news conference.

However, she warned that the pandemic was still far from defeated and coronavirus cases were still rising in many countries.

“Recoveries are diverging dangerously across and within countries, as economies with slower vaccine rollout, more limited policy support and more reliance on tourism do less well,” Gopinath said.

Forecasts for emerging market economies, while somewhat improved, lagged well behind their developed peers, rising just 0.4 percentage point - half of the advanced economy mark-up - to 6.7% from the view in January.

If realized, the IMF’s 6% global growth forecast for 2021 would mark the fastest pace since 1976 but also comes off the steepest annual downturn of the post-war era last year as the pandemic brought commerce around the world to a near stand-still at times. The fund said the world economy contracted 3.3% in 2020, a modest upgrade from an estimated contraction of 3.5% in its January update.

The latest World Economic Outlook - released at the start of the IMF’s and World Bank’s spring meetings - reflects a dramatic divergence between the outlook for the United States and much of the rest of the world courtesy of another $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief spending recently enacted in Washington.

The outlooks for other advanced economy heavyweights, such as Germany, France and Japan, hardly improved at all since January. Nonetheless, with the heft of the U.S. outlook improvement as the main driver, the IMF marked up its advanced economy growth estimate to 5.1% from 4.3%.

The United States economy this year will join China in regaining a level of gross domestic product that exceeds where it stood before the pandemic struck just over a year ago, the IMF said. China recaptured all of its lost growth by the end of 2020.

China’s growth forecast for 2021 was raised by 0.3 percentage point to 8.4%, an increase that Gopinath said largely reflected external demand for Chinese exports, driven largely by the U.S. stimulus spending. But she said that consumer spending in China was still lagging, and growth was primarily being driven by public investments.

The IMF emphasized the high degree of uncertainty surrounding the outlook, and that improvements could easily be tripped up by any of several factors, with success against the pandemic topping the list.

“Greater progress with vaccinations can uplift the forecast, while new virus variants that evade vaccines can lead to a sharp downgrade,” it said.

Another big risk centers around the persistence of accommodative policies, from the United States in particular.

Long-term interest rates around the world have risen sharply since January, as market participants revise their expectations for how soon the U.S. Federal Reserve begins to normalize its policy stance. (Reuters)

Jakarta. Ecotourism could become one of the driving forces for Indonesia’s green economy, Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Forestry (LHK), Alue Dohong, has said.

“Indonesia's existing ecotourism can be a driving force for a green economy. This means we don't need to exploit nature,” Dohong said while visiting the Mount Gede Pangrango National Park in Cibodas, Cianjur district, West Java on Tuesday.

Green economy is an economic system based on human welfare and social equality that seeks to reduce environmental risks significantly, according to him.

The management of nature into a tourist area can generate income for the region and society and create jobs without destructive and exploitative actions that, in the future, can be detrimental to the community, he remarked.

Dohong said he is optimistic that Indonesia is currently moving towards a green economy that is more environmentally friendly and leaving an economic system that only pursues profit without paying attention to natural sustainability.

Ecotourism is one of the potential areas that can encourage Indonesia to broadly implement a green economy, he added.

He highlighted various ecotourism destinations, such as the Gede Pangrango National Park, that could boost local economic activities, and the Situgunung suspension bridge, which has become a popular tourist attraction.

Ecotourism can be described as tourism that is conducted responsibly to conserve the environment and sustain the well-being of local people.

Its benefits include promoting environmental awareness, providing direct financial benefits for conservation, and providing financial benefits and empowerment for local people. (Antaranews)

Jakarta. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has disclosed that the police have faced the most human rights lawsuits in 2016-2020, followed by corporations and regional governments.

"Police faced the highest number (of human rights lawsuits). There are legal cases, but the police did not handle it appropriately,” Komnas HAM chief Ahmad Taufan Damanik said during a hearing with Commission III of the House of Representatives here on Tuesday.

The commission, he said, has recorded 1,992 human rights lawsuits against the police that include alleged slow response to a case, criminalization, mistreatment, and non-procedural legal process.

