VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

In responding to the argument regarding sinking ships as punishments, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that foreign fishing boats that illegally fish on Indonesian waters can actually be used as state assets.

The former World Bank Managing Director supports the stance taken by Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to destroy and sink the foreign fishing boats that are proven guilty. The minister also said that it is a way to create a deterrent effect for future violators.

The minister further said that the difference in opinions between Minister Sri Mulyani and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan can be bridged. According to the minister, it can be bridged by continuously improving our management and monitoring, that would, later on, use that asset to uphold a good governance for society.

However, Sri Mulyani said that the captured foreign boats cannot be managed by the State Asset Management Agency (LMAN) considering that it is a forceful takeover which still has to go through a legal process.//TI

Of the total peat-land in the world reaching 400 million hectares per February 2016, the area of tropical peat-land is only eight percent. Of that amount, as much as 60 percent are in Southeast Asia. Tropical peat-land is the one which has the richest type of peat in carbon stocks. The benefit of the peat-land, that is only 3% of the total land area in the world, is capable of storing 75% carbon in the atmosphere. Indonesia is known to have the largest tropical peat-land which covers around 11.5 million hectares, while Malaysia has only 7 million hectares.

As the country with the largest tropical swamp peat-land ecosystem in the world, it is natural that Indonesia offers itself to be the world's tropical peat-land center. Indonesia’s experience for year in dealing with forest and land fires and restoring and providing peat protection should be a mainstay. Central Kalimantan and Sumatra are among those nominated as tropical peat-land candidate because they have done a lot of research, utilization and all related things to peat-land management programs.

The international response that appreciates Indonesia's performance in the protection, management and restoration of the burnt peat-lands is one of the reasons why Indonesia deserves to be the world's tropical peat-land center. Head of Research, Development and Innovation Agency of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Agus Justianto said that the concept is being discussed.

The management of the tropical peat-land center is planned to be under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) and in collaboration with the Peat-land Restoration Agency (BRG). Currently, the BRG is working on restoration on 2 million hectares of land in 7 provinces until 2019.

BRG itself was set up to deal with peat-land matters and strengthen peat-land regulation through government regulations and ministerial regulations, following the case of forest fires by 2015. According to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the effort contributed significantly to the reduction of hotspots. In 2015 – 2017, the number of hotspots dropped dramatically from nearly 22,000 spots to fewer than 2000 spots. This became a successful story of Indonesia in a bid to become a tropical peat-land center.

Head of the Peat-land Restoration Agency, Nazir Foead said that Indonesia will build a center of tropical peat-land ecosystem in Bogor, West Java. This centre will be a place for information sharing. While the peat-land laboratory is located in Riau, Jambi and Kalimantan. The center of this tropical peat-land ecosystem will be a place of learning for other countries that want to know about tropical peat-land and how to restore and care for tropical peat-land. Nazir also remarked that Indonesia has a lot of research on peat-land, and the research should be featured in the center of the tropical peat-land ecosystem. Indonesia also opens up the economic potential of the swamp peat-land whose moisture and humidity are kept. The potentials include genuine timbers of swamp peat-land as a substitute for acacia, peat-land coffee, forest honey, rubber and pineapple.

The efforts made by Indonesia are certainly not meaningful if not supported by similar activities by other countries. However, Indonesia is only a small part of this vast earth. All countries in the world must have the same responsibility to care for the earth.

This is RRI World Service-Voice of Indonesia with Diplomatic Corner, a program which presents information about activities and progress of Indonesian diplomacy in the international world.

Hands over Angklung to de Arte Tigre Museum by Indonesian Embassy Buenos Aires

The Indonesian embassy in Buenos Aires last Thursday (4/1) handed over one set of angklung bamboo traditional musical instrument to Director and Manager of de Arte Tigre Museum in Buenos Aires province, to introduce Indonesian culture to Argentinean people. Director of Artistic, Maria José Herrera, said when meeting with the embassy’s official, that the museum has never knowm about the musical instrument, so with the assistance, the museum will introduce angklung to the community and children when visiting the museum. De Arte Tigre Museum  is one of the biggest contemporary art and culture museums in Argentina. The Museum which has been established since 1912 is visited by  more than 1500 people/week, especially in Summer season, a lot of students and young people visit the museum. With the existing of angklung, the Indonesian embassy in Buenos Aires hopes more young people in Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires who are interested in knowing about Indonesia.  Representative of the embassy said that music and culture is a bridge which is hoped to get closer the people of the two countries.

Consulate General gives training of leadership to student of Davao Indonesian School.

Indonesian Consulate General in Davao City gave basic training on leadership to students of Davao Indonesian school at Isla Reta, Davao City on Saturday (6/1). Consulate General, Berlian Napitupulu said at Davao City, that the leadership is the ability to influence, to motivate and to direct other people to reach a common goal. Therefore, a leader must able to guide, direct and order other people or group to reach a common goal. Berlian also said that 5 skills which a good leader must have are personal skill, communication skill, thinking skill, delegation skill, and decision making skill.

Berlian Napitupulu further said although there are people say that leaders are born, he believes that leaders arecreated. In history and reality, more peoplefrom common people have become leaders. According to Berlian, leaders are common people who can change the surroundings.

After giving a presentation on leadership, the Consulate General directly led the training in game participated in by all students. The game is aimed to teach directly how to be a good leader who can communicate with the team, discipline, how to delegate job to the team and how to finish tasks and common goals within a very limited time.

 Indonesia-Samoa tighten cooperation of tourism.

Indonesian ambassador to New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga, Tantowi Yahya and Head of Tourism College of Bandung, Dr. Anang Sutono, CHE agreed to cooperate by giving development of human resources and increasing capacity for Samoa and Kingdom of Tonga’s people in tourism sector. The assistance is part of people to people diplomacy and Pacific Engagement.

Ambassador Tantowi  Yahya explained that the agreement is joint efforts in tightening relation of  Indonesia with the two countries in South Pacific, Samoa and Tonga Kingdom. The cooperation was written in Letter of Intent which was signed by ambassador Tantowi Yahya and Head of Tourism College, Dr. Anang Sutono, CHE in Wellington on December 27 2017.

Tantowi Yahya also said that the college will provide education and training scholarship in tourism sector to student, employee/government’s official and businessman from the two countries. The scholarship program delivered in English language can be given for various levels of formal education from DiplomaIII, Diploma IV, Graduate to Post Graduate levels. Besides that, the Bandung Tourism College also provides short course assistance.

Samoa and Tonga kingdom are two islands countries in the South Pacific which have big potential in tourism especially marine tourism. The two governments have vision and interests to develop tourism as industry to support the state’s income.

President Joko Widodo gives his remarks at the opening of  National Working Meeting of the Ministry of Agrarian and Spatial Planning/the National Land Agency, on Wednesday in Jakarta.