VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Tomohon City is one of favorite destinations for tourists when visiting North Sulawesi. This cool-air city is famous for its flower festivals and extreme food markets. Moreover, Tomohon also has a variety of interesting tourism destinations. One of them is ‘Tuur Maasering’ as a community-based tourism. This tourism spot located on the hill offers a unique concept and combines natural tourism and local wisdom. The location of ‘Tuur Maasering’ is exactly in Kumelembuai Village, East Tomohon sub-district, about 15 to 20 minutes from the downtown of Tomohon City by motor vehicles.

When you arrive at Tuur Maasering, you will pass a guard post at the main gate, then you must pay an entrance ticket of Rp 15,000 per person. This entrance ticket can be exchanged for a typical drink of Minahasa local wisdom, Saguer or sago water and the famous liquor, Cap Tikus.  Because it is in the middle of a palm tree forest, the air in this tourism spot is so cool. While arriving in the main yard, there are many huts and wooden chairs where you could take a rest and relax. If someone likes to take selfies, there are many interesting photo spots for them to take a picture.

Visitors can also have a closer look at the process of making Cap Tikus liquor which is the result of fermentation and distillation of sap water from palm trees. There is also a large firebox with a drum placed on top of the stove. Then, sago water is put into a drum and a stream of steam is passed through a clean pipe heading to a bottle. 6 gallons of sago water will result in about 1 gallon of the Cap Tikus beverage. Visitors can exchange their entry ticket for a refreshing saguer beverage. The saguer drink, a low-level of Minahasa typical alcoholic drink, is served by using a bowl made of coconut shell. The taste is sweet mixed with a little bitter and sour. It is milky white in color like sago because it comes from sago water and it is a little bit foamy. While enjoying the saguer drink, visitors can also order snacks, such as skipjack noodles, fried bananas and other foods.

The governments of Indonesia and Japan keep improving cooperation in developing the manpower of the automotive industry. This strategic move aims to encourage competitiveness and innovation of Indonesian automotive industry to be more competitive globally. Indonesian Minister of Industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita during the opening of Training of Trainer (TOT) Lean Manufacturing Automation virtually in Jakarta on Tuesday (27/7) said that his side keeps receiving full support from the Japanese government in developing manpower competence of the automotive industry sector.

He also explained that Indonesia has 21 four or more wheeled vehicle industries with investment worth Rp71.35 trillion for production capacity reaching 2.35 million units per year. The industry also absorbs 38 thousand direct workers and more than 1,5 million people working in the whole industry value chain.

Meanwhile, Head of Industry Manpower Development Agency (BPSDMI), Arus Gunawan said that the realization of automotive industry manpower development from Indonesia-Japan synergy was a cooperation between BPSDMI and Lexer Research Inc, which started from the signing of Letter of Intent on Lean Manufacturing Training in March 2019. This collaboration was continued with the Japan-Indonesia Symposium on Industry Manpower in December 2019. This activity became the beginning for SDGs program on automotive industry manpower development in Indonesia. This program is fully supported by Japanese government through JICA funding, which was a cooperation with the Industry Ministry.

On the occasion, Indonesian Ambassador to Japan, Heri Akhmadi said 4.0 industry transformation may change not only the industrial aspect, but also many other aspects of human lives. Indonesia has a strong domestic market and a pool of talent from the available schools, education institutions, and universities. Therefore, the cooperation with Japan through JICA in improving industrial manpower is the right choice.

The Indonesian Embassy in Bern held again the "Remarkable Indonesia Fair" to promote Indonesian cultural products and arts in Pratteln, Switzerland on 24 until 25 July 2021. The embassy stated that the event was attended by thousands of visitors in Switzerland who wanted to enjoy summer bazaars, Indonesian culinary and products as well as performances of Indonesian traditional arts and dances. While starting the relaxation of social restrictions by the Swiss government in June, the event was held in collaboration with the Indonesian Embassy in Bern, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, Verein Indonesia-Schweiz, and Sinar Indonesia GmbH. The "Remarkable Indonesia Fair" is a part of the promotion effort of trade, tourism and investment in Indonesia for people in Switzerland.

Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland, Muliaman Hadad along with Mayor of Pratteln, Stephan Burgunder opened the event officially. Ambassador Muliaman explained that the opportunity for promotion is now opened again after the government of Switzerland provided relaxation for community activities. The "Remarkable Indonesia Fair" was carried out by applying health protocols based on the government of Switzerland regulations. Since June 26, the Swiss government has begun to relax policies, including allowing events on a larger scale.

The "Remarkable Indonesia Fair" activity exhibited various Indonesian outlets/pavilions with food and beverage categories as well as non-food categories. At the event, visitors were able to enjoy Indonesian cuisine and coffee from various regions in Indonesia. They were  also able to  look at Indonesian traditional dance performances, such as the North Sumatra Tortor dance, Yogyakarta Golek classical dance, Balinese Pajegan mask dance, West Kalimantan Dayak dance, West Sumatra plate dance and Angklung musical instrument games. Furthermore, there was a video screening about Indonesian tourism and trade. Indonesia-Switzerland relations have been improving not only between governments but also among business people and people-to-people contacts. It is hoped that the two countries’ relations will continuously get better after all parties have ratified the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement among Indonesia and the countries of the European Free Trade Association (Indonesia-EFTA CEPA).

Relations between South Korea and North Korea are slowly recovering. As a first step, both countries reopened all direct lines of communication or hotlines  last Tuesday (27/7).  The relations deteriorated last year after the failed meeting of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, facilitated by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.  However, since last April, President Moon Jae-in and Leader Kim Jong-un have continued to seek improvement by exchanging letters.

Reuters as quoted from Kompas on Thursday (29/7) reported, Spokesperson for the Presidential Palace of South Korea, Park Soo-hyun in a press statement explained that from the exchange of letters, both leaders agreed to reopen direct lines of communication between the two countries. He also remarked that the opening of this line of communication is the first step in the process of repairing relationships, regenerating mutual trust and reconciliation.

For both countries, this communication line is actually an important tool to prevent misunderstandings, especially along the heavily guarded joint border area of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This direct line of communication is also used to arrange diplomatic meetings, coordinate sea and air traffic, facilitate humanitarian discussions, minimize the impact of natural disasters and establish cooperation in the economic field. South Korean President Moon Jae-in also said that the restoration of communication lines with North Korea could open up opportunities for the resumption of talks between North Korea and the United States regarding North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Hopefully, the opening of direct lines of communication between the two countries this time will not break up as before. Thus, it can really begin to restore relations and reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas. As a result, the reconciliation mission to unite two Koreas comes to be realized.