VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Several members of the House of Representatives said that the palm oil commodity holds strategic value as a source of foreign exchange and to support the national economy.

Deputy Chairman of Commission IV of the DPR, Hasan Aminuddin, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the export value of palm oil products, including oleochemicals and biodiesel, reached around the US $20 billion in 2019.

The exports of palm oil and its derivative products contributed to the country's better trade balance.

"Indonesia must be grateful to have an extraordinary gift from God in the form of profuse palm oil, which is a source of foreign exchange and supports the national economy," he remarked.

Aminuddin noted that palm oil plantations, usually in remote areas, with poor infrastructure, could drive development in such areas to become economic centers.

He expects the role of palm oil to become increasingly important, especially as it pertains to the increasing demand for support for sustainable food and energy supply.

Seconding this view, a member of the House's Commission IV Luluk Nur Hamidah stated that palm oil has become a strategic commodity owing to its enormous contribution, both to open up job opportunities and foreign exchange for the country.

The lawmaker regretted the black campaigns on palm oil imposed by the international community.

"European countries, which are export destinations, are doing this. Yes, there are economic interests that are deliberately designed with environmental issues in mind," Hamidah noted.

The international community aggressively black campaigning with an approach that seemed scientifically acceptable that products from palm oil were detrimental to health and environmental issues.

Hamidah cited as an example of the use of research approaches, for instance, products from palm oil being viewed as having saturated fats unhealthy for the heart.

"They reject palm oil because it does not support a healthy lifestyle. The second point concerns environmental issues. Hence, we are being caught from both ends, in terms of health and environmental issues," Hamidah stated.

Hamidah called on the government to counter black campaigns through concrete steps taken properly, such as supervision and guidance, to prevent environmental damage caused to palm oil plantations. (Antaranews)

Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, spokesperson for the Covid-19 Task Force said that the percentage of active cases from March to August is going downward.

"From March to August it gradually decreased. In March, the average active case was 91.26 percent, continued to decline in April to 81.57 percent, May 71.53 percent, June 57.25 percent, July 44.02 percent, and in August active cases in Indonesia decreased to 23.64 percent," he said during a press conference in Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Active cases of COVID in Indonesia as of 1 September 2020 were 42,009 cases or 23.7 percent. While the world average is 26.67 percent. This means that the figure in Indonesia is still classified as lower than the average figure in the world.

According to him, this gradually improving condition must be maintained, so that active cases in Indonesia continue to decline every month until the Covid-19 pandemic completely disappears.

In line with active cases, the development of Covid-19 patient death cases nationally has also gradually decreased every month.

September 1 data, there were 7,505 cases of death with a percentage of 4.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Wiku said the mortality rate was peaked in April.

Judging by the graph, in March the average was 4.89 percent, then in April it doubled to 8.64 percent, then in May it decreased to 6.68 percent, in June it was 5.56 percent, July was 4.81 percent and August fell again to 4.47 percent.

"Although the percentage of national mortality rates has experienced positive changes, the magnitude is still above the world average (3.32 percent). This is what we must fix together so the national mortality rate can be reduced to below the world average," he said.

The recovery rate per month is also improved. The number of recovered patients as of September 1 was 177,571 cases. There is a very fast rate of increase in March-August, higher than the world average of 70 percent.

In March, the average recovery rate was 3.84 percent, then more than doubled in April to 9.79 percent, continued in May 21.97 percent, and increased again in June 37.19 percent, on July 49.40 percent and as of August 30, 2020, the recovery rate reached 72.17 percent.

For the level of positivity rate, Indonesia shows an increase every month. In June it was 11.71 percent, up in July 14.29 percent and August 15.43 percent.

"The positivity rate in Indonesia reached its peak on August 30 at 25.25 percent. The big challenge is to reduce the positivity rate to meet the safety standards recommended by the WHO by 5 percent," Wiku said.

According to the latest update on the risk zoning map, there are 65 high-risk districts/cities (red zone), 230 medium risk districts/cities (orange zone), 151 medium risk districts/cities (151 districts/cities, 42 districts/cities no new cases and 26 districts/cities are not affected or are included in the green zone.

When viewed from May until now, the high-risk area from 21.01 percent decreased to 12.65 percent.

Meanwhile, the risk area is medium from 32.30 percent to 44.75 percent. Then the low risk rose from 27.63 percent to 29.38 percent. Unaffected areas decreased from 19.07 percent to 13.23 percent.

