VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian economy has entered a recovery path from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the right time for foreign investors to invest in Indonesia. This was affirmed by Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), Perry Warjiyo during the Indonesia Investment Forum 2021 held by the Indonesian Embassy in London, England more recently. He said there were three reasons that attracted foreign investors to Indonesia. The first is optimism for economic recovery. This year, the Indonesian economy is predicted to grow positively in the range of 4.1-5.1%. The sources of economic growth this year are strong export performance, increased private investment and consumption, and continued monetary and fiscal stimulus. In addition, the inflation rate and financial system stability will also be maintained. Second reason is the establishment of close policy coordination among the government, central bank and related authorities that gave birth to fiscal and monetary policies in line with structural reforms to create jobs and spur investment. The third one is the digitalization of the economy that has accelerated very quickly amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, data from the Investment Coordinating Board show that the realization of investment that entered Indonesia in the first quarter of 2021, was recorded at around 25.66 percent of this year's investment target, consisting  of domestic and foreign investments.

Based on the reports, the largest foreign investment for the January-March 2021 period includes the Motor Vehicle Industry and Other Transportation Equipment sector, Food and Beverage Industry, Transportation, Warehouse and Telecommunication, Mining and the Non-ferrous Base Metal Manufacturing Industry with an investment realization value of US $ 1.8 billion.

The realization of foreign investment, which reached 50.8% of total investment, shows the growing world confidence in the investment climate and investment potential in Indonesia. According to Governor Perry Warjiyo, this occurred because of the cooperation of all parties who helped drive investment growth, especially amid the current Covid-19 pandemic. All elements of society must participate to continue to reduce the rate of spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and prevent the explosion of the second wave from occurring in Indonesia. If it fails, it is possible, the efforts that have been made to attract foreign investors into the country could be hampered.

Indonesia and Australia inaugurated the maritime operation Gannet 5, a coordinated patrol to maintain the security and safety in the borders. This operation aims to eradicate illegal practices that cause loss for the two countries, including the illegal fishing. The coordinated patrol was written in the MoU signing held on Monday (24/5). This cooperation involves Indonesian Maritime Security Board (Bakamla), Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Australian Border Force (ABF), and Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA).

Despite the pandemic, Indonesia and Australia keeps being committed to cooperating in creating regional stability, especially at the two countries' border. That was stated by Acting Director General for Marine Resources and Fisheries Monitoring, Antam Novambar. He added that with Gannet 5 coordinated patrol, both countries keep showing their commitment in eradicating illegal practices that affect the two countries' prosperity, including illegal fishing. According to Antam, Gannet 5 is also a concrete commitment of both countries in implementing the Indonesia-Australia Joint Declaration on