VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Edhy Prabowo stated that Task Force 115 will carry out operations in areas prone to IUU fishing or theft of fishery commodities such as in the waters of the North Natuna Sea and the Arafuru Sea.

"The Task Force will also carry out operations in areas prone to illegal fishing and destructive fishing," said Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Edhy Prabowo in a press release in Jakarta, Wednesday.

As it is well known, Task Force 115 was formed based on Presidential Regulation Number 115 of 2015 as a form of serious concern of the Indonesian Government which views the need for integrated steps by all agencies to address illegal fishing practices.

Minister Edhy maintains the existence of the Task Force by stipulating Regulation of the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Number 24/PERMEN-KP/2020 concerning the Organization and Work Procedure of Task Force 115 and the Decree of the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Number 1/KEPMEN-KP/SATGAS/2020 concerning the Composition of Task Force 115 Members.

In addition to eradicating illegal fishing, he continued, Task Force 115 in the era of Minister Edhy would also be encouraged to take part in overseeing the industrialization of fisheries being developed by the government.

"In addition to strengthening coordination and synergy, Task Force 115 will take operational steps," explained Edhy, who is also the Commander of Task Force 115.

Edhy explained that Task Force 115 will integrate the strengths of each element so that the eradication of IUU Fishing, especially the large-scale one involving international networks, can run effectively.

Edhy asked Task Force 115 to create breakthroughs in handling illegal fishing.

"Take advantage of the latest technology so that the eradication of illegal fishing can run effectively and efficiently, can have a deterrent effect on the perpetrators, and can recover state losses," he explained.

In addition, the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries also instructed Task Force 115 to take part in overseeing the industrialization of fisheries, as stated in Presidential Instruction Number 7 of 2016 concerning the Acceleration of National Fisheries Industry Development.

For this purpose, Edhy hopes that Task Force 115 will optimize prevention efforts by encouraging the level of compliance of local fishery business actors. (Antaranews)

The Ministry of Industry focuses on developing the pharmaceutical industry in the country so that Indonesia can be independent and competitive through the development of indigenous modern medicines from within the country.

"Indonesia has the best biodiversity in the world such as ginger, lempuyang, nutmeg, patchouli, and others, which can be the main capital in building self-reliance to produce drugs," said the Head Industrial Research and Development Agency (BPPI) of the Industry Ministry, Doddy Rahadi at Jakarta, Wednesday.

Doddy Rahadi, through a written statement, said that his party encouraged the development of traditional medicines into Indonesian Original Modern Medicines (OMAI) in the form of Standardized Herbal Medicines (OHT) and phytopharmaca.

For this reason, several work units under BPPI are encouraged to increase R&D activities to produce the needed innovations.

"An example is the Jakarta Center for Chemistry and Packaging (BBKK) which has competence and experience in this field, including developing production facilities to encourage the growth of the OMAI industry," he said.

BBKK Jakarta is designing the construction of a House of Wellness facility which will be equipped with a mini plant certified for Good Traditional Medicine Manufacturing Practices (CPOTB), Smart Laboratory (R&D and QC), Center of Essential Oils (Learning Factory and Laboratory of Essential Oils Authentication) and soft computing room.

"This program is included in the BBKK phytopharmaca development roadmap 2021-2026," said Doddy.

In 2021, we plan to construct building infrastructure and support it, following the CPOTB standard. Continued in 2022, building equipment installations and CPOTB certification.

"In 2023, later, it will be able to produce extracts of natural ingredients and develop smart laboratories," he said.

It is hoped that OHT can be produced in 2024, and by 2026 the facilities will be able to produce phytopharmaca.

"In developing OMAI products requires support and cooperation with other related parties through collaboration with R&D institutions, traditional medicine or pharmaceutical industries, and other stakeholders," said Doddy.

On his working visit to BBKK Jakarta, Tuesday (13/10), Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita emphasized that his party is determined to further strengthen the manufacturing structure and increase the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

Therefore, these two strategic industries have been included in additional sectors that have priority development on the Making Indonesia 4.0 road map.

