VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Sri Lanka's cabinet approved issuing free tourist visas to visitors from seven countries including China, India and Russia, a statement issued by the media ministry said on Tuesday, to boost tourism and help revive its crisis-hit economy.

Tourists from China, India, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia will be issued free visas till March 31, 2024 under a pilot programme, the statement detailing cabinet decisions said.

The scheme is part of attempts by Sri Lanka to boost tourism recovery and hit a target of five million arrivals by 2026, the statement added.

The country of 22 million people, famed for its beaches, ancient temples and aromatic tea, saw its tourism industry pummelled first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by a severe financial crisis last year that saw mass scale protests and shortages of essentials such as fuel.

But the tourism industry is seeing a turnaround in 2023 with Sri Lanka clocking a million arrivals by September, for the first time since 2019. The island is expecting to close the year at 1.5 million arrivals.

India is the largest source of tourists with 200,310 arrivals, followed by Russia with 132,300, latest data from the Sri Lanka Development Authority showed.

Sri Lanka earned $1.3 billion from tourism in the first eight months of 2023, up from $833 million dollars during the same period last year, according to the central bank. (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - Officials from the United States and China on Monday held a two-hour long virtual meeting to discuss domestic and global macroeconomic developments, the U.S. Treasury Department said, calling the meeting "productive and substantive".

THE TAKE

Ties between the world's two largest economies have been strained in recent years due to a number of issues including Taiwan, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, allegations of spying, human rights issues and trade tariffs.

Senior officials from both sides have been meeting each other in recent months to lay the ground for an expected meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November.

KEY QUOTES

"Today, the United States and the People's Republic of China held the first meeting of the Economic Working Group (EWG), which serves as an ongoing channel to discuss and facilitate progress on bilateral economic policy matters," the Treasury Department said.

China's finance ministry said the two sides had "in-depth, frank and constructive" talks, and also discussed bilateral cooperation in "addressing global challenges".

Both sides will continue to maintain communication, the ministry said.

U.S. and Chinese officials also raised "areas of concern," statements from the two sides said, without elaborating. The meeting was led by senior officials from the U.S. Treasury Department and China's finance ministry.

The EWG was launched last month following U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's trip to Beijing in July. It was launched in parallel with a financial working group, which will hold its first meeting on Wednesday.

CONTEXT

The economic meeting follows other high-level engagements between the two countries in recent months that have seen visits from U.S. officials to China like Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, Yellen in July and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August.

More recently, Blinken met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in New York and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta. China's top diplomat will travel to the United States later this week to meet Blinken. (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry stated that human resources and innovation are the main keys to achieving the goals of the nation's founding fathers.

"Human resources and innovation are the keys because we cannot solely rely on mines, forests, seas, water, and cheap labor wages," the ministry's Director General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology, Nizam, stated here on Tuesday.

During a working visit to Andalas University, West Sumatra, to present the latest higher education policy there, Nizam remarked that if Indonesia only relies on natural resources, it will fall into the middle-income country trap.

He cautioned that without the power of human resources and innovation, the natural resource wealth and the demographic bonus period will not provide any added value.

Hence, he stated that competitive and superior human resources, with noble character, are part of every nation's economic progress.

Meanwhile, Nizam explained that almost all developed countries in the world have transformed their economies into innovation-based economies.

As an example, he stated that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is rich in natural resources, has begun to shift to an innovation-based economy.

He explained that the UAE realized that it could not forever rely on natural resources, so it has slowly transformed and invested in the human resource and innovation sectors.

He noted that the UAE also attempted to invite the world's best universities, such as Harvard and Stanford University, to open campuses in the oil-rich country.

"Meanwhile, Indonesia's only capital to progress and change is to prepare human resources and innovation with all existing capabilities," he remarked.

Through the Freedom in Learning, Freedom in Campus or the MBMK program, the ministry encourages innovation by creating a path of collaboration between campuses and the industry world.

Earlier, the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture stated that the preparation of superior human resources is one of the national priority programs in order to realize the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesian President's Special Envoy, Muhammad Mardiono, outlined food system transformation; status of food security and nutrition; and transformation of Indonesian agricultural-based food (agrifood) at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Session in Italy.

"The agricultural food system must be holistic, interconnected, and multisectoral. Therefore, its governance must involve all stakeholders to synergize policy at the local, regional, and national levels," he noted in a statement on Tuesday.

Mardiono, who serves as Indonesia's Special Envoy for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security Cooperation, emphasized that Indonesia's transformation aims to create a nutritious, inclusive, fair, sustainable, and strong food system built on a local food system and its potential.

"In handling the food crisis, our government is focusing on protecting vulnerable groups, including farmers and fishermen families, through market stabilization support and social protection," he stated.

Furthermore, the second issue is related to Indonesia's efforts to improve the status of food security and nutrition.

He noted that Indonesia guarantees food availability for its 273 million people by increasing access to more nutritious, safe, adequate, and healthy food.

Speaking in connection with the third issue, Mardiono emphasized that agricultural-based food transformation requires investment in research capacity, data, innovation, and technology.

Indonesia lauds the support from various parties in the food sector and invites partners at regional and global levels to collaborate starting from food production, strengthening institutions, increasing farmers' capacity, and joint funding, he remarked.

He affirmed that Indonesia is ready to continue to collaborate with all CFS stakeholders to accelerate efforts towards a more resilient and sustainable agricultural food system.

CFS is an intergovernmental and multistakeholder organization supporting food and nutrition security. Therefore, this platform is expected to ensure inclusiveness and absorb aspirations of all parties.

Mardiono also conveyed that discussions about food are highly strategic in the midst of the current global crises.

Access to Food for Palestinians

Amid the current global food crisis, he also stated that Indonesia condemned violence in the Gaza Strip that caused casualties and injured several people, including women and children.

"On this occasion, Indonesia strongly condemns the conflict in the Gaza Strip and the entire occupied territory of Palestine," he revealed.

Mardiono called for the importance of guaranteeing the widest possible access for Palestinians to gain nutritious, safe, adequate, and healthy food along with clean water and the right for development.

“Last year, one in 10 people experienced food insecurity. If this trend continues, the goal of ending hunger by 2030 will not be achieved," he remarked. (Antaranews)