VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The trend of sharia economy in the financing activities in Indonesia, particularly in Central Java, is good and is growing by 9 to 10 percent, Bank Indonesia (BI) said.

"In 2017, the assets of (sharia-compliant banks) made up around 7 percent of the banking industry`s total assets," Chief of the BI Representative Office in Central Java, Hamid Ponco Wibowo, stated in Semarang, Central Java on Monday.

Despite having small assets, the financing activities of sharia-compliant banks continued to grow amid the ever-increasingly competitive banking climate, he noted. The sharia economy is divided into banking and non-banking sectors. However, only the banking sector has drawn more attention, he added.

"The sharia economy still has many potential to be explored. The distribution of credits from sharia-compliant banks is better than those of conventional banks," he remarked.

Hence, BI is cooperating with the Indonesian Association of Sharia-Compliant Banks (Asbisindo) in familiarizing the public, particularly students, with sharia economy, he revealed.

"Only recently, we simultaneously taught sharia economy to some 6 thousand students. Hopefully, the activity will serve as information media to promote sharia economy from now on," he explained.

The education on sharia economy should be developed from the grassroots, including students, in order to make them aware of the potentials they can explore from the sharia economy, he elaborated. He noted that BI is also teaming up with Islamic boarding schools to develop their business potentials as part of the efforts to boost sharia economy. To that end, BI has designated two Islamic boarding schools as pilot projects to develop sharia economy, he pointed out.

Three cities in Indonesia, Jakarta, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Banyuwangi in East Java, are proposed to be included in the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN). Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi in Singapore, during a press conference on the 32nd ASEAN Summit, Sunday,  said the concept of ASCN was designed to achieve a shared goal of smart city development in ASEAN network cooperation program.

"Each country delivers three cities and Indonesia proposes Jakarta, Makassar and Banyuwangi," she said.

The foreign affairs minister said that in the plenary of the ASEAN Summit, President Jokowi delivered several things, among others, ASEAN is a centered and people-oriented organization so that people should be the focus in the development of the ASEAN community.

"And innovation to strengthen the ASEAN community in the midst of a very complex urban problem needs to be encouraged, so the ASCN is one of the answers to the challenge," the foreign minister quoted the president as saying.

According to her, it is important for the interest of inclusiveness and innovation. Indonesia itself is developing a 100 smart cities movement in an effort to encourage more effective, transparent and reliable governance. The core of the cooperation in the field of smart city is to encourage the use of technology to advance the city designed in such a way that it is in accordance with the needs and potential of the region.  That is for optimal results for the community and for realizing more effective, transparent and reliable governance. ( antara ) 

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has underscored the need for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to stay alert for cyber attack during the 32nd ASEAN Summit held in Singapore from April 25 to 28.

To that end, ASEAN member states need to work more closely in digital technology and cyber security. he said while addressing a plenary session of the 32nd ASEAN Summit on Friday night.

"We know there has been abuse of personal data by Facebook users. In ASEAN, we need to ensure the framework of cooperation in cyber security which also contains the protection of personal data. Hence, cooperation in the cyber field is a must," he said.

The Indonesian leader went on to say that ASEAN has very large potentials in the e-commerce field.

He predicted Internet users in ASEAN member states will triple to 600 million in 2015.

"E-commerce shopping is projected at almost US$90 billion and total internet-based economy is estimated at US$200 billion," he said.

Hence, ASEAN member states need to establish closer cooperation in developing cyber security policy and capacity building initiative through the ASEAN Cyber Capacity Program, the AMCC, and the ASEAN-Japan Cyber security Capacity Building Center, among others.

In their joint statement, ASEAN leaders underscored the need for ASEAN member states to implement steps and efforts to develop self confidence and adopt general, voluntary, and non-binding norms from the public behavior in order to act responsibly in the cyber world.

The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has affirmed that Indonesia is committed to encouraging Bangladesh to become a developing country in South Asian region through cooperation between the two countries in the fields of economy, investment, and trade. Director General of National Export Development of the Ministry of Trade, Arlinda, stated that the Indonesian government is ready to cooperate in strategic sectors with Bangladesh through the airport and infrastructure development management.

"President Joko Widodo hopes that the cooperation will boost Bangladesh into a developing country and, together with Indonesia, will improve the welfare of the peoples of both countries through economic, investment, and trade cooperation that benefit both countries," Arlinda stated in a written statement received in Jakarta on Saturday.

The statement was delivered during the business forum activities at Le Meridien Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The business forum is part of a series of trade missions to Bangladesh, which is a follow-up of Widodo`s visit in January 2018.

For the Bangladesh trade mission, the Ministry of Trade brought 93 business actors from 43 companies in various production sectors or industries, such as oil and gas, CPO, fashion, food and beverage, automotive, property, airport services, furniture, construction, and infrastructure services.

These Indonesian businessmen established trade communications with 122 Bangladeshi buyers, consisting of 103 importing companies and 19 members of Bangladeshi chamber of commerce. The Ministry of Trade organized a trade mission to Bangladesh from April 26 to 28, 2018, as part of an effort to open export markets to non-traditional countries.

These series of trade mission activities consists of business forum, business matching, and support of the implementation of Indonesia Fair 2018 held by Embassy of Dhaka. The business forum in Dhaka serves as a meeting place for Indonesian and Bangladeshi businessmen to get to know each other and establish business relationships.

After the business forum, entrepreneurs from both countries meet in a business matching session to carry out business and investment transactions. The Indonesian delegation also visited the palm oil importer, Meghna Group of Industries (MGI). To strengthen trade cooperation, Arlinda also invited Bangladesh entrepreneurs to participate in Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) from Oct 24 to 28, 2018, at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) BSD, Tangerang.

It also invites Bangladeshi businessmen to travel to various exotic tourist destinations in Indonesia, such as Kuta Beach in Bali, Raja Ampat in Papua, and Mandalika in West Nusa Tenggara. (antara)