VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on Monday described the current direction of the global economy as difficult to predict and asked central and regional officials to remain alert.

"I often say that the world is now increasingly unclear, global economic uncertainty is difficult to calculate," Widodo said during a briefing with regional heads from across Indonesia at the State Palace in Jakarta.

The current global monetary policy is difficult to predict, he added. There are indications that only the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) has raised interest rates, but the adjustment from the most influential central bank in the world has caused problems for all developing countries due to a reversal in capital flow.

Another thing that has caused uncertainty is climate change, which has also had an impact on food production, Widodo said.

In the past, he continued, the impact of climate change was often underestimated. However, now, it has caused drought, which could ultimately reduce crop production.

As a result of climate change, Indonesia needs to import food to cover production shortfalls. However, applying for imports to various producing countries is currently not easy because the whole world is facing the threat of a food crisis.

"Secondly, climate change, (for) which (they) used to say 'ah, it is something unseen' is now clearly visible. Drought in seven provinces and several countries has reduced our rice production. We want to stop importing now and it's not as easy as before to find imported rice," he highlighted.

Widodo informed that he had spoken with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about obtaining a rice import quota. However, this could not be achieved because India is also exporting just enough to secure the country's national stock.

"But he (PM Modi) uses it himself as a backup, he doesn't dare to let it go. I've said he doesn't dare to let it go," the President said.

Southeast Asian countries, which previously offered rice for exports, such as Thailand and Vietnam, are also now limiting shipments, he added.

Widodo emphasized that global economic dynamics like these must be understood by all regional heads. Regional leaders must be aware of this global uncertainty's impact on the local economy.

"Situations like this, ladies and gentlemen, is something that we must know, so that when working, 'I have to come here to understand.' What does it mean if fuel prices increase? Inflation will rise. Rising inflation means that the prices of goods and services will also increase accordingly. We alone have seven provinces affected by Super El Nino, production has fallen, this is what everyone must be alert to," he said.

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian, were also present at the President's briefing. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha vehemently denounced the continued and escalating Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip, persisting for 23 days in a row.

“This relentless assault has resulted in butchering thousands of martyrs and wounding innocent civilians, including women, children, medical personnel, and journalists, in addition to the deliberate destruction of buildings, hospitals, schools, places of worship, and United Nations facilities,” Taha noted in a statement received in Jakarta on Monday.

Israel still threatens to bomb hospitals, in addition to continuing to prevent access to food, medicine, water, and electricity, which constitutes collective punishment, war crimes, and flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, according to Taha.

He also affirms the OIC’s rejection and condemnation of the escalation of acts of murder, incitement, and organized terrorism committed by extremist settler groups and Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian citizens throughout the West Bank, including the occupied city of Al-Quds.

“These criminal acts have tragically led to the martyrdom of more than 115 Palestinian citizens since the beginning of the month. He holds Israel, the occupying power, fully responsible for the continuation of these criminal acts,” Taha stated.

At the same time, the secretary-general renewed his call to the international community to intervene urgently to force Israel, the occupying power, to stop its brutal aggression against the Palestinian people immediately and to oblige it to respect and implement international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.

Taha also urged the international community to force Israel to ensure the opening of permanent humanitarian corridors to facilitate access of medicines and food supplies and basic needs of the Gaza Strip. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has discovered Priestia flexa bacteria in the deep sea area of the Java Trench, which has potentially high economic value since it contains lycopene and Vitamin B12.

"This bacteria from the deep sea was successfully isolated from seawater samples at a depth of 1 thousand meters," said a deep sea microbiologist from BRIN, Ocky Karna Radjasa, in Jakarta on Monday.

He informed that based on the whole genome sequence (WGS) data, the bacteria, which were first extracted from the deep sea in Indonesia, contain natural ingredients that are usually used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

"This bacteria contains lycopene and Vitamin B12; for industry, it is usually used as raw material for cosmetics, beauty, nutrition, supplements, and pharmaceuticals, and the health food industry needs these microbes," he said.

Lycopene is an antioxidant that counteracts cell or tissue oxidation by reactive oxidative species (ROS), thereby helping prevent heart disease, and it also has anti-cancer effects, he added.

Generally, he said, lycopene is obtained from plants, which give red and orange colors or pigments to vegetables and fruit. The compound is classified as a carotenoid and can be found in foods such as tomatoes, watermelons, and guavas.

The discovery of lycopene from the deep sea could provide efficiency measures, he added.

He gave the example of the lycopene that usually comes from tomatoes, saying the harvesting process takes 75 days, and storing and then processing tomatoes into lycopene requires a large area.

For obtaining lycopene from the deep sea, he said, it only takes three days to grow the Priestia flexa bacteria whose contents can be extracted.

Compared to the lycopene that comes from tomatoes, the place for storing and producing microbes into lycopene in this case also does not have to be large, he explained.

"Interestingly, lycopene products derived from microbes have higher content than standard original products," he pointed out.

Looking at the global market trend, lycopene was worth Rp107.2 million US dollars in 2020 and the figure is projected to increase to US$187.3 million by 2030, with an estimated annual growth of 5.2 percent.

Radjasa, who is also head of the Earth and Maritime Research Organization of BRIN, explained that the discovery of the Priestia flexa bacteria in Indonesia's deep sea is a step toward achieving efficiency and has economic potential for Indonesia. Currently, lycopene is still imported to meet domestic needs.

"Even though the fruit is available in Indonesia, currently, all domestic industries are still 100 percent relying on imports for their lycopene needs," he pointed out.

Regarding the Vitamin B12 content found in the Priestia flexa bacteria, he said that it has great potential for producers of vegetarian-based healthy foods.

"Vitamin B12 from deep sea microbes has great potential for vegetarian people who need proteins, but not from animal sources," he added.

Vitamin B12, or cobalamin, is useful in the process of forming red blood cells. Cobalamin also plays a role in protein metabolism. Vitamin B12 usually comes from red meat, liver, eggs, and milk. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Singapore expects muted prospects for its economy in the short-term amid global uncertainty, but the second half of 2024 should bring gradual improvement, its central bank said on Monday.

In its semi-annual macroeconomic review, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said gross domestic product (GDP) growth, which veered on the edge of a technical recession in the middle of the year, should improve gradually next year while core inflation is expected to ease by December.

"The third quarter of this year likely marked the turning point in the slowdown," it said.

GDP growth was at 0.7% year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, according to advance estimates. The Asian financial hub narrowly avoided a technical recession, with the economy expanding 0.1% quarter-on-quarter in April to June following a 0.4% contraction in the first quarter of 2023.

"In the absence of renewed shocks or setbacks in the global economy, the Singapore economy should benefit as the global tech industry gradually emerges from its trough and global interest rates level off over 2024."

Meanwhile, MAS expects inflation to be on a broad moderating trend and slow to an average of 2.5–3.5% for 2024 as a whole.

Core inflation, which excludes private road transport and accommodation costs, has cooled from a 14-year high of 5.5% in January to 3.0% in September.

There are upside and downside risks to inflation, MAS said.

"Shocks to global food and energy prices or domestic labour costs could bring about additional inflationary pressures. However, a sharper-than-expected downturn in the global economy could induce a general easing of cost and price pressures."

Against this backdrop, MAS said the current appreciating path of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate, or S$NEER - is sufficiently tight.

The central bank kept monetary policy settings unchanged in April and October after tightening five times in a row from October 2021.

"The sustained appreciation of the policy band will continue to dampen imported inflation and curb domestic cost pressures, and thus ensure medium-term price stability," said the MAS. (Reuters)