VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The promotion of online Ramayana ballet in Chicago is successful

The Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago collaborated with the International Ramayana Institute of North America (IRINA) succeeded to promote the  culture through the appearance of the Ramayana ballet that was held virtually on Saturday (7/11).  President of the Executive Committee of IRINA, Martino Tangkar stated that this year’s IRC event coincided with  the 20th anniversary of the cultural promotion cooperation among the people of Indonesia, India and Thailand. In an official statement received by rri.co.id in Jakarta on Sunday (8/11), Martino explained that the togetherness had so far has further strengthened the relations among the three countries, not only in the cultural field, but also  aspects of relationships in broader fields.

The continuous performance of the Ramayana ballet has a strong influence on the cultural heritage of the three countries. On the same occasion, the Indonesian Consul General in Chicago, Meri Binsar Simorangkir expressed his appreciation for IRINA's enthusiasm to continuously encourage dialogue among the community of cultural actors, analysts and observers of the Ramayana story, not only in the USA but also in some other countries. He also said that the Ramayana story does not only play an important role as part of the cultural heritage that is spread all over the world, but it is also able to bring noble values into the life of modern society.

Furthermore, in his remarks, Meri Binsar invited the participants of the conference to visit Prambanan Temple after the pandemic is over, to witness the Ramayana ballet performance directly. Besides the performance of the dance team from the Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago, which presented a scene from the Ramayana story entitled "The Abduction of Sinta", the participants were also presented with the Ramayana dance performance in various versions and scenes, including the Indian Dance School-Choreography dance team with the title "Rama's Birth to Rama and Sita's Wedding, ”and the Thai Cultural and Fine Arts Institute of Chicago with a dance entitled“ Floating Sita”.

Indonesian Minister of Trade, Agus Suparmanto sent off 5 containers of exported rattan furniture from a total of 40 containers produced by 3 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from Cirebon, West Java. A total of 40 containers were sent to Indonesian export destination countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, as well as European Union countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Denmark.

Minister Agus Suparmanto warmly welcomes the success of rattan business players to gain a place in the global market. He hopes that the determination and struggle of these exporters from Cirebon will be able to motivate other exporters, especially the other SMEs throughout Indonesia, so that they can boost the performance of Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports.

Furthermore, Minister Agus Suparmanto stated that the success of this export also shows that Indonesia's rattan furniture products are able to not only maintain quality, but also comply with current world market demands and trends that tend to use natural and environmentally friendly materials, and have legal timber certificates (V-Legal). He emphasized that the current exported products are also the guidance of the Indonesian Export Training Center at the Ministry of Trade through the Export Training and Assistance program. This coaching program is a manifestation of the Ministry of Trade's commitment to supporting the SMEs so that they can target the global market to sell their products. Thus, the SMEs are increasingly showing their contribution to Indonesia's trade balance surplus.

In 2019, Indonesia was ranked 3rd in the world's largest exporter of rattan products with an export share of 6.11 percent, behind China and Vietnam. Meanwhile, the export value of Indonesian rattan products for the January-August 2020 period was up 4.35 percent over the same period in 2019.

Minister Agus Suparmanto also conveyed that for the US market, the extension of the Generalized System of Preference facility which was announced on October 30, 2020 was a momentum to keep intensifying exports of rattan products to the country. He added that to enter the export market, business players can take advantage of market information from trade representatives abroad.

The Central Statistics Agency noted that Indonesia's economic growth in the third quarter of 2020 contracted by minus 3.49 percent. Even though it is still contracting, this achievement is better than the position in the second quarter of 2020 which was recorded at minus 5.32 percent.

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated on Thursday (6/11) that the achievement of economic growth in the third quarter of 2020 was quite good compared to the previous position. This shows that currently, there is a process of economic recovery and a reversal in the direction of national economic activity towards a positive direction. The improvement in economic growth is driven by fiscal stimulus or the role of the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget instrument, mainly in handling the Covid-19 pandemic and the National Economic Recovery program

In the third quarter of 2020, the absorption of state spending experienced an increase in acceleration. Until the end of September, the national economy grew 15.5 percent. The absorption of the budget was supported by the realization of social assistance and support for the business world and small and micro enterprises. Based on the Central Statistics Agency data, during this period, the government consumption grew 9.76 percent from the previous period.

What is happening now can certainly be used to improve growth in the fourth quarter. But keep in mind, this will be largely determined by current and future conditions and policies. Thereby, the government must maintain this positive trend and not be careless. Because it is possible that Indonesia will be trapped in a prolonged recession as experienced by many other countries during the pandemic. An acute recession would increase the unemployment rate which until last August alone was recorded at 9.77 million. An increase of 2.67 million compared to the same period in 2019.

It is hoped that the government will be able to put a brake on the increase in unemployment by encouraging economic growth from quarter to quarter. All components of growth both in terms of expenditure and production must move up.

The government has said that it will continue to accelerate the Covid-19 handling program and the absorption of the National Economic Recovery budget, which amounts to Rp 695 trillion. However, until early November, the budget that had been used was only around 54 percent. This means that efforts are still needed to encourage budget absorption so that the growth trend can be maintained or even increased.

Voice of Indonesia presents “Let’s Speak Bahasa Indonesia,” a lesson in the Indonesian language on the Radio. We introduce some Indonesian vocabulary and tips on how to use it in a conversation. This segment is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language and Book Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is ‘Buying Electricity Credit’ which means Membeli Pulsa Listrik.

Read to this conversation about ‘Buying Electricity Credit’ which means Membeli Pulsa Listrik. Kevin asked Rama how to buy electricity credit.

Now, I am going to introduce some vocabularies and expressions related to the topic today.

If you want to ask about the way or process, you can use the interrogative word bagaimana? In English ‘how’. To ask about the way, people usually use the expression bagaimana cara….? 

Which means ‘how to ….’ Like in the sentence Bagaimana cara membeli pulsa listriknya?Which means ‘how to buy electricity credit?’. To respond the expression Bagaimana cara ...?, you have to mention the process consecutively like the following example:

Kevin         : Bagaimana cara membeli pulsa listrik?In English‘how to buy electricity credit?’

Rama         : Kamu bisa beli pulsa listrik di situs belanja daring. Caranya, pilih bagian pulsa dan tagihan, klik bagian listrik PLN. Selanjutnya,  masukkan nomor meter atau ID pelanggan, pilih jumlah pulsa, lalu bayar menggunakan opsi transfer bank...in English ‘you can buy electricity credit on the online shopping site. The ways are to select credit and bill, and then to click PLN. Afterward, enter the meter number or customer ID, select the number of credits you will buy, then pay by transfer bank option.’

In the Indonesian language, conjunction can be used to mention sequence of process, for example: kemudian, lalu, selanjutnya, and setelah itu in English ‘then’, ‘afterward’. The conjunction is also usually used to connect a main sentence with the clause.

For example: Masukkan nomor meter atau ID pelanggan, pilih jumlah pulsa, lalu bayar menggunakan bank transfer in English ‘enter meter numbers or customer ID, select number of credits, then pay using bank transfer.’

That was “Let’s Speak Bhs Indonesia”, a lesson in Bahasa Indonesia or the Indonesian language on the radio. Hopefully, this edition will be useful for those who want to know more about Bahasa Indonesia.