However, police have been the most responsive institution to Komnas HAM's inquiries over alleged human rights abuses by the institution.

"For instance, the case of Herman in East Kalimantan. The (East Kalimantan) police chief immediately met Komnas HAM's summons to explain the incident. The police have imposed professional as well as legal sanctions against the perpetrator," he elaborated.

Herman, who had been detained by the Balikpapan Police, had been found dead in prison with injuries on his body.

Damanik said the Indonesian Police should pay attention to the commission's findings to maintain public trust in its role as an upholder of democracy and human rights.

After police, corporations have ranked second in terms of human rights lawsuits, with 610 cases involving land disputes, employment disputes, and environmental pollution filed against them, he informed.

"These are complex issues as they are linked to other parties. For instance, legal authorities are not neutral. There are also conflicts between state-owned firms with local residents," he explained.

According to Damanik, corporations have complied with Komnas HAM’s recommendations and put forward persuasive solutions in the cases pertaining to them.

Meanwhile, the commission has recorded 530 lawsuits against regional governments covering several cases of eviction, employment disputes, freedom of religious expression, and misadministration.

"Collaboration to handle the case and to fulfill people's rights between the regional governments and Komnas HAM has improved. For instance, with the provincial governments of Jakarta, East Java, Central Java, and Yogyakarta. To date, many regions have formulated policies with human rights perspectives," he added.

Further, Komnas HAM has recorded 305 human rights suits against the central government for cases involving land disputes, misadministration, infrastructure development, and employment disputes, he added. (Antaranews)

Jakarta. Indonesia will share its roadmap for Making Indonesia 4.0 with the rest of the world when it acts as an official partner country at the Hannover Messe 2021 Digital Edition, the world’s largest technology expo.

Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita made the remarks in an official statement released on Tuesday.

Indonesia will strive to benefit from the expo to introduce its technological strength and boost its connectivity with the global supply chain network, he said.

"In addition, we will also push for technological transfer through Indonesia's participation in Hannover Messe 2021,” he stated while opening a pre-conference of ‘Indonesia Partner Country of Hannover Messe 2021’.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed lifestyles, interactions, and economic activities of the public, the participation of Indonesia in Hannover Messe 2021, which will be held online this time, will give freedom to the country, he remarked.

He said Indonesia’s status as an official partner country will digitally last for one year until the appointment of a new official partner country.

"During Hannover Messe 2021, we will also showcase the digital acceleration in the Indonesian industrial sector as a result of restrictions on (public) mobility and interaction during the pandemic, where the 4th Industrial Revolution has found its momentum," he added.

Indonesian companies have adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic by applying industrial technology 4.0 to maintain production activities, he pointed out.

The realized investment in the industrial sector reached Rp272.3 trillion amid the pandemic in 2020, up 26 percent compared to Rp216 trillion in 2019. In March 2021, the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of Indonesian manufacturers stood at 53.2, or 2.3 points higher than in February 2021.

In fact, the IPM in March 2021 has been the highest in 10 years, suggesting that the Indonesian economic recovery is running at a faster pace and is expected to boost economic growth in 2021, the minister noted.

"One of the ways to drive industrial growth at a faster pace in implementing the roadmap for Making Indonesia 4.0," Kartasasmita said.

The roadmap for Making Indonesia 4.0 is an initiative to accelerate industrial development to usher in industrial era 4.0, with the ultimate goal of helping Indonesia emerge as one of the world's top 10 economies in 2030, he explained.

Based on the roadmap for Making Indonesia 4.0, seven industrial sectors will be accorded priority to usher Making Indonesia 4.0. The industrial sectors include the food and beverages industry, textile and garment industry, automotive industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, and health equipment industry.

"The seven sectors have been chosen because they account for 70 percent of the total gross domestic product in the manufacturing sector, 65 percent of manufactured goods exports, and 60 percent of industrial workers,” the minister explained. (Antaranews)