Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has expressed his optimism that online trading in traditional markets would spur sound competition among vendors, because consumers could access online information on basic goods availability and prices.

The minister cited an online traditional market application developed by Pontianak's mayor as an example. The online information shows data on commodity prices in every market in the city. The public can access the information and find out the best prices offered.

"I believe in healthy competition among traders, such as the one in Pontianak. Eventually, it is the people who benefit from it. I am against this anti-monopoly," the minister remarked.

The Trade Ministry is currently developing an application that could facilitate vendors in traditional markets across Indonesia to offer their products through online services.

The online application for traditional markets is being developed with the cooperation of the Indonesian E-commerce Association (IdEA) and start-up companies.

The minister hoped that the application would be ready for operation this year. (ANTARA)

Indonesian government was still undecided to ground the flights using Boeing 737 Max 8, although similar plane type crashed again recently. Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan in Jakarta, on the sideline of the launch of Indonesia National Plastic Action Partnerships Monday (11/03) said related government and stakeholders will soon discuss the steps following the incident of Ethiopian Airlines’ ET-AVJ that reportedly killed one Indonesian citizen.

“I have talked with the Transportation Minister. We’ll listen to the reports first. Our movement will be based on the report. We’ll discuss that tomorrow, and then make the decision,” said Luhut Panjaitan.

Meanwhile, as quoted from cnnindonesia.com, since Monday (11/3), Civil Aviation Administration of China had ordered all Chinese airlines to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 planes. Similarly, through their twitter account, Ethiopian Airlines announced that they now ground all Boeing 737 Max 8. The ET-AVJ craft of Ethiopean Airlines was the second incident involving Boeing 737 Max 8 in several months after the crash of Lion Air PK-LQP Jakarta-Pangkalpinang in October 2019. (VOI/Steve/Trans.Steve/DP)

Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Ngurah Swajaya called on students of the University of Diponegoro to be optimistic and confident in facing digital disruption.

The ambassador spoke during a public lecture at the University of Diponegoro (Undip), Semarang, Central Java, according to a statement from the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore that Antara received in Jakarta on Saturday.

The activity, attended by some 150 students, was opened directly by Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs Prof. Dr Ir. Muhammad Zainuri, DEA, of the University Of Diponegoro.

Ambassador Swajaya urged millennials to look at the challenges of the global economy, including disruption through the digitalization of the economy as part of the global transformation phenomenon that must be faced with optimism, confidence, and hard work.

Amid the continuing uncertainty of the global economy which, among others, is overshadowed by the threat of trade wars, Indonesia`s younger generation must address this matter through hard work to improve their skills and competitiveness but at the same time also to understand and utilize the advantages that Indonesia has.

With economic growth of above five percent and increasing foreign investment and political and security stability, Indonesia has become one of the attractive destinations for foreign investment.

"Aspirations from businesses and other stakeholders in Singapore are growing, many of them praising the process of political transformation, infrastructure development, ease of doing business, and Indonesia`s current economic potential, including the digital economy," he explained.

"Singapore investors` trust and attractiveness to invest in Indonesia is very high, and the current trend indicates that Indonesia is still the most attractive destination for new investments and expansion of their investments. Indonesia is also an attractive destination for the digital economy, especially the development of start-up businesses," he noted.

According to Ambassador Swajaya, Indonesia`s digital economic potential is currently still the largest in the ASEAN, with the presence of four tech unicorns from only around seven in the ASEAN.

Indonesian young talents are the main drivers for the growth of four unicorns from Indonesia.

In addition, he noted, the strong commitment of the Indonesian Government to improve conducive conditions, especially the "ease of doing business "and ecosystems that support investment, are considered as being important.

With this potential, Indonesia can become the main driver for business development in the ASEAN.

With a promising market, followed by good human resource growth and increasingly favorable regulations for businesspersons, the cooperation between Indonesia and Singapore can play a role in exploiting the ASEAN market potential, which is thrice the size of the Indonesian market, he noted.

"This makes Indonesia as one of the countries in ASEAN that is very attractive to invest," Swajaya noted.

Total investment realization from Singapore in Indonesia in 2018 had increased by 9.1 percent, or US$9.2 billion, some 30 percent of the total foreign investment, due to which Singapore has remained Indonesia`s biggest investor for five consecutive years.

Indonesia-Singapore relations in future hold good prospects to continue to grow if a more positive perception were to be improved among the people of both countries, especially through increasing interaction among members of the younger generation, especially to collaborate in a mutually beneficial cooperation.

A good understanding of the young generation of Indonesia, especially among academics regarding the growing trend of transformation in the world and their optimism and confidence in seeking opportunities from this transformation process, including in the digital economy, will provide added value to continue to develop Indonesia`s potential to be one of the 10 largest economies in the world.

Ambassador Swajaya noted that members of the young generation of both nations are expected to capitalize on the momentum of five decades of diplomatic relations between the two countries by together building a new paradigm of mutually beneficial cooperation. (ANTARA)

Some 400 community members, who care for environmental conservation and preservation, conducted a cleanup event at Kupang City’s mangrove ecotourism park in Oesapa Barat Village on Saturday.

As a result of the cleanup event that started at around 7 a.m. local time, the volunteers, including those from "I Choose Earth" Community, could collect several hundred bags containing organic and inorganic waste from the city`s tourist site.

Head of Kupang City Government’s Office of Environmental Affairs Yeri Sabtuhar Padji highly lauded the residents` care for the environment by helping the government handle the trash-related problem.

Different forms of trash, particularly domestic waste, are still easily found in and around the areas of the city’s mangrove ecotourism park and Oesapa Beach. The waste might be dumped into rivers and carried to the sea, he remarked.

Padji said it was necessary to make the people living along the river banks aware of the importance of keeping rivers clean by not dumping household waste into them and by implementing the reuse, reduce, and recycle (3R) system.

"May this cleanup event help encourage the Kupang city residents to be willing to keep their respective neighborhood areas clean and stop littering," he noted, adding that the trash picked up by the volunteers was then transported by trucks to a dumpsite.

Indonesia has been facing a major problem related to plastic waste over the past several decades amid the government`s serious endeavor to deal with the menace by highlighting its detrimental impacts on the country’s environmental sustainability.

Plastic waste, which has a serious impact on the quality of soil and water and may threaten the existence of living creatures, is closely related to the amount of the trash produced and used by Indonesians every day.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya noted that some 9.8 billion plastic bags are used in Indonesia every year, and almost 95 percent of them will end up as waste.

The ministry`s waste management directorate also estimated that the total number of plastic straws used by Indonesians every day reaches some 93 million, increasing from nine percent in 1995 to 16 percent this year. (ANTARA)