"One thing that is being focused on building the national industrial sector is the availability of raw and supporting materials. This is one of the strategic issues that are being of our concern," said the Minister of Industry.

The Minister of Industry emphasized that Indonesia's independence in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry sector is important, especially in conditions of health emergencies like today.

Thus, it is hoped that the program to reduce the import rate can reach up to 35 percent by the end of 2022.

The Ministry of Industry noted that in the first quarter of 2020, the chemical, pharmaceutical, and traditional medicine industries grew positively by 5.59 percent. In addition, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are also the manufacturing sector, which paid a significant investment value in the first quarter of 2020, reaching Rp9.83 trillion. (Antaranews)

The Ministry of Health revealed that the availability of isolation rooms in all COVID-19 referral hospitals in various provinces in Indonesia is still adequate to treat COVID-19 patients.

Based on the Ministry of Health's press statement quoted in Jakarta, Wednesday, it was stated that in Indonesia there are 903 COVID-19 referral hospitals because the capacity of isolation rooms continues to increase.

"We have 132 Ministry of Health referral hospitals and 771 referral hospitals according to the Governor's Decree. With the increase in the number of referral hospitals, the capacity of hospitals with isolation rooms will increase,” said the Director of Referral Health Services at the Indonesian Ministry of Health, dr. Rita Rogayah Sp. P (K), MARS.

She said the isolation room continued to increase from March to October. From the COVID-19 referral hospital, there are 35 thousand beds, and from the referral hospital based on the Governor's Decree, there are 51,222 isolation beds.

"So now we see that the focus of attention is Jakarta. Jakarta has about 5 thousand beds. We can see this addition from this one month, where previously 4 thousand now have 6 thousand beds," she added.

She explained that Jakarta is one of the 11 priority provinces for handling COVID-19 by the government. The eleven provinces include DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, North Sumatra, Bali, Papua, Banten, and Aceh.

"Of the 11 existing provinces, the percentage of use of isolation rooms is still between 40 to 60 percent. The condition of the ratio of use of a bed to the isolation space is still sufficient. Hopefully, there won't be more cases, but we are preparing a COVID-19 referral hospital based on the Decree of the Minister of Health and the Governor," said Rita Rogayah.

Data reported by the COVID-19 Task Force until Wednesday (13/10) 2020 cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,906 cases, bringing the total to 340,622 cases. Meanwhile, 4,777 patients recovered with a total of 263,296 COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile, cases of positive COVID-19 sufferers who have died have increased by 92 to 12,027 deaths. (Antaranews)

The Embassy of Pakistan in collaboration with the Batiq Travel Services Indonesia, held a Tourism Promotion conference in Jakarta, on Tuesday.

The conference was strictly adhering to the Covid-19 health protocols.

Over 20 travel agencies and tour leaders, including a few firms involved in umrah tourism. The head of Sri Lankan Airlines in Indonesia also attended the event.

The Chargé d'affaires, Mr. Sajjad Haider Khan presented Pakistan's history, geography, economy, and it's thriving tourism potential. Khan said that the potential adventure tourism, halal tourism, religious tourism, and mountaineering, etc.

Khan said Pakistan offers rich religious and cultural sites including Mughal Era Mosques, Forts, Shrines, Buddhists and Sikh religious and heritage sites such as the Kartarpur Sahib.

He also shared some recent acknowledgments of Pakistan’s Tourism by world-class magazines and societies such as Forbes, Condé Nast Traveller's, British backpacker’s society, and an Indonesian travel blogger Trinity.

The program also included a documentary on Pakistan, a presentation on Pakistan Online Visa System, and a special video message from Trinity.

Based on her visit to Pakistan in 2019, Trinity gave strong words to support Pakistan as she declared Pakistan as the best among the 99 countries that she had visited.

The conference also presents a photographic exhibition of major tourist places in Pakistan.

Dr. Satiti Handini, the CEO of Batiq Travel Services, and Mr. Amila Wijasekara, the Country Head of Sri Lankan Airlines in Indonesia, also addressed the participants on questions surrounding the current tourism climate. (VOI)