VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 12 - Afghan political leaders including former president Hamid Karzai are mulling whether to attend a meeting organised by Russia to jumpstart Afghanistan’s peace process as diplomacy by foreign powers including Washington ramps up.

Russia plans to hold a conference on Afghanistan in Moscow on March 18 and has invited several regional players. It comes at a crunch time for the peace process as a May 1 deadline for foreign troops to withdraw from Afghanistan looms and the United States reviews its plans.

Peace negotiations between the Afghan government and insurgent Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha have struggled to make progress. Mohammed Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Reuters it had received an invitation from Moscow, but had not yet decided whether to attend or not.

A source close to the Taliban said on condition of anonymity that a team of around four-five members of the Islamist group’s political office in Doha would attend the conference.

Former president Karzai, his former vice-president Karim Khalili as well as former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have received invitations, their spokespeople said. Only Khalili confirmed he would attend.

President Ashraf Ghani and top peace official and former presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah were also considering whether to join the conference, their offices said.

The summit comes at a sensitive time as Ghani faces pressure after U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad proposed plans for a transitional government during a regional visit last week, an option Ghani rejected in a fiery speech over the weekend saying only elections could determine the government.

Khalilzad is proposing a separate conference in Turkey in coming weeks, asking for the United Nations to run it.

Diplomatic sources say the United States, Pakistan and China have also been invited to attend on March 18. The U.S. State Department has said it has “nothing to confirm” on the matter.

A spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not respond to request for comment.

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry did not confirm or deny receiving an invitation, but said: “China is actively studying the multilateral meetings on Afghanistan proposed by Russia.” (Reuters)

Mar. 12 - Mount Sinabung in Karo district, North Sumatra province erupted twice on Thursday, ejecting hot clouds as far as three kilometers away.

The first eruption occurred at 7.37 a.m. Western Indonesia Time (WIB), with the ash column reaching a height of one thousand meters in the westerly and southwesterly directions, Head of the Mount Sinabung Observation Post, Armen Putra, stated here on Thursday.

"It was recorded to have an amplitude of 40 mm and a duration of 5 minutes and 38 seconds," he added.

The volcano again emitted hot clouds twice, with the first hot clouds recorded at 9.22 a.m. WIB, with a sliding distance of three thousand meters, and the second hot clouds detected at 9.29 a.m. WIB, with a sliding distance of two thousand meters from the peak.

The emergency status of the 2,460-meter-high volcano has been declared as Level III (alert).

Putra urged residents and farmers to refrain from carrying out activities in villages that have been relocated and at locations within a three-km radius of the mountain’s peak, a five-km radius in the south-east sector, and a four-km radius in the east-north sector.

Mt. Sinabung eruptions claimed two lives in 2010 and 15 lives in 2015.

The last known eruption, prior to recent times, occurred in the year 1600. (Antaranews)

Mar. 12 - During the course of a week, police officers in Klungkung District, Bali Province, arrested three released drug convicts for reverting back to committing drug crimes in the resort island.

The suspects are believed to belong to a syndicate of drug dealers in Bali, Klungkung Police Deputy Chief Coms. Luh Ketut Amy Ramayathi Prakasa stated.

IKM alias Semal, PAP alias Anjas, and AJ alias Jebing, could be sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, Prakasa noted in a press statement that ANTARA quoted here Thursday.

The Klungkung police investigators suspected them of repeated involvement in the trade of crystal methamphetamine in the resort island of Bali.

IKM and PAP are drug dealers, while AJ is a drug lord, Prakasa remarked, adding that they were all arrested in Denpasar Utara Sub-district's area, Denpasar City, on March 5.

Based on his criminal records, IKM has served jail terms for drug crimes on four instances, while AJ is a drug convict released from prison in 2019.

PAP is also a released drug convict, who has intensively assisted AJ in running his drug business, Prakasa revealed.

During the arrest, Klungkung police officers confiscated 15 small packs of crystal meth and Rp11.885 million in cash from them.

According to local media outlets, the Bali police headquarters forecast that some 50 percent of drug trade in Bali might have been controlled from the penitentiaries of Kerobokan in Badung, Bali Island, and Banyuwangi in East Java Province.

Domestic and transnational drug dealers perceive Indonesia as a potential market owing to its huge population and millions of drug users.

Drug trade in the nation is valued at nearly Rp66 trillion.

People from all strata of society are falling prey to drugs in the country regardless of their socio-economic and professional backgrounds.

Over the past few decades, the Indonesian government has taken harsh action against drug barons found smuggling and trading drugs in the country.

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) has sought capital punishment for those involved in drug trade in the country.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has also issued shoot-at-sight orders against drug kingpins.

However, this has failed to deter drug traffickers, who continue to treat Indonesia as a major market, prompting Indonesian law enforcers to step up operations against them. (Antaranews)

Mar. 12 - At least 140 businesspersons and investors from Singapore joined a webinar on investment opportunities in Indonesia's tourism sector, organized by the Indonesian embassy in Singapore on Wednesday.

The webinar provided information on Indonesia’s highly-prioritized tourism development projects in Tanamori Labuan Bajo, Mandalika, and Borobodur temple and investment opportunities in the country.

During the webinar, businesses and investors from the city state were also invited to contribute to Indonesia’s efforts to revive its tourism sector, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore, Suryo Pratomo, said in a press statement that ANTARA received here on Thursday.

Singapore and Indonesia have exchanged the instruments of ratification of their bilateral investment treaty (BIT) on March 9, 2021, Ambassador Pratomo told participants at the webinar.

The BIT provides Indonesian and Singaporean investors guarantee, trust, and legal certainty, he remarked.

Meanwhile, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said the Indonesian government is offering several investment incentives and facilities to foreign investors, including tax allowances, a super deduction tax, and public private partnerships.

Indonesia is focusing on creating a good quality and sustainable tourism industry by attempting to accelerate investment for the development of a green economy through sustainable tourism, he added.

The Indonesian embassy in Singapore is intensively promoting business and investment opportunities in Indonesia and Indonesian products that can potentially infiltrate regional and international markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 27, 2020, Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto launched a virtual showcase of Indonesia's products through a new website, http://showcase.indonesiastore.sg , as part of endeavors to reinvigorate the nation’s export performance which has been direly affected by the ongoing pandemic.

"I congratulate the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore on the launch of this virtual showcase. We do support the promotion of our commodities through digital platforms," he noted in a statement issued in August last year.

Suparmanto said he believes that the role of digital platforms in assisting Indonesia's economic recovery has become more significant. Such platforms would help the country's exporters to explore the market in Singapore and globally, he added.

Singapore's importers would also find it easier to have access to good-quality products and credible business partners in Indonesia, Suparmanto pointed out.

The Indonesian government has been making sustained efforts to boost the country's digital trade activities in the Southeast Asian region, including through participating in ASEAN's Online Sale Day (AOSD), he stated.

The government is also collaborating with Bukalapak, one of Indonesia's leading unicorns, to promote the products made by local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Mainland China's Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

"Under the name of the Archipelago, we have now placed Indonesian products on Amazon. We have also been intensifying the Indonesian-made movement to support the promotion of products of local SMEs via the country's unicorns," he remarked.

The digital platforms are expected to further promote Indonesian products and boost exports, thereby supporting national development programs, he stated.

The launch of the website showcasing Indonesian products is also expected to strengthen partnerships between businesspersons from both Indonesia and Singapore, according to Suparmanto. (Antaranews)