Wiku added that increasing testing, tracing, and treatment is the key to accelerating the handling of Covid-19.

Innovations to protect medical personnel have also been carried out and use personal protective equipment (PPE), quality cloth masks, including 100 percent Indonesian-made ventilators.

"We have also been ordered by the president (Joko Widodo) to coordinate with regional leaders, to ensure that the handling of Covid-19 is carried out well and suppress the spread of the Covid-19 virus," Wiku said. (RRI)

Head of the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) Research Felippa Ann Amanta encourages the government to provide incentives for innovative business entities in creating environmentally friendly packaging to improve food safety.

"Provide incentives for the private sector to encourage alternative innovations from plastics that are suitable for food, through subsidies for research and a reduction in the tax value for companies that innovate," Felippa said in a webinar, on Thursday.

She said this is in line with local regulations on reducing plastic bags in shopping centers, shops, supermarkets, and public markets or traditional markets, therefore, the government needs to consider the readiness of food vendors and online delivery food to adapt.

She said that efforts by the private sector to provide reusable airtight bags for online food delivery drivers/couriers are still lacking.

"The central and local governments must provide incentives to the private sector, including MSMEs, to encourage sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging," she said.

Felippa said that public consumption, especially during a pandemic has shifted to processed and ultra-processed products, especially in urban communities.

In the period 2020-2024, there is an estimated 11.5 percent increase in online food delivery, especially because people are increasingly concerned with efficiency and safety.

Felippa reminded that based on existing regulations, business actors, or third parties such as delivery partners have to guarantee the condition of processed product packaging during delivery is intact and undamaged.

"We need options that are more environmentally friendly and more weather resistant, and we need options that are affordable for MSMEs so that they can also contribute to this eco-friendly movement," she added.

She recommends environmentally friendly biodegradable packaging, such as from cassava or seaweed.

Rahmawati, head of waste management in Jakarta Environment Agency, stated that her party was drafting a regulation that would provide incentives so that business actors and the public were more enthusiastic about not using single-use plastic bags anymore.

Jakarta Government has required the use of Environmentally Friendly Bags starting July 1, 2020. Rahmawati stated that her party will continue to supervise its implementation as well as continuous education in every mass media.

"The challenges we face in this regard are that it takes time, paradigm, and continuous collaboration," she said.

Rahmawati reminded that in 2019, 7,702 tons per day were recorded to be transported to the Bantargebang landfill, of which about 30 percent was plastic. (Antaranews)

The Ministry of Communication and Information said that the Satellite of the Republic of Indonesia (Satria), which is targeted to operate in 2023, will strengthen the transformation of the digital economy, including digitization of payment systems, especially in areas not yet reached by internet networks.

"The acceleration of digital transformation, directly and indirectly, supports the digital payment ecosystem during the pandemic and post-pandemic," Dedi Permadi, Special Staff to the Minister of Communication and Information said in a webinar in Jakarta, on Thursday.

He said this effort was carried out partly because of the great potential of digital economic growth, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which encourages humans to adapt more quickly to the digital ecosystem.

During the pandemic or only in April 2020, he said, the total number of purchase using the digital payment system reached 4.3 million, with total transactions reaching Rp. 17.6 trillion.

This potential is driving the acceleration of digital transformation which is also expected to support the performance of small and medium businesses since only around 14.8 percent or 9.4 million small and medium businesses are utilizing digital transactions and businesses.

Even so, he admitted that telecommunications technology infrastructure in Indonesia still needs to be boosted considering that there are still areas that are not covered by the fourth generation of the internet or 4G networks in the country.

"There are 479 thousand Base Transceiver Station across Indonesia, but that is not enough because Indonesia's area is so large," he said.

He detailed that out of 83,218 villages and sub-districts, there were 12,548 villages that had not been reached by adequate 4G signals, so that it became homework that needed to be completed until 2022.

Then, he continued, there were 150 thousand public service points where there were no adequate internet facilities such as health, banking, and government services.

"This is what we hope the completion of telecommunication infrastructure can be completed and we hope that Satria Satellite can operate in the third quarter of 2023," he added.

Dedi said that on Sep. 3, the cooperation between the ministry and US-based space company SpaceX will be signed on the deployment of the Satria Satellite. The satellite is planned to launch in 2023 with the Elon Musk's space transportation company as the manufacturer for the satellite shuttle. (Antaranews)