VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) wants household consumption and investment growth to improve in the fourth quarter of 2020, after the pace of the two spending sectors is almost certain to remain at a negative level in the third quarter of 2020.

"I get a figure that household consumption is still at a minus level, approximately minus four percent (in the third quarter of 2020), so it is our duty to strengthen demand," said President Jokowi when opening a plenary cabinet session at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday.

The rate of household consumption, which covers more than half of Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in the second quarter of 2020, is minus to 5.51 percent.

President Jokowi asked his staff to realize the expenditure budget up to the "maximum point" in the fourth quarter of 2020 to sustain public demand and consumption.

"The fourth quarter, this is the last quarter. I hope that the realization of our spending must be at its maximum," he said. The name of this article is:

Apart from household consumption, the President revealed that investment growth in the third quarter of 2020 was still at a negative level, reaching minus five percent or even minus six percent.

"I have warned the Head of BKPM and the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment so that at least in the third quarter of 2020 this could be minus below five percent, but it was not possible," said the President.

Therefore, investment flows must be increased in the fourth quarter of 2020. The President hopes that the United States' decision to extend import duty relief for Indonesia or the general preferential tariff facility (Generalized System of Preferences / GSP) can attract investment interest in Indonesia.

"Because we have this facility (GSP), because people want to establish industries, factories, companies in Indonesia will be more attractive because to enter the US, we are given facilities from the US," said the President. (Antaranews)

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) claims the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Institute of Microbiology is safe for humans, according to the results of clinical trials by the institute.

The results of phase I and phase II trials have resulted in safety and health for people who received the vaccine injection and found no serious side effects, the Institute of Microbiology, an institution under CAS, was quoted by local media on Monday.

The Institute of Microbiology in collaboration with Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co Ltd has obtained permission to develop the COVID-19 vaccine from the Chinese National Medical Products Agency (NMPA) on June 19.

Researchers began conducting clinical trials on June 23 to make sure the vaccine is safe to administer to humans. The volunteers who are willing to receive the vaccine are aged 18-59 years from Beijing, Chongqing, and Hunan.

They received injections at hospitals in Beijing and Chongqing.

Then a second clinical trial was conducted on July 10 to evaluate the immunity power and safety of the vaccine. According to the development agency, clinical trials are conducted randomly to determine the effectiveness of vaccines before they are mass-produced.

The vaccine is patented and the developer is preparing a phase III clinical trial to confirm its efficacy. To date, in China, there have been 13 COVID-19 vaccines developed by several research institutes and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology said that there have been four COVID-19 vaccine candidates that have conducted fae III clinical trials.

Chinese people are looking forward to the vaccine. Sinovac and Sinopharm, China's largest vaccine company, recently started offering a limited amount via online platforms. (Antaranews)

Two more men were arrested in connection with a knife attack that left three dead at a church in Nice, bringing the number of people in custody to six as investigators look at the suspected assailant’s last known contacts, a French police source said.

The latest arrests took place on Saturday, the source said.

An assailant shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice on Thursday, in France’s second deadly knife attack in two weeks with a suspected Islamist motive.

The suspected attacker, a 21-year-old from Tunisia, was shot by police and is now in critical condition in a hospital.

The latest arrests in the case involved two men from the town of Grasse, near the southern French coast close to Nice, BFM TV reported.

France’s chief anti-terrorism prosecutor has said the man suspected of carrying out the Nice attack had arrived in Europe on Sept. 20 in Lampedusa, the Italian island off Tunisia.

Investigators in Italy are also stepping up inquiries about the suspected assailant’s movements and contacts on the island of Sicily. They believe he may have spent time there after going from Lampedusa to Bari in early October on a ship used to quarantine migrants, judicial sources said.

In Bari, he is believed to have been handed an expulsion order obliging him to leave Italy within a week, the judicial sources said. Investigators are looking into the possibility the suspected attacker stayed in the Sicilian town of Alcamo for a 10 day period, the sources added. (Reuters)

The Presidential Spokesperson, Fadjroel Rachman, recently responded to Jakarta's achievement as the world champion in sustainable public transportation services.

In his tweets on social media, Fadjroel alluded to the past governors of Jakarta who he said had a role in making the capital win an award from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy -ITDP which is based in New York City, United States.

Fadjroel detailed a number of public transportation programs that he said were initiated by the former Governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo, and Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), and Sutiyoso such as the MRT Jakarta, LRT Jabodetabek, Airport Train, six inner-city toll roads, and Trans Jakarta.

To the current Jakarta Governor, Anies Baswedan, Fadjroel expressed his gratitude for continuing the transportation service program in the capital.

Previously, Anies expressed his gratitude for the achievements of the Jakarta Provincial Government.

He conveyed that the award was obtained in relation to the Transjakarta bus service, which is Jakarta's mainstay of public transportation. (Republika)