VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lestari Moerdijat stated that the development of quality tourism, which can encourage national development performance, needs all parties' attention.

"The development of national tourism that is of quality is crucial to be realized to encourage an improvement in the performance of national development," she said, as noted in a written statement received here on Sunday.

She outlined that there are seven issues that need to be resolved in order to build quality tourism in Indonesia as noted by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).

The seven issues comprise declining environmental quality, low-quality tourism destination management, tourism services that are less excellent, and low tourism human resource capacity.

Furthermore, they also include limited land, sea and air travel accessibility; lack of investment in the tourism sector; and minimal disaster preparedness.

According to the MPR deputy speaker, those seven issues must be of concern to policymakers in the tourism sector, as well as several ministries and other institutions.

To this end, she hoped that solid collaboration between ministries and institutions could be realized soon in an effort to attain quality tourism development in the country.

In addition, she noted that policymakers should also encourage several efforts to improve the quality of human resources in the tourism sector.

Moerdijat underscored that the improvement in human resources quality is an essential factor in tourism development which highly involves the social and cultural aspects of tourism destination regions.

Thus, even though several tourism destination regions have not had complete supporting infrastructures, quality human resources could help attract tourists, she added.

"The potential of the national tourism sector must be utilized and improved through various efforts so that it can also support the improvement of the national economic performance," she remarked. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), on Monday, inducted Budi Arie Setiadi as minister of communications and informatics at an inauguration ceremony in the Presidential Palace here.

Setiadi succeeded the previous office holder, Johnny G. Plate, who was dismissed on May 19 after being named a suspect in the alleged corruption case related to the ministry's base transceiver station (BTS) projects.

"By Allah, I swear that I will be loyal to the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia and will carry out all laws and regulations as straightforwardly as possible, as well as dedicate myself to the nation and the country," as read by Setiadi during his inauguration ceremony.

Between Plate's dismissal and Setiadi's inauguration, Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD served as the acting minister.

Presidential Decision No. 62P of 2023 on the Inauguration of Minister of Communications and Informatics of the Onward Indonesia Cabinet, dated July 14, 2023, is the legal basis of Setiadi's induction.

Setiadi's most recent office before his induction as minister was the deputy minister of villages, development of disadvantaged regions, and transmigration, working with Minister Abdul Halim Iskandar since 2019.

Setiadi, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), is the chief of Projo, a public organization uniting Jokowi supporters established in August 2013. 

Through the organization, he supported Jokowi's two presidential bids in 2014 and 2019.

Born on April 20, 1969, Setiadi was a graduate of the University of Indonesia's (UI's) Communication Studies programme in the Faculty of Social and Political Studies. He served as the faculty's Students Representatives Council (BPM) head in 1994 and the university's Students Senate presidium member from 1994 to 1995.

During his university years, he served as managing editor for the Suara Mahasiswa UI university press from 1993 to 1994. He also worked in various newspapers and national media for several years after graduating from UI. (Antaranews)

Pakistan is set to draw in $5.6 billion in additional financing, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

The new funding will include $3.7 billion of commitments from bilateral partners including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Nathan Porter, the IMF's mission chief for Pakistan, Bloomberg News reported.

On Wednesday, Pakistan's central bank received $1.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund as the first tranche of a $3 billion bailout to stabilise the economy. (Reuters)

The United States and its allies need to speed up the delivery of weapons to Taiwan in the coming years to help the island defend itself, the top U.S. general said on Friday.

The United States is Taiwan's most important arms supplier. Beijing has repeatedly demanded the sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan stop, viewing them as unwarranted support for the democratically governed island that Beijing claims.

"The speed at which we, the United States, or other countries assist Taiwan in improving (their) defensive capabilities, I think that probably needs to be accelerated in the years to come," U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a visit to Tokyo.

Milley said Taiwan needed weapons like air defence systems and those that could target ships from land.

"I think it's important that Taiwan's military and their defensive capabilities be improved," he said.

Taiwan has since last year complained of delays to U.S. weapon deliveries, such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers turned supplies to Ukraine as it battles invading Russian forces. The issue has concerned some U.S. lawmakers.

Taiwan has said that its defence spending this year will focus on preparing weapons and equipment for a "total blockade" by China, including parts for F-16 fighters and replenishing weapons.

China staged war games around the island in August, firing missiles over Taipei and declaring no-fly and no-sail zones in a simulation of how it would seek to cut Taiwan off in a war.

In recent days, China's military has been practicing joint force operations at sea ahead of Taiwan's annual war games at the end of the month when it will simulate breaking a Chinese blockade.

Milley said that relations between the United States and China were at a "very low point" and recent diplomatic meetings, including between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, were important to reduce the chances of escalation.

Milley said the United States was looking at whether it needed to change where some U.S. forces were based within the Asia Pacific.

The majority of U.S. forces in the region are in northeast Asia, including 28,500 in South Korea and 56,000 troops in Japan.

"We are seriously looking at potential alternative basing options," Milley said. (Reuters)