VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Bali provincial government has on Saturday offered its region's hotel investment projects to some 19 Chinese businessmen attending the Sunda Kecil Expo 2019 Forum held in Kupang, capital of East Nusa Tenggara Province.

"At this forum, the Bali government is willing to offer regional hotel investment projects for development across our regions of West Bali, North and East," Head of Promotion at the Bali Investment Agency I Ketut Sudibya remarked in his statement.

However, Bali is yet prioritizing tourism development since tourist arrivals to Bali in 2018 had reached some 16 million, with six million foreign tourists, while the 10 million were from domestic areas, Sudibya pointed out.

He noted that Bali was currently working on six potential tourism sectors of ecotourism, silent tourism, agritourism, sports tourism, spiritual tourism, and retirement tourism.

To this end, the north region, for instance, is pursuing to build a hotel in Pejarakan, Buleleng District, on 250 hectares of land area, while in Sumberkima and Celukan Bawang, 70 hectares and 20 hectares respectively of land had been provided.

Sudibya noted that the other regions comprised the districts of Jembrana, Karangasem, Klungkung, as well as Bangli and Tabanan. (ANTARA)

The Indonesian police investigators still examined the composition of the bomb used in the suspected suicide bombing in Medan city police headquarters in North Sumatra Province which injured six people on Wednesday morning, a police spokesman said.

The police investigators could not yet reveal whether the bomb was categorized as high or low explosives, National Police Spokesman Inspector General Mohammad Iqbal said when contacted in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The crime scene investigation has involved the National Police's Densus 88 counter-terrorism squad, the North Sumatra Police's Indonesia Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (Inafis) unit and forensics units, he said.

The police are also probing into whether the suspect acted as a lone wolf or he belonged to a terrorist network, he said, adding that six people sustained injuries due to this bombing attack.

Related news: National Police confirms six victims in bombing strike in Medan

However, none of them got serious wounds. All of the wounded survivors had been admitted to the North Sumatra police hospital for medical treatment.

Iqbal said the suspect walked into the yard of the Medan city police headquarters after the police officers finished holding their morning roll call. He walked toward an operational office, and then detonated the bomb.

When launching his attack, the suspect wore a jacket of an online-based motorbike taxi. Following this incident, security around the police headquarters which is located at MH Said Street was stepped up.

Several personnel of the police' Mobile Brigade Corps guarded the entrance gate and safeguard traffic access into the location. An ambulance was also on standby around the Medan city police headquarters.

In March this year, Solimah, a housewife, detonated a home-made bomb inside her house in Sibolga, North Sumatra Province.

Indonesia has become the target of attacks by terrorists since 2000, and the spread of extremism and terrorism continues to threaten the country.

ANTARA noted that in May 2018, a church in the East Java city of Surabaya was attacked. Three years ago, ISIS supporters in Indonesia had launched a suicide bombing and shooting attack in Jakarta on January 14, 2016, which led to the deaths of eight people, including three innocent civilians.

The incident adds to the list of deadly assaults conducted by terrorist cells in Indonesia. From 2000 to 2012, more than a dozen attacks took place in the capital city, including the Australian embassy bombing on September 9, 2004, and the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel bombings on July 17, 2009.

One of the effective ways to free Indonesia from the vicious circle of radicalism and terrorism is by empowering women in the country, as they can actively contribute to safeguarding Indonesian children from being indoctrinated by terrorist recruiters. (ANTARA)

Chief of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia has asked Japan to increase its export-oriented investment in Indonesia during a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii in Jakarta Monday. The BKPM chief made the request following up on a meeting between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the 35th ASEAN Summit held in Bangkok recently, member of the BKPM Investment Committee for Communication and Information Rizal Calvary Marimbo said in a written statement released Tuesday.
During the meeting, the two leaders discussed ways to increase investment in the development of infrastructure and human resources in Indonesia, he said.

"We warmly welcome the new BKPM chief's hope. We are optimistic that investment cooperation with Indonesia will increase in the future," Ambassador Ishii said.

However, several problems related to regulations, licensing and taxation posed an obstacle to Japanese investment in Indonesia, he added.

Japan also directed its investment to neighboring countries which are more prepared to receive Japanese investment, he said.

Indonesia was once the number one destination of Japanese investment in the world. However, results of a survey revealed that Indonesia had been overtaken by Vietnam, India and China, he said.

BKPM is in the process of making fundamental changes to improve the investment climate in the country, Bahlil assured in response to Ishii's complaint.

Japan is now the second-largest foreign investor in Indonesia after Singapore. Its investment in Indonesia in the past decade reached an estimated US$31 billion.

Contributions of Japanese companies to Indonesia's exports also increased to 24.4 percent from 18.1 percent.  (ANTARA)

The government, through 11 ministries and agencies, launched the state civil apparatus (ASN) complaint portal for handling radicalism.

"This activity was born to witness the rise in social media in connection with this matter. We must take precautionary measures against it, if the state civil apparatus (ASN) is involved in handling radicalism," Deputy of Apparatus Human Resources of the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry Setiawan Wangsaatmaja noted in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The 11 ministries and institutions comprise the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (Kemenpan-RB); Coordinating Ministry for Political, Security, and Legal Affairs (Kemenpolhukam); and the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri).

The others include the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kemenang), Ministry of Communications and Informatics (Kominfo), Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham), State Intelligence Agency, National Agency for Counter Terrorism, Agency for the Development of Ideology for Pancasila, and the State Apparatus Agency.

The Ministry of Communications and Informatics has provided the facility, Minister of Communications and Informatics Johnny G. Plate stated.

"The infrastructure provided is utilized with useful content and was a place for fact-backed complaints. It is made for the safety of the ASN," the minister stated. (ANTARA)