VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The 50th World Economic Forum in 2020 has been opened and runs from 21 to 24 January 2020 in Davos, Switzerland, with the theme Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World. During a World Economic Forum 2020 press conference, Tuesday (01/21/20) in Davos, Switzerland, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, said global economic growth was expected to improve.

"After a synchronized slowdown in 2019 we expect a moderate pickup in global growth this year and next. We have seen some tentative signs of stabilization recent data suggest that trade and industrial output are bottoming out but we have not reached a turning point yet. Moreover we are revising slightly downward. Our October projection for 2019 as well as for 2020, 2021. The reality is that global growth remains sluggish and when it is sluggish this is on the way for countries to be able to boost incomes and living standards. And above all we're adjusting to live normal of higher uncertainty," said Kristalina Georgieva. 

As quoted from the World Economic Forum, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva added the declining global economic impact was not only caused by politics but also extreme climate disasters,such as bushfires and droughts occuring in Australia for some time.

The 2020 World Economic Forum brings together 3,000 participants from all over the world, and aims to give concrete meaning to "stakeholder capitalism", assist governments and international institutions in tracking progress towards the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, and facilitate discussions on technology and trade governance // (VOI / NK / AHM)

Chinese authorities have advised people to stop travel into and out of Wuhan, the city at the centre of a new virus that has killed nine.

Those living in the city of 11 million have also been told to avoid crowds and minimise public gatherings.

The new virus has spread from Wuhan to several Chinese provinces as well as the US, Thailand, and South Korea.

There are 440 confirmed cases, with the origin a seafood market that "conducted illegal transactions of wild animals".

"Basically, do not go to Wuhan. And those in Wuhan please do not leave the city," said National Health Commission vice-minister Li Bin in one of the first public briefings since the beginning of the outbreak.

Authorities also admitted that the country was now at the "most critical stage" of prevention and control.

China had earlier confirmed that human-to-human transmission of the virus had taken place.

The virus, known also as 2019-nCoV, is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus that has not previously been identified in humans.

Signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. (BBC)

South Sumatra Governor Herman Deru confirmed that a Sumatran tiger (Pantera Tigris Sumatrae), trapped in Semendo Darat Ulu Sub-district, Muara Enim District, South Sumatra Province, will be moved to Lampung.

The Sumatran forest, as a habitat of tigers, must be protected, Deru stated here on Tuesday.

The governor believed that owing to habitat destruction, the tiger, in search of food, had entered a nearby village and triggered a sense of fear and panic among the local villagers.

He urged the South Sumatran people to not fell trees in the forest in order to help preserve the flora and fauna, including the endangered Sumatran tigers.

"This morning, the tiger entered the trap and will be moved to Lampung since South Sumatra does not have a conservation area like the one in Lampung," he explained.

The South Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) had recently installed the trap in a forest area of Muara Enim District after receiving reports of a roaming tiger from local villagers, the agency’s head, Genman Hasibuan, noted on Tuesday.

The agency’s officers installed several trap boxes and cameras in the districts of Pagaralam, Lahat, and Muara Enim following a series of tiger attacks in the areas of those districts.

The BKSDA workers placed goats as baits inside the trap boxes to lure Sumatran tigers into entering them.

In 2019, the agency had confirmed 15 tiger attacks had taken place in South Sumatra Province that resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to 10 others.

From November to December 2019, the conservation office had investigated six reports of tiger attacks. Hasibuan revealed that the first attack took place on November 16, 2019, in which a 19-year-old tourist got injured. (ANTARA)

Jakarta - People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy Chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid urged the Indonesian government to not become a mere onlooker in the humanitarian crisis involving the Uighurs, a Muslim-minority group residing in China’s Xinjiang region.

In accordance with the fourth paragraph of the Preamble of the Indonesian Constitution, UUD 1945, Indonesia should be actively promoting world peace based on social justice, he stated.

"It is obvious that the Uighur ethnic group has reeled from social injustice in Xinjiang. It certainly does not lead to a peaceful situation," he pointed out here on Wednesday.

Wahid remarked that expectations were pinned on Indonesia, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and member of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2020, playing an active role in solving the problem.

"Indonesia must not be a mere onlooker. Indonesia must play its role in independent and active foreign politics based on its interest and commitment to our UUD (Constitution)," the senior politician of the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) remarked.

Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin had earlier called on the Chinese government to be transparent and offer access to information on alleged human rights violation against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

"We hope every party, including China, would be more open. China has given an excuse that their camps are not for indoctrination but a type of training," Amin stated at his office on Tuesday.

Amin remarked that the Indonesian government had endorsed the protection of human rights of Uighur Muslims reportedly facing discrimination at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

In the meantime, over 20 nations had called on China to put a stop to its mass detention of ethnic minority Uighurs in Xinjiang region in the foremost such joint move on the issue at the United Nations' Human Rights Council, according to diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters news agency.

In a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, the group of 22 nations, including Japan, Britain, France, and Germany, urged China to end its "mass arbitrary detentions and related violations" and called on Beijing to allow UN experts to access the region. No Muslim-majority nations signed the joint statement.

UN experts and activists pointed out that no less than one million Uighurs and other Muslims were being held in detention centers in the remote western region of the country, Al Jazeera had reported last July. However, China described the camps as training centers, helping to stamp out "extremism" and help people develop novel skills. (ANTARA)