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The UN General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution initiated by Indonesia on international cooperation to protect seafarers during the pandemic.

"This resolution is clear evidence of Indonesia's achievement as the largest maritime and archipelagic country in encouraging cooperation to protect seafarers, especially from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi noted in a statement here on Wednesday.

The 193-member UNGA, in the resolution, urged all countries to designate seafarers and other marine personnel, as key workers, to immediately implement measures allowing safe ship crew changes, allowing stranded seafarers to be repatriated, and to ensure access to medical care for all seafarers and other marine personnel.

The resolution, passed on Tuesday (Dec 1) in New York, the United States, is sponsored by 71 UN member states and the first UNGA resolution related to seafarers and the management of the flow of goods globally.

The support from 71 UN countries is testament to Indonesia's success in striving for addressing strategic issues and in acting as a "bridge" among various state interests from various regions, the minister pointed out.

This is a crucial breakthrough based on the fact that the issue of seafarers is a common concern of all parties, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indonesian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani stated that the support of various countries for the Indonesian initiative is owing to the active role of Indonesia's multilateral diplomacy in the maritime sector and the management of global goods flows, including in encouraging cooperation in the midst of the COVID-19 situation.

The resolution, titled “International cooperation to address challenges faced by seafarers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic to support global supply chains,” was presented at the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Currently, Indonesia ranks third, with the largest seafaring manpower in the world after China and the Philippines.

Indonesia's initiative at the United Nations aligns with efforts to encourage increased international trade and smooth sea transportation.

Some 90 percent of the global trade is carried out by sea, and curbs imposed during the coronavirus pandemic in some jurisdictions are affecting supply chains.

Based on data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), some two million seafarers in the world work on over 980 thousand commercial vessels and transport more than 11 billion tons of global trade products.

"Yet today, hundreds of thousands of seafarers are stranded aboard their ships,” European Union diplomat Peggy Vissers told the General Assembly, Reuters reported.

“Owing to travel restrictions and border closures, they are unable to leave their ships and return home after long months of uninterrupted work. They are both physically and mentally exhausted,” she noted.

Meanwhile, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), on its official website on Dec 1, welcomed the resolution.

This is a significant step in recognizing the crucial role that two million sailors play in transporting food, medicines, energy supplies, and other essential raw materials across the globe amid the height of a global pandemic, Secretary General of the ICS Guy Platten stated.

“We welcome the news that the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution urging the classification of all seafarers as key workers and commend the Indonesian government for spearheading this resolution," he remarked. “The inability to rotate crew from their ships and provide safe, frictionless transport through international borders risks the passage of trade that all our economies rely on," he emphasized.

"I am grateful to those countries that have already taken steps to designate seafarers as key workers and to all UN agencies and industry partners, who have been working tirelessly to find ways to resolve the difficult situation. This is a human rights issue. Seafarers' lives are being made impossible through the crew change difficulties, and this can only have a detrimental effect on ship safety and on the supply chain, the longer the situation continues," International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim stated while welcoming the adoption of the resolution. (Antaranews)

India may not need to vaccinate all of its 1.3 billion people if it manages to inoculate a critical mass and break the transmission of the coronavirus, senior government officials said on Tuesday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who toured the facilities of three vaccine makers over the weekend, has emphasized the importance of a vaccine to rein in COVID-19.

In October, he said that the government was preparing to reach every single citizen as soon as a vaccine was ready.

World Health Organization experts have pointed to a 65%-70% vaccine coverage rate as sufficient to reach population immunity.

“The government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country,” Rajesh Bhushan, the top bureaucrat in India’s federal health ministry, told a news conference on Tuesday without reference to Modi.

India currently has the world’s second-highest number of coronavirus infections, behind only the United States, with 9.46 million cases and 137,621 deaths.

India recorded 31,118 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the lowest daily tally since Nov. 17, data from the health ministry showed.

“...If we are able to vaccinate a critical mass of people, and break that virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population,” Balram Bhargava, Director General of the state-run Indian Council Of Medical Research, said at the press briefing.

India’s plan to roll out a COVID-19 shot in the first few months of 2021 wouldn’t be impacted by an alleged adverse reaction during AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine trial, Bhushan said.

