VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Ministry of Manpower has launched a Service Unit for the Disabled in Employment as part of the government's “concrete commitment” towards ensuring the rights of the disabled.

The unit has been formed under the Government Regulation (PP) Number 60 of 2020 on the Disability Service Unit in the Manpower Sector, which was signed by President Joko Widodo on October 13, 2020, Minister of Manpower, Ida Fauziyah, revealed at its launch in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Joining the launch virtually, she said: "In obtaining employment and economic welfare, those with disabilities have rights that are protected under Law Number 8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities, in accordance with the basic principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."

However, Ida reiterated that the issues regarding people living with disabilities involve different sectors, which play an important role in protecting and fulfilling their employment rights.

The same sentiment was expressed by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Muhadjir Effendy, who praised the Ministry of Manpower's move to launch the disability employment unit, and expressed the hope that it would be a positive development for persons with disabilities in Indonesia.

Effendy said the COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on all sections of the public, including people with disabilities.

Data from the Ministry of Manpower's Mandatory Report on Employment as of January 2020 shows 546 companies employed 4,508 people with disabilities, out of a total workforce of 538,518, he revealed.

"On behalf of the government, we express our highest appreciation to companies that have consciously provided sufficient space for people with disabilities to give their performance, skills (a boost and provided them a chance to), develop their talents," he said.

He then urged other companies to meet the obligation to employ persons with disabilities, as mandated by Law number 8 of 2016, which has been set at one percent of total workers for private companies and two percent for state- or village-owned enterprises.

At the launch event, the Ministry of Manpower also presented awards to six companies employing workers with disabilities and fulfilling all requirements of employment.

Awards were also given to five Manpower Offices implementing the social safety net program for workers with disabilities who have been affected by COVID-19. The five agencies were from Kerawang district, Subang district, DKI Jakarta province, Central Java, and Yogyakarta Special Region. (antaranews)

Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council, Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, reiterated his request to the Indonesian government to remain consistent in not normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel.

"All means of cooperation, including economic cooperation with Israel, must be rejected," he told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Israel, he said, has colonized the land and the people of Palestine for a long period of time. Indonesia needs to stay consistent to its identity as a nation against colonization, he added.

"We fully believe that colonization is not aligned with humanity and justice," he remarked.

The council, he continued, has expressed its highest appreciations towards the Minister of Foreign Affairs in responding to the question of normalization of diplomatic ties with Israel.

"The Ministry, especially the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that has shown a firm, clear, and consistent stance in carrying out Indonesia's foreign politics, that stood against colonization from the beginning," he said.

If Israel's occupation of Palestine is allowed, world peace and solidarity cannot be achieved, he added.

The world community must know that the beliefs and firm views of the Indonesian people against imperialism have served as the guiding principles of the foreign policy of the Republic of Indonesia since its independence, he observed.

"The Indonesian Ulema Council asks the government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to continue to fight on the world stage for the independence of the Palestinian people. The council will always provide full support for efforts to fight Israeli imperialism," he said. (antaranews)

The Indonesian government, in cooperation with COVID-19 vaccine-producing countries, is contemplating a strategic step that will make Indonesia a manufacturing hub for the vaccine in Southeast Asia.

"The government will soon complete a number of domestic facilities to turn (the country) into a manufacturing hub for (COVID-19) vaccines in Southeast Asia," Syefri Lewis, a researcher who has been researching endemic diseases, said in a written statement issued on Tuesday.

The step to make Indonesia a hub for the distribution of vaccines is very important for the country to help it serve as a distribution center and make use of technology transfer to speed up its capability to produce the vaccines domestically, he explained.

Indonesia also deserves to serve as a hub for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines since it is functioning as the main vaccine distribution network in Southeast Asia, he noted adding, this is also inseparable from the fact that Indonesia has the largest population in the region.

"Indonesia must be able to serve as a hub for the manufacturing of vaccines due to its large population. If Indonesia is a hub for the manufacturing of vaccines, it will have faster access to obtain and distribute vaccines to all its citizens,” he said.

Becoming a hub for the manufacturing of vaccines in Southeast Asia will allow Indonesia to keep down vaccine procurement costs, he added.

To achieve this end, all concerned institutions should synergize under the aegis of the Task Force for COVID-19 Response and National Economic Recovery (PEN), he said.

He appealed to all sides to help end the polemic on vaccines and focus on cooperation to ensure the success of the nation’s vaccine program.

"All institutions should coordinate to achieve the large mission to distribute vaccines to all parts of Indonesia," he said. (Antaranews)

Economic observer at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Bima Yudistira has forecast Indonesia's economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2020 to improve, albeit still hovering in the negative zone.

"Negative growth is still recorded in the fourth quarter, with the range probably being minus two percent," Yudistira stated when contacted in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Indonesia's economy shrank by 5.3 percent in the second quarter of 2020, considered to be the deepest contraction.

An improvement to minus 3.49 percent was recorded in the third quarter of 2020.

He expounded that the economic growth projection at the end of 2020 was still negative due to a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, even surpassing eight thousand cases on December 3, 2020.

"Despite good news about vaccines, the number of COVID cases in the fourth quarter had still been relatively high and also risen to over eight thousand cases," he noted.

In addition to an increase in the number of cases, economic growth in the fourth quarter was also influenced by a cutback in the year-end long holidays.

Yudistira gauged that economic growth at the end of the year was so far usually supported by the long Christmas and New Year’s holidays, specifically from the tourism and travel or transportation sectors.

The observer believes that the cuts will have an impact on household consumption that is also expected to slow down.

Meanwhile, a positive contribution to bolster the Indonesian economy to improve in the fourth quarter of 2020 is the trade balance that moved into surplus, especially the export performance that improved owing to the rising world oil prices in November 2020.

The increase in world oil prices boosted oil and gas exports by 27 percent as compared to October 2020.

Yudistira stated that it also boosted commodity prices and was supported by economic recovery in Indonesia's export destination countries, including China, Japan, India, and Australia.

"The manufacturing industry is starting to move, indicated by high raw material imports, which rose 13 percent in November, and on a monthly basis, the manufacturing industry has been optimizing production capacity again," he remarked.

With this development, he projects Indonesia's overall economic growth in 2020 to range between minus two and minus 3.5 percent. (Antaranews)