VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the government of Indonesia and the European Union initiated since April 2016 marks the beginning of a new era of cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union. The document on the scope of the cooperation is intended as a basis for starting CEPA negotiations. From an Indonesian perspective, the Indonesia and European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) is a reflection of Indonesia's commitment to realize Indonesia as a more open and competitive economy. This was stated  by Bambang Priambodo, Deputy of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Planning and National Development in a seminar  ‘the first National Dissemination for Aid Program in the ARISE + Indonesia Trade Sector in Jakarta, Wednesday (09/25). He also said that Indonesia and the European Union are negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to facilitate and create new market access.

“Indonesia and the European Union are in the process of negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the main objective to facilitate and create the new market access, to increase trade between the EU and Indonesia as well as to expand the direct investment,” said Bambang Priambodo.

Bambang Priambodo further explained that Indonesia is a member of the G20 and Indonesia's economy is considered as the 16th largest in the world. He also viewed that with GDP growth of 5.6% over the last nine years, and a population of nearly 270 million, Indonesia needs to develop sustainable measures. Bambang also said that Indonesia still needs to invest US$ 1,000 million dollars in infrastructure in the next five years from the private sector, and mainly from foreign investors, because the government can only cover and provide less than 40% of this amount. (VOI/AHM)

Voice of Indonesia for the eight times will hold Anugerah Sastra VOI (VOI Literature Award), an award and also media to accommodate writing talent of Indonesian citizens living abroad. The Anugerah Sastra VOI which was previously called Bilik Sastra VOI Award is the peak event of Guratan Pena, a program on Voice of Indonesia which collects and broadcasts short stories sent to Voice of Indonesia through e-mail. For this year, the first winner of Anugerah Sastra VOI 2019 is an Indonesian student in Egypt, Daud Farma, with his short story entitled Pedas Manis or Spicy Sweet. Meanwhile, the second winner is Ahla Jennan, an Indonesian migrant worker living in Hong Kong, with her short story entitled Jejak Cinta Asmaradhana or Love Traces of Asmaradhana. In addition to giving awards to the winners, there will also be a talk show themed Perantau Unggul dengan Menulis or “Indonesian Migrants Competent with Writing” to be held at Jusuf Ronodipuro auditorium, RRI Jakarta on Thursday (Sept 26). The talk show will be hosted by Diba Casym, a radio broadcaster, with speakers Head of Language Development and Cultivation Agency, Prof. Dadang Sunendar, Head of HB Jassin Literature Documentation Center Abrory Djabbar and young writer, Bernard Batubara. (VOI/AHM)

Tourism industry in Indonesia is increasingly interesting. Beautiful nature adding with various amazing traditions and cultures, has managed to attract domestic and foreign tourists. This is proved by data which was released by Google, that searching related to tourism increases by 39 percent since early 2018 according to Google Trends. Industry Manager Google Indonesia, Zulfi Rahardian, in Jakarta, on Tuesday (Sept 24) said that Data on Google Search within the last 18 months showed a surge in the tourism industry in Indonesia.  

“We will try to discuss the digital economic potential for online tourism in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest country for online tourism in Southeast Asia. Based on the results of Google Temasek's research last year, the total number of flight and hotel transactions carried out online, there were around eight point six billion USD. That is total penetration also called growth's value. In the last few years the growth has reached 20 percent and we expect for the next few years until 2025 it will still grow by 17 percent each year. This illustrates the enormous potential of online tourism in Indonesia,” said Zulfi Rahardian.

Assistant Deputy of Strategic Management of Tourism Ministry, Ari Prasetyo said that there are around 70 percent tourism process conducted through digital, starting from seeking, searching, until booking ticket and accommodation. The increasing online tourism industry in Indonesia is encouraged by a number of factors, such as the growing online travel aggregator (OTA) which offers various features and services for the tourists. (VOI/RIZKY F/YATI/AHM)

The basic problem of Forest and Land Fires is livelihood of local people in the field of agriculture and plantation. To explore forest and land, people and plantation companies often take shortcuts by burning forest and land due to low cost considerations. It was said by Deputy of System and Strategy of National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), Wisnu Widjaja at the   Merdeka Barat 9 Forum   held at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in Jakarta on Monday (Sept 23). He said the forest and land fires   can be dealt with through strong synergy among the government, media and community.

“Principally, if we want to overcome collaboratively, it must be done by the government, community, businessmen, experts and medias. At present 328 thousand hectares of land are on fire, according to data from the Environment and Forestry ministry. The cumulative hotspots currently to 3,124. We also deploy 48 helicopters or planes, 4 of which are for weather modification. We have also mobilized Hercules, CN-295, Cassa. There are available in Kalimantan as well as in Sumatra, especially in South Sumatra, Riau and Jambi,” said Wisnu Widjaja.

Meanwhile, Director General of Law Enforcement  of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rasio Ridho Sani explained that the Ministry has sealed 52 companies of concession license holder with the total of 8,931 hectares areas. The Ministry has also provided 288 warning letters to the involved companies of forest and land fires. He further said that the law enforcement  is needed to train obedience  for people, so that they have awareness to protect forest and land. (VOI/NUKE/TRS AF)