VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Vice President Jusuf Kalla opined that the trade war between the United States and China had direct and indirect impact on the Indonesian economy.

"The United States and Chinese trade war has an impact on us, directly and indirectly," he stated after attending the National Workshop of "Caring for Peace: Learning from Conflict Resolution and Peace in Maluku for United, Sovereign, Adjust and Prosperous Indonesia," at the JS Luwansa Hotel, Jakarta, on Tuesday, July 10.

The direct impact of trade tensions between the two countries on Indonesia is the evaluation of Indonesian export products by the United States government through a generalized system of preferences (GSP) evaluation system.

"The immediate impact is that the United States is considering to evaluate the GSP, which gives eminence to developing countries, including Indonesia," he explained.

Currently, the US government is evaluating around 124 Indonesian export products, including textiles, cotton, and fishery products, such as shrimp and crabs. The US import evaluation policy is undertaken to determine what type of products are still eligible to enter the country.

Meanwhile, the indirect impact of the trade war is the value of Indonesia`s raw material exports to China that declined due to weak industrial production of the country.

"Hence, our effort aims to stabilize the domestic economy, so it is not only exports but our domestic consumers can grow into new markets," he added.

The US import evaluation policy is a unilateral trade policy generally owned by developed countries to assist the developing country`s economy, but not binding on both the giving and receiving countries.(ANTARA)

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Gary Quinlan, has shared three key solutions to tackle regional disparities, which remain the major obstacles for Indonesia.

The three big issues, as he mentioned in the opening session of Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) 2018 held in Jakarta on Tuesday, include connectivity, competitiveness, and human capital.

Large diverse countries need clever investments in infrastructure and logistics services to connect people, communities, and industries, he stated.

"Building and maintaining transport and communications infrastructure in countries like ours is expensive. Therefore, we need cost-effective and innovative infrastructure solutions that make the most of what the private sector can offer and meets local communities' needs and priorities ," Quinlan remarked.

Aware of the fact that infrastructure development has been marked as a priority of the Joko Widodo administration, the ambassador stressed that Australia will support Indonesia by providing technical advice on priority infrastructure policy reforms and funding project preparation as well as pilots and incentive grants.

Australia has suggested new types of partnership with the private sector to help Indonesia accelerate its infrastructure investment in future.

"Further work is needed to tackle the logistics bottlenecks that increase the cost of basic goods, such as food and fuel, and constrain the growth of local economies," he noted.

Competitiveness is considered an important factor to enable regional economies to diversify and unlock sustainable new sources of growth.

Like in Indonesia, the agricultural sector is a vital contributor to the Australian economy, and it is also an industry that has seen dramatic changes.

Australia has doubled its agricultural productivity over the past 25 years by focusing on agricultural products, where the country has a comparative advantage, and investing in innovation.

The Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), which the two governments are currently negotiating, will make an important contribution to Indonesia’s economic growth.

Lower tariffs benefit everyone, and consumers benefit from cheaper goods, while local industries get access to lower cost and more efficient supplies of inputs.

Improved access to service suppliers and investors helps boost investment, bringing with it new technologies, skills, and businesses.

"IA-CEPA will also help both countries access regional supply chains and benefit by combining the relative strengths that are key to today?s global trade environment," he revealed.

A dynamic digital sector will be also critical to the future competitiveness of the economy, which should be utilized by harnessing technology to drive growth and create jobs across Indonesia.

The third critical ingredient to overcome disparities is human capital, which is the motor to increase productivity, boost livelihoods, and grow new industries.

Improving human capital requires good equality of education, both at the school level and at the vocational and technical education, and training, which meet the needs of young women and men in rural and remote areas, including digital literacy.

In this case, Australia is working with Indonesia to help rural schools teach literacy and numeracy through the INOVASI education partnerships in remote areas of East and West Nusa Tenggara and North Kalimantan, and through the work with UNICEF in the Papua provinces.

In Australia, civil society organizations play an important role in service delivery, particularly for disadvantaged groups and in remote areas.

"We are working with Indonesia to test new ways to partner up with the civil society to provide services, such as early childhood education, help for families affected by violence, and disability support," Quinlan explained.

Considering that governments have limited resources, Australia's experience in building a world-leading education sector shows that private sector education providers play an important role in supporting the wider public education system.

"This is particularly helpful in the critical area of vocational education and skills training, where private trainers are often best placed to deliver the targeted skills industry needs," he added.

This year`s IDF is conducted with a main theme of "Pathways to Tackle Regional Disparities Across the Archipelago".

The national forum is a platform to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences to address the inter-regional development gap challenges facing Indonesia by engaging all government partners and communities.

IDF is the joint initiative between the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and Australian government under the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI) program. Reportedly, 356.9 million Australian dollars have been granted by the Australian government to Indonesia through the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget.

At the end of his speech, Quinlan stressed that supporting Indonesia to grow its economy and tackle inequality across the country is at the heart of the Indonesia-Australia development partnership. (ANTARA)

Indonesia and Argentina have maintained bilateral cooperation for 62 years in 2018. The cooperation has valuable long  history in many fields such as economy and education. It was said by Minister of Research Technology and high Education , Muhammad Nasir at the commemoration of Argentina National Day in Jakarta on Monday (9/7).

"Indonesia and Argentina have stable ties and have hand in hand engaged in the mutual relationship to strengthen the friendship and cooperation. One of our main focus to boost our economic relation. Therefore RI and Argentina will try together to further strengthen it. We also should give our attention to the importance of people to people contact between the two nations. Both Indonesia and Argentina have always been walking hand in hand to enhance the people to people contact through cooperation in many sectors, mainly education and sports," M. Nasir said.

Furthermore ,Minister Muhammad Nasir expected the cooperation ties between Indonesia and Argentina will increase and grow well in upcoming years. (VOI/Ahmad Faisal/AHM)

The Argentine Embassy in Jakarta held the 202nd anniversary of Argentina's National Day on Monday, July 9th in Jakarta. Ambassador of Argentina to Indonesia Ricardo Luis Bocalandro said in his speech that Argentina and Indonesia are equally-connected partners. He said Argentina and Indonesia share a common value in the field of international peace and security. Therefore, Argentina is really happy because Indonesia was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"Among those similarities Indonesia and Argentina share, is a profound respect for the main principles of the international community.) Indonesia and Argentina fully respect the non-intervention territory and integrity principle, fully respect the solutions of all international disputes through diplomacy and conversation and negotiation friendly nations We are extremely happy to know that now joins the UN security council because we know that principles Indonesia respects which are our principles," Ambassador Ricardo Luis Bocalandro said.

Ambassador Ricardo Luis Bocalandro further said, Argentina and Indonesia also have much in common as the members of the G20. G20 is a country with the most significant economy. Later this year leaders of G20 nations will gather at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentina will be delighted to welcome President Joko Widodo. Ambassador Bocalandro still remembers the visit of President Soekarno to Argentina when Indonesia's first president was the founder of the Non-Aligned Movement. With the similarity, ambassador Ricardo hopes in the future relationship of the two countries will be closer. (VOI/SEKAR/AHM)