VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The Indonesian National Paralympic Committee (NPC) is collaborating with Seoul Sports Association for the Differently-abled (SSAD) South Korea to improve the achievement of athletes with disabilities and build international-standard training facilities.

NPC Chairman Senny Marbun noted that the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SSAD Senior Vice President Hwang Jae Yun in Seoul, South Korea, on July 10, 2023.

SSAD is an association with a mission to improve the quality of life of disabled people through sports activities. SSAD trains talented athletes to promote disability sports in South Korea and has an advanced training facility.

Several important programs were agreed upon in this MoU, such as the athletes' exchange to undergo training in each country.

"Indonesia can send athletes to train in South Korea using their facilities and vice versa," Marbun noted in a press statement received here Thursday.

According to Marbun, as Asian countries, the two parties have agreed to support each other to produce quality athletes as an effort to excel and compete with European countries in international events.

"We do not want Asian countries to be left behind by European countries," he emphasized.

During his visit to a training ground for athletes with disabilities in Korea, he asked for a blueprint for their training facility.

He noted that NPC is also keen to build an international-standard training facility in Karanganyar, Central Java.

Meanwhile, Deputy General Manager of Public Relations and Cooperation Department of SSAD Jun Hee Sun welcomed the cooperation between the two countries.

This collaboration further ensures that SSAD and NPC will establish a fundamental relationship to carry out international sports exchange activities, Sun remarked.

Moreover, Sun noted that the MoU signing aimed at intensifying cooperation among parties by establishing roles and responsibilities for the development, implementation, support, and means of cooperation activities that will be carried out together. (antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia is among the few countries that have managed to recover from global crises thrice, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.

The three major crises faced by Indonesia comprise the monetary crisis in 1998, the global financial crisis in 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Indonesia is one among few countries who, after experiencing crises three times and learning from (those) crises, we can recover and manage crises well," the state treasurer said at the Indonesia Data and Economic Conference hosted by research company Katadata here on Thursday.

According to her, this success is owing to Indonesia's skill in observing and reviewing data as well as learning from its experiences.

She said that Indonesia made efforts to extend aid during every crisis, for instance, during the 1998 crisis, when the financial sector was almost at its downfall.

The state also actively managed the situation during the 2008 global crisis to ensure stability, she added.

Everyone has also jointly participated in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted.

"So, if there is a crisis, the state's finances will have a part (in addressing the issue). Hence, in crises, we always place state's finances as the first and foremost of instruments," she added.

She assured that consistent efforts will be made to maintain the readiness of the state's financial instruments to face future crises, as Indonesia has learned from extensive crises, particularly those affecting its financial sector.

The efforts have included improving banking sector regulation and developing the non-banking financial sector, particularly insurance and retirement funds, Indrawati highlighted.

Indonesia's success in managing crises has been proved by the state's consistent economic growth, which crossed 5 percent during some consecutive quarters, she added.

Moreover, the state budget's deficit, which, at one point, exceeded 3 percent because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was successfully brought down to below 3 percent in 2022, she pointed out.

The achievement was in line with Law Number 2 of 2022, specifically the plan to bring down the state budget deficit below 3 percent by 2023, she added.

"This is the fastest fiscal consolidation," she said. (Antaranews)

A Chinese citizen was injured on Thursday in the shooting in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland, state media said citing the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland.

The person is currently in stable condition, the media report said on Friday. (Reuters)

The United States sees Vietnam as a key partner in expanding green energy sources and building more resilient supply chains, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech to be delivered in the country's capital of Hanoi on Friday.

Yellen, continuing her travels in Asia, told the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council that trade between the two countries had been growing at nearly 25% a year for the past two decades, and reached a record high last year.

"There is no sign that this momentum is slowing," Yellen said in a text of her prepared remarks released late on Thursday in Washington, noting that investment in Vietnam's semiconductor sector was also accelerating.

Yellen's visit is part of a push by the United States to upgrade its formal ties with Vietnam as it works to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains by expanding manufacturing at home and boosting trade with trusted partners. But its efforts have met some resistance in Hanoi, over what experts see as concerns that China could view the move as hostile.

The United States and Vietnam normalized relations in 1995, two decades after the end of the Vietnam War, and signed a bilateral trade agreement five years later.

Yellen noted that Vietnam had become a critical node in the global semiconductor supply chain, and cited big investments made by U.S. companies in Vietnam, including Arizona-based Amkor (AMKR.O) and Intel (INTC.O), which has its largest assembly and testing facility in the world in Saigon.

Yellen's speech did not mention China, which she visited earlier this month. She underscored that Washington's "friendshoring" drive was not meant for "an exclusive club of countries. It is open and inclusive of advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries alike."

She said Washington was looking to strengthen ties with emerging markets and developing countries, including through the Group of Seven's pledge to mobilize $600 billion in infrastructure investments, which experts see as a deliberate counterweight to China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The United States is also working to help countries address the worsening climate crisis, Yellen said, citing U.S. support for Vietnam's Just Energy Transition Partnership that is working to mobilize $15 billion in public and private funds to help Vietnam transition to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050

"Now, it is vital to intensify our cooperation to build momentum for these efforts in Vietnam, evaluate project opportunities with the multilateral development banks, and deliver a Resource Mobilization Plan that provides a roadmap for implementation," she said. (Reuters)