A 40-year-old Indian man said in a complaint over the weekend that he had suffered serious “neurological and psychological” symptoms after receiving the vaccine in a trial being run by the British drugmaker’s partner, Serum Institute of India.

The incident is currently under investigation. (Reuters)

The 193-member U.N. General Assembly urged all countries to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers on Tuesday after travel restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 have left hundreds of thousands stranded at sea for months.

A unanimously adopted resolution encouraged governments to ensure safe ship crew changes and travel, allowing stranded seafarers to be repatriated and others to join ships.

“In this crisis, we need to show our attention, commitment and support to these invisible heroes, who are working under difficult and challenging circumstances,” Indonesia’s U.N. Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani told the General Assembly.

About 90% of world trade is transported by sea and curbs imposed during the coronavirus pandemic in some jurisdictions are affecting supply chains. The resolution noted that in 2019 there were some 2 million seafarers working on more than 98,000 commercial ships, transporting more than 11 billion tons of trade. (Reuters)

“Yet today hundreds of thousands of seafarers are stranded on board their ships,” European Union diplomat Peggy Vissers told the General Assembly. “Because of travel restrictions and border closures, they are unable to leave their ships and return home after long months of uninterrupted work. They are both physically and mentally exhausted.”

U.N. General Assembly resolutions are non binding but can carry political weight. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all countries in June to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers.

The resolution “calls upon governments to promptly implement relevant measures designed to facilitate maritime crew changes, including by enabling embarkment and disembarkment and expediting travel and repatriation efforts as well as ensuring access to medical care.”

The 193-member U.N. General Assembly urged all countries to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers on Tuesday after travel restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 have left hundreds of thousands stranded at sea for months.

A unanimously adopted resolution encouraged governments to ensure safe ship crew changes and travel, allowing stranded seafarers to be repatriated and others to join ships.

“In this crisis, we need to show our attention, commitment and support to these invisible heroes, who are working under difficult and challenging circumstances,” Indonesia’s U.N. Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani told the General Assembly.

About 90% of world trade is transported by sea and curbs imposed during the coronavirus pandemic in some jurisdictions are affecting supply chains. The resolution noted that in 2019 there were some 2 million seafarers working on more than 98,000 commercial ships, transporting more than 11 billion tons of trade.

“Yet today hundreds of thousands of seafarers are stranded on board their ships,” European Union diplomat Peggy Vissers told the General Assembly. “Because of travel restrictions and border closures, they are unable to leave their ships and return home after long months of uninterrupted work. They are both physically and mentally exhausted.”

U.N. General Assembly resolutions are non binding but can carry political weight. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all countries in June to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers.

The resolution “calls upon governments to promptly implement relevant measures designed to facilitate maritime crew changes, including by enabling embarkment and disembarkment and expediting travel and repatriation efforts as well as ensuring access to medical care.”

Indonesia may still pursue a plan to tax technology companies on the income they generate from the country even if G20 nations and the OECD cannot reach a deal on digital taxes, its finance minister said on Tuesday.
Talks to rewrite rules for cross-border taxation, including digital taxes, led by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, stalled this year, with a new deadline for an agreement extended to 2021.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, has begun collecting a 10% value-added tax (VAT) since mid-2020 on digital products and services from internet-based firms, but officials had previously said it would charge a tax on income only after a global consensus was reached.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a virtual news conference that, based on the VAT payments, the tax office could estimate how much in income digital firms derive from Indonesia.

“Of course we hope for a global taxation agreement, it would be so much better as it gives a certainty,” the minister said.

“But it does not mean we cannot collect the taxes. The difference is we will not be doing something that is based on a formula advocated by the OECD,” she said.

The European Union is also considering going ahead with a bloc-wide tax on digital services if a global deal is not reached by mid-2021.

The United States in June launched an investigation into digital services taxes being adopted or considered in several jurisdictions, including the EU and Indonesia.

Indonesia’s tax office said 16 digital companies had paid 297 billion rupiah ($21.06 million) in VAT as of October.

Indonesia’s digital economy is set to reach $44 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $124 billion by 2025, according to a recent study by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Company. (Reuters)