VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

PT Pertamina along with Indonesian Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry and West Nusa Tenggara government held a business meeting between micro small medium enterprises (MSMEs) and hotel industry to support the MotoGP Mandalika 2022. The event held in Lombok on January 27 and 28 2022 made a transaction worth Rp 1.74 billion.

The business meeting was joined by 93 MSMEs and 27 hotel industries. Director of Industry Management at the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, Anggara Hayun Anujuprana in a statement on Saturday (29/1) hoped the achieved transaction would continue although the MotoGP Mandalika ends.

Meanwhile, PT Pertamina's Vice President Corporate Communication, Fajriyah Usman said that six of the 93 MSMEs are the partners of PT Pertamina. They joined the event after undergoing a tight curation process.

The  importing company of Italy,  "Balibali Srl '' received the Primaduta Award 2021 from the Trade Attache of the Indonesian Embassy in Rome, Italy. The owner of Balibali Srl, Fabio Giuseppe Lanzieri received the award from the Trade Attache of the Indonesian Embassy in Rome, Silvi Sumanti and it was witnessed by Ambassador Muhammad Prakosa and the Economic and Social Function Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) Milan at the Indonesian Embassy in Rome. A written statement from the Indonesian Embassy in Rome received in Jakarta on Sunday (30/1) stated that Balibali Srl is an importer of sandals and ethnic fashion products of Indonesia. Balibali was selected as one of the 25 winners of the 2021 Primaduta Award through a selection process from 303 importers from 50 proposed countries.

The victory of Balibali at the Primaduta Award was also announced at the opening of the 36th Trade Expo Indonesia Digital Edition on 21 October 2021.  Fabio Giuseppe Lanzieri, the owner of Balibali explained that he was very impressed with the quality of the product, the agility and thoroughness of sandals’ product in Bali during his visit to Bali a few years ago.  Lanzieri has been deciding to start importing Balisnese sandals, rattan bags, belts and sarongs to Italy since 2003. Over the years, the company has perfected the quality, material and packaging of various products with Indonesian craftsmen and expanded the market for Indonesian products in Italy and Europe.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Ambassador to Rome, Muhammad Prakosa expressed his appreciation for the contribution of Balibali Srl in promoting and increasing exports of Indonesian products in Italy and he also hopes that cooperation with Indonesian businessespeiple, particularly small and medium enterprises can be continuously improved.  The Primaduta Award is an award given by the Government of Indonesia to foreign importers in a bid to boost the growth of Indonesia's exports to the global markets.

Baubau is a city on the island of Buton, Southeast Sulawesi. Its strategic location makes the city play a major role in the national shipping lanes and has developed as a center of population activity, especially in the trade and service sectors. Baubau City also has a fairly high marine activity with abundant marine products.

With their main livelihood as fishermen, the people of Baubau City depend on the sea. No wonder, the local community has a variety of traditional rituals related to the sea. One of them is Haroana Andala Ritual or the traditional sea party.

This ritual is a thanksgiving event for the fishing community, Bone-Bone village, Baubau City for the abundance of God's blessings that they get from the sea. In addition, this ritual is also a form of prayer to God to increase the abundance of fishermen when they go to sea.

When the Haroana Andala ritual is held, the fishing community gathers on the edge of the sea. The ritual begins with the reading of prayers and mantras, led by local traditional elders.

After reading the prayer, several youths lift a small raft made of several bamboo sticks with a size of about three meters. Inside the raft there are various kinds of food, including sticky rice, several cigarettes, grilled fish, several kinds of traditional cakes, and two chickens, namely a rooster and a hen.

Then, the raft is placed on two small boats and immediately taken to the middle of the ocean which are followed by the community using fishing boats. After arriving in the middle of the ocean, the people float the two rafts.

After the floating event was over, the people of Bone-bone Village visited the old tomb, which is located in Wara Village, Lakudo District, Central Buton Regency. The old tomb is the tomb of Andi Mamuju, a fisherman from Bone Regency, South Sulawesi. He is known as the first person to teach how to fish to the people of Bone-bone village.

After praying at the grave, the community then returned to their respective homes. This ritual that has been going on for hundreds of years is still being held by the people of the Bone-Bone village to preserve local customs and as a place for cultural tourism.

According to the researcher of the Mechanical Engineering Study Program at the Faculty of Engineering, Gajah Mada University (UGM), Dr. Gesang Nugroho, in recent years Indonesia's forest area has been shrinking, mostly due to forest fires and illegal logging. Geographical conditions, extensive peat-lands, lack of road access, limited human resources, and lack of facilities pose major problems in monitoring and extinguishing fires early. Therefore, early detection of hotspots in the forest is needed to avoid the spread of forest fires. Seeing this problem, Dr. Gesang Nugroho has developed a drone for early detection of forest fires. The drone is named ‘ELANG CARAKA’.

The drone, Elang Caraka, is designed to be able to fly for six hours with a distance of 200 km to carry out regional surveillance autonomously. Dr. Gesang Nugroho explained that the operator can control the drone remotely and view the recorded images directly through the monitor on the Ground Control Station. Elang Caraka has a wingspan of 3.6 m and a fuselage of 1.92 m, and is equipped with a thermal camera to transmit live aerial footage, which can be viewed on the ground. The drone can detect fires with the Intelligent Electrical Nose (E-nose) sensor which is able to detect the presence of smoke which is indicated by an increase in the output graph of the intelligent sensor compared to normal smokeless conditions. E-nose works like a human nose, using an array of gas sensors that can detect the smoke.

Elang Caraka can also be operated day and night. This drone has a plus because the fire monitoring which has so far used helicopters can only be done during the day. So, if a forest fire occurs at night, the fire has already grown and is more difficult to extinguish. In addition, there is much operational cost. But, Elang Caraka is cheaper than helicopters. So, it is hoped that the presence of the Elang Caraka drone will be able to reduce the number of forest fires in Indonesia.