VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. Indonesia aims to kickstart President Joko Widodo’s ambitious plan to relocate the capital city to the island of Borneo by offering property contracts to investors this year and starting construction work on a state palace, a minister told Reuters.

The $33 billion plan was put on the backburner last year due to the pandemic, but National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa said accelerating the project now should help a post-crisis recovery of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

The plan is, however, contingent on the success of Indonesia’s COVID-19 vaccination drive.

“If we can vaccinate one million people per day ... I think we have a strong reason to get on with the new capital city,” Suharso said in an interview.

Indonesia aims to inoculate 70 million people by at least July, or about 39% of targeted vaccine recipients, in order to remove some restrictions and allow construction work to commence, he said. In the period from mid-January to Wednesday, authorities had fully vaccinated 2.7 million people.

The president, known as Jokowi, announced his plan to build a new capital in 2019, with civil servants due to move from congested and sinking Jakarta on Java island by the end of his term in 2024.

Suharso said debate on a bill to establish the legal basis for the project will start in parliament soon and preparations were being made for private sector contracts to build homes, offices, schools and hospitals in the as-yet unnamed city.

The tendered contracts, which could be in a build, lease, transfer form, would be “quite sizable” as the city would be home to at least 200,000 civil servants and their families, he said.

“Foreign investors can join, especially if they partner with domestic players,” he said, adding that the government will focus on basic infrastructure and security-sensitive premises.

Japan’s Softbank is among foreign companies that have previously been linked to the capital project, which the government has touted as a smart, green city.

GARUDA-SHAPED PALACE

The government also plans a ground breaking for a new state palace this year, with one of the proposed designs in the shape of a mythical Garuda bird - the state symbol - spreading its wings.

There have been concerns about the risk of corruption tied to the project, while environmentalists worry about damage to the environment in a forested area that is home to orangutans.

But more recently the criticism has been on the timing given how the pandemic has caused economic and health crises, straining Indonesia’s fiscal position.

Suharso said the cost for the government this year would be minimal with most investment coming from private developers, adding this should support the property sector and create jobs.

Bank Permata’s economist Josua Pardede said for budget reasons it was better to delay the project to at least 2022.

“You have to also pay attention to business appetite in the middle of a pandemic for large, long-term projects,” he said.

Paulus Totok Lusida of Realestat Indonesia, an industry group, said struggling developers would need time to digest the proposals and see evidence of economic recovery and more vaccinations.

Dicky Budiman, a researcher at Australia’s Griffith University, warned logistical and supply challenges meant by July Indonesia may only be able to vaccinate 40 million people. (Reuters)

Jakarta. The rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, the shot much of the world is relying on to beat the pandemic, faced further complications on Thursday as India halted exports of the vaccine and Europe discussed its own export controls.

India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the Anglo-Swedish firm’s vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise, two sources said.

That could delay supplies to dozens of lower-income countries also relying on SII production under the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme backed by the World Health Organization.

“We understand that deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the COVAX facility will likely face delays...,” the programme’s procurement and distributing partner UNICEF told Reuters.

India’s move comes as the European Union meets on Thursday to consider giving member states greater scope to block vaccines being exported outside the bloc, much of which is struggling to bring infections down and ramp up immunisation campaigns.

The proposal would apply to all vaccines including AstraZeneca’s, on which the EU had originally been relying to meet a goal of inoculating 70% of its adult population by this summer.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is seen as crucial in tackling the pandemic as it is cheaper and easier to transport than many rival shots.

The EU accuses the drugmaker of over-selling its vaccine and unfairly favouring Britain, where AstraZeneca developed the shot with Oxford University - a charge denied by the company.

Brussels agreed with London this week to strive for a “win-win” solution, but even if the EU resists export controls, it faces another problem: declining confidence in the AstraZeneca shot due to concerns over side-effects and efficacy data.

Denmark will suspend its use of the vaccine for another three weeks pending further investigations into a potential link between the vaccine and blood clots, Danish broadcaster TV 2 reported on Thursday, citing sources.

More than 10 other nations also suspended rollout of the vaccine over similar concerns but most have since restarted. The European Medicines Agency said last week it was safe and not linked with a rise in overall risk of blood clots.

However, many Europeans remain wary.

A third of Danes would refuse the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to a survey published by Danish media on Wednesday. Confidence has also taken a big hit in Spain, Germany, France and Italy.

AstraZeneca revised down, slightly, the vaccine’s efficacy to 76% in a new analysis of its U.S. trial. Interim data published on Monday had put the vaccine’s efficacy rate at 79% but had not included more recent infections, leading to a highly unusual public rebuke from U.S health officials.

AstraZeneca, which is awaiting U.S. regulatory approval, also reiterated the shot was 100% effective against severe or critical forms of COVID-19.

“The vaccine efficacy against severe disease, including death, puts the AZ vaccine in the same ballpark as the other vaccines,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, adding he expects the shot to gain U.S. approval.

The vaccine has already been granted conditional marketing or emergency use authorisation in more than 70 countries.

In Europe, the leaders of France and Germany admitted on Thursday that the problem of slow vaccine rollouts inside the EU went beyond the question of whether to control exports.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said EU leaders would also discuss how to boost internal production of vaccines.

“British production sites are manufacturing for Britain and the United States is not exporting, so we are reliant on what we can make in Europe,” she told German lawmakers.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU itself should take some blame - that its vaccine plans had lacked ambition.

“We didn’t shoot for the stars,” he told Greek television channel ERT. “That should be a lesson for all of us.” (Reuters)

Jakarta. China proposed a set of global rules for central bank digital currencies on Thursday, from how they can be used around the world to highly sensitive issues such as monitoring and information sharing.

Global central banks are looking at developing digital currencies to modernise their financial systems, ward off the threat from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and speed up domestic and international payments. China is one of the most advanced in its effort.

Mu Changchun, the director-general of the PBOC’s digital currency institute, laid out the new proposals at a Bank for International Settlements seminar.

“Interoperability should be enabled between CBDC (central bank digital currency) systems of different jurisdictions and exchange,” he said. The PBOC had shared the proposals with other central banks and monetary authorities, he said.

“Information flow and fund flows should be synchronised so as to facilitate regulators to monitor the transactions for compliance.”

As digital currencies such as bitcoin gain more traction with mainstream companies and investors, and as private efforts like the Facebook-backed Diem seek approval, the onus is on central banks to accelerate plans to issue digital cash to fend off threats to their control over money.

The PBOC is aiming to become the first major central bank to issue a CBDC, part of its push to internationalise the yuan and reduce dependence on the dollar-dominated payment system.

The European Central Bank is also exploring the introduction of a digital euro, within the next five years. It’s running into opposition from Germany, though, where the Bundesbank worries that a digital euro could pose risks to banks.

A CBDC that gains wide acceptance in international trade and payments could ultimately erode the dollar’s status as the de facto currency of world trade and undermine U.S. influence, many analysts say.

China said separately on Thursday it would quicken pilot programmes to develop its digital yuan, as it seeks to boost consumption to shore up economic growth.

Mu added that a key global rule should be a “fair supply of digital currencies” by world central banks to continue supporting the healthy evolution and financial stability of the international monetary system.

A “digital currency supplied by one central bank should not impede another central bank’s ability to carry out its mandate for monetary and financial stability,” he said. (Reuters)

Jakarta. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has appealed to the public to continue observing health protocols even after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Getting inoculated cannot turn us into Superman,” he remarked during the inauguration of Awakening Indonesia’s Vaccination Center in Depok, West Java on Thursday.

Carefully maintaining a safe distance, wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and washing hands continue to remain important as coronavirus vaccines cannot guarantee recipients won’t get infected, he pointed out.

In fact, the health protocols are aimed at reducing the risks of contracting the virus, he added.

He also called on people who have not been administered the vaccine yet to be patient as Indonesia expects to receive just 24 percent of vaccine doses by the middle of 2021. The remaining vaccine doses will become available in the second semester of this year.

Starting July, 2021, the public vaccination program will be further expanded and expedited, he pointed out.

The public is also requested to understand that the vaccine supply is currently limited and this has led to the government prioritizing at-risk groups, such as senior citizens and health workers, he said.

Sadikin warmly welcomed the setting up of a vaccination center in Depok and expressed the hope that it would help accelerate the building up of herd immunity as a defensive shield against COVID-19.

Based on data provided by the COVID-19 task force, as of Wednesday (March 24, 2021), a total of 5,978,251 people, including public service workers and senior citizens, have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country.

As many as 246,041 additional people have received their first vaccine dose compared to Tuesday (March 23). Meanwhile, another 215,123 people have been administered their second shot, taking the total number to 2,709,545.

In other words, 14.81 percent of the 40,349, 051 targeted recipients have received their first dose in the first and second stage of the vaccination program. Meanwhile, 6.71 percent of people have received their second vaccine dose. (Antaranews)