WASHINGTON - US Vice President Mike Pence told reporters that he was planning a meeting with the cruise industry representatives to discuss later this week consequences of a coronavirus outbreak.
"There are unique challenges… in a closed environment of a cruise liner. We are going to talk about best practices​​​. I thought it was time to spend some time with the people in that industry as we are meeting with others in industries around the country," Pence said during a White House briefing on Wednesday.
Pence was appointed to coordinate US administration efforts to combat the disease that has already killed 11 Americans.
The meeting with the cruise industry companies is expected to take place on Saturday in Florida. Pence wants to discuss the Diamond Princess case – a cruise liner placed on a lengthy quarantine in Japan with over 700 coronavirus patients on board.
The meeting in Florida will be preceded by Pence’s visits to 3M chemical company in Minnesota, a top contractor to manufacture millions of face masks for medics, and to the state of Washington, the locality worst hit by the coronavirus in the United States. (Sputnik)

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia needs oil to fetch around $80 a barrel to balance its state budget while cartel ally Russia needs much lower prices of around $42 per barrel [File: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters]

VIENNA – The OPEC and the group of non-OPEC countries, which are part of the oil production cut deal, over the next two days will come up with a response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus that has brought the oil prices down.
On Thursday, the 178th (Extraordinary) Meeting of the OPEC member states will be held in Vienna, while on Friday a meeting of the OPEC+ group, which includes major oil producers such as Russia and Mexico, will take place in the Austrian capital. The participants will decide whether to extend the existing caps on oil production and if additional cuts are needed in order to boost oil prices or at least keep them at a certain level profitable for the energy producers​​​.
The OPEC+ Technical Committee, which convened on Tuesday, has reportedly recommended introducing extra cuts of between 600,000–1 million barrels per day (bpd). On the next day, it was followed by a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), tasked with assessing the oil output cut deal’s implementation and providing recommendations to keep the market balanced. Even though the final JMMC’s recommendations have not been disclosed yet, a source told Sputnik that the ministers had discussed the option of cutting the production by up to 1.5 million barrels per day on top of the existing cap of 1.7 million bpd. 
Oil producers are gravely alarmed by the outbreak of the new coronavirus as it sparked expectations of a slowdown in oil demand. As a result, Brent futures fell from a peak of $71.75 per barrel in January to a 32-month low of $48.41 per barrel on Monday. On February 12, OPEC downgraded its 2020 global oil demand growth forecast by almost 20 percent to 990,000 barrels per day.
Reaching a final decision on reducing oil production is likely to be an uneasy job for the OPEC+. The signs of internal disagreements first emerged in late January, when it was reported that some members were pushing for an earlier OPEC+ meeting in light of the coronavirus. However, it was ultimately decided to stick to the initial schedule of March 5-6. 
Saudi Arabia, a leader of the oil cartel, is reportedly in favor of reducing production by more than 1 million barrels per day as the country’s economy and state budget heavily rely on the oil prices. Russia, on the contrary, as a principal non-OPEC country, is believed to be satisfied with oil trading at some $40 to $50 per barrel as it does now.
Many experts have claimed that the Russian-Saudi relations suffered a breakdown, but Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak dismissed the claims and said that Moscow and Riyadh “have never had these differences.”
A source in the Russian delegation told Sputnik that at the JMMC meeting, Moscow proposed to extend the OPEC+ oil production cuts deal beyond June, without any additional caps for the second quarter of the year. After that, the Russian energy minister was seen leaving the OPEC headquarters while the meeting was still ongoing. However, he is expected to return Friday for the OPEC+ Ministerial Meeting.
NO HANDSHAKES AND HUGS
As the number of coronavirus infections continues to grow worldwide, OPEC had to introduce strict safety measures for this week’s meetings. First, the cartel has barred all journalists from entering the OPEC headquarters during the events. As a result, media professionals had to hunt down the energy officials at the entrance to the building, but the cartel was kind enough to provide some food and hot drinks to the journalists.
All participants of the JMMC meeting on Wednesday were screened for high temperature upon arrival, including the ministers themselves. The cartel has also installed a banner at the entrance calling on the visitors to “avoid handshakes and hugs.”
A video posted by OPEC on Twitter depicts the Cartel’s Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo jokingly greeting the Russian energy minister with “a leg”  shake even though both of them were seen doing a handshake the same day. (Sputnik)

Jakarta - State airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) is set to tighten its surveillance of incoming international passengers from South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan where the impact of coronavirus or COVID-19 is escalating.

"Today I have just received an instruction to tighten surveillance, not ban, of international passengers from Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy," PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) President Director Muhammad Awaluddin said on the sidelines of SOE Performance Excellence Award 2020 in Jakarta on Wednesday.

PT Angkasa Pura II has to coordinate with national and international airlines such as Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air that serve routes from and to the countries, Awaluddin said. However, no airlines serve direct flights from Indonesia to Iran and Italy.

Besides, PT Angkasa Pura II will also coordinate with customs, immigration and health quarantine authorities, he said.

"The most important thing is the (coordination with) the health quarantine authorities. It is likely that during a certain period they (the international passengers) cannot leave the airport but must be quarantined or taken to certain hospitals," he said.

The company is preparing a standard operating procedure (SOP) to tighten the surveillance of international passengers from the four countries. The SOP was once applied to passengers from China, he said.

To date, the Port Health Office (KKP) has exclusive SOP to supervise passengers from the country where a new strain of coronavirus first broke out. Through the SOP, every passenger is required to have their body temperature checked before leaving the aircraft.

"It is different from the procedure applied to passengers from an unaffected country. As usual, they pass through the thermal scanner at the gate heading to the immigration counters," he said. (ANTARA)

Jakarta - Indonesia has a great opportunity to become a country that can develop world digital innovation, Minister of Research and Technology Bambang Brodjonegoro said. "There are opportunities, which certainly must be more technopreneur or entrepreneur who has a base in the field of technology," Bambang Brodjonegoro said in Jakarta, Wednesday.

Because, the technopreneur will push digital technology into becoming a business, he said. Then, if there are already entrepreneurs, in the next stage they must be able to survive by using the concept of research and development.

After that, entrepreneurs must also conduct strong research and development. The research must be supported by adequate human resources to compete with other countries.

"This is the goal to be able to compete with other companies from other countries," he said.

A group of talented people in the field of information technology must be encouraged to allow Indonesia to advance in the digital sector, the minister said.

"The second focus is to encourage more entrepreneurs in the country. This second combination is needed," the minister said.

The issue of human resources becomes a big factor which until now still hampered Indonesia from becoming a big player in the field of research and innovation, according to the minister.

Therefore, Indonesia must begin to measure human resources, including the millennials, so that they can later be at the forefront to encourage research and innovation in the country.

Nevertheless, to develop human resources in the field of research is not an easy matter. The level of education and the quality of education must be followed, Bambang claimed.

Indonesia has recorded the highest growth in the digital economy among ASEAN member countries, with 90 percent of growth from 2015 to 2017, Deputy of Infrastructure of the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) Hari Santosa Sungkari earlier said.

"During the 2015 to 2017 period, the growth of Indonesia's digital economy reached almost 90 percent," Sungkari told reporters on the sidelines of the Bekraf Developer Day 2019 here Sunday.

Transactions through e-commerce platforms were mostly conducted by creative industry players and small and medium scale entrepreneurs, he said.

In 2017, e-commerce transactions in Indonesia reached US$8 million, of which US$5 million were made through online stores such as Bukalapak, Tokopedia, and others.

"The interesting fact is that of the US$5 million (transactions), the sellers were small firms led by women," he added. (ANTARA)