VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

RRI Voice of Indonesia once again held the VOI 2018 Literature Award and talk show themed Guratan Pena: Menjayakan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia” or Encouraging Indonesian Language and Literature." The talk show and the handing over of the award was held at Radio Republik Indonesia, Jakarta, Thursday, 15 November. This is the eighth year for RRI Voice of Indonesia to give appreciation to short story writers of Indonesian diaspora. Secretary of the Language Development and Fostering Agency, Muh. Abdul Khak, in the talk show said, on behalf of the government and the Language Development Board, he appreciated RRI Voice of Indonesia which had organized this extraordinary event. He hoped, in the future, the Language Development and Fostering Agency could work together with RRI Voice of Indonesia in celebrating Indonesian Literature.

"In the future, if later the Language Development and Fostering Agency is asked to cooperate in this context, we welcome it because it is the new task and function of the Language Development and Fostering Agency. There is for example, the center of language and literature development, later there will be language development division, literary development division, which has been a sub-ordinate of languages," said Abdul Khak.

Abdul Khak further explained, every year, the Language Development and Fostering Agency also gave awards to language and literary activists. According to him, next year RRI Voice of Indonesia could work with the Language Development and Fostering Agency to give awards to overseas writers. From a total of 94 short stories that were broadcast by Voice of Indonesia on the Guratan Pena program during 2018, 23 works were entitled to enter the selection round. Based on the selection process, the jury determined 3 (three) literary works to be the winners of the VOI 2018 Literature Award. The first winner is Ayundha Lestari, a migrant worker in Hong Kong, with her short story titled Dunia Sean or Sean’s World, the second winner is Arista Devy, a migrant worker in Hong Kong, with her story titled Rahasia Suki dan Kesaksian Pembantu Pertama or Suki’s Secret and the testimony of the First Assistant, and the third winner is Jassy Ae, a migrant worker in Taiwan, with her story titled Pulang or Coming Home. (VOI/Sekar/AHM)

Ambassador of Brazil to Indonesia Rubem Antônio Corrêa Barbosa, Thursday in Jakarta stated the readiness of Brazil to continue to enhance bilateral cooperation between Brazil and Indonesia. He said that Indonesia is predicted to experience an increase in population to 340 million. According to him, this provides an opportunity for Brazil to cooperate in providing food for the Indonesian people who are also predicted to experience challenges in food production.

He also stated the readiness of Brazil to develop defense cooperation with Indonesia. He said that the two countries have strong reasons to hope that good relations between countries will continue to grow in the future.

"I think that would be another point of closeness between Brazil and Indonesia taking to count that Indonesian population would reach 340 million people in the coming decades and the space for the production of food would not be that huge. Brazil would be here for help. We already have considerable cooperation in the area of defense we would be glad to expand. Anyway, the prospects are good I think that after 6-5 years we have a lot to show and there is a strong ground for good hope in the relationship for the years ahead," said Rubem Antônio Corrêa Barbosa.

Regarding the economic cooperation, the total trade value between Indonesia and Brazil was recorded at 4.05 billion US dollars in 2014. This number increased by 4.8 percent compared to the previous year. While in 2017, bilateral trade between the two countries reached 3.12 billion US dollars, a relatively high achievement for the current world trend. The amount also shows good prospects in increasing the cooperation of the two countries.

In the first half of 2018, two-way trade reached 1.33 billion US dollars. In addition, in early 2018, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) formed a special committee to improve trade relations with Brazil. With Gross Domestic Product of US $ 2.05 trillion and US $ 1.01 trillion respectively, Brazil and Indonesia still have space to increase untapped bilateral cooperation. (VOI/NDY/AHM)

Darianto Harsono, Deputy Director II of the Directorate of American II, Directorate General of American and European Cooperation, Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Thursday in Jakarta encouraged increased cooperation between Indonesia and Brazil. Related to this he mentioned that the two countries must pay attention to the strategic cooperation that has been running. He also encouraged to increase reciprocal visits between the two countries’ Heads of State, Ministers and senior officials to improve dialogue between the two countries.

While in the trade cooperation sector, Darianto underlined the importance of increasing the trade value that would improve the living standards of the two countries. He also highlighted the importance of holding visibility studies to increase the economic cooperation between the two countries. Besides that he also invited the community to increase the number of visits between the two countries.

"Both coutries in this regards should reflect on what strategic partnership means and in political patron we have to encourage exchange visit of the Head of States, Ministers and Senior Officials. On trade and economic sector we need to further strengthen our partnership that will bring economic and social benefit and improve the living standards of people of both countries. and it is also important to establish the trade visibility study for Indonesia in Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. specially in tourism sector. i would like to invite Brazil to work together to increase the visit to both countries," Darianto Harsono.

Furthermore, Darianto Harsono underlined the importance of promoting cooperation with Brazil. This is because Brazil is a strategic partner for Indonesia, especially in the South American and Caribbean regions. He also encouraged the two countries to maintain their commitment to revitalize and strengthen bilateral cooperation, including encouraging more meetings at all levels related to the implementation of joint action plans in strategic partnerships. (VOI/NDY/AHM)

United States Agency for International Development-USAID believes that civil society that represents citizens can assist in the process of policy formulation, service delivery and government oversight. The US government through USAID is honored to be able to contribute to the First Indonesian Civil Society Forum, which raised the theme 'Building Capacity to Ensure Sustainability', in Jakarta on Wednesday, (November 14). Expert Staff for Law and Democracy Reinforcement at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Haru Tamtomo, in his remarks said that the Indonesian and US governments have collaborated to create democratic governance through an agreement document dated 29 September 2014.

"The document of the cooperation agreement between the government of the Republic of Indonesia represented by the Ministry of Finance along with the Ministry of National Development Planning Agency and the United States government represented by USAID Indonesia was signed in the assistance agreement No. 497 on September 29, 2014. The cooperation agreement contains sebveral points; one of them is cooperation for pillars of DO or Development Objectives I, related to democratic government," Haru Tamtomo said,

Haru Tamtomo further said that although the terminology between civil society and mass organizations is often used simultaneously, actually the two terms are not the same, because Civil Society Organizations are defined as organized civil society and can take several forms, such as informal institutions without legal entities or formal institutions with legal entities. He said that at present, the number of mass organizations in Indonesia reaches 390,293 organizations or in a day there are around 50 to 100 new mass organizations formed and registered. A number of mass organizations have proven to contribute significantly to nation building starting from the colonial period to the present, such as Budi Oetomo, Islamic Law Society, Taman Siswa, Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama, and Catholic Women of the Republic of Indonesia. (VOI/Viqran/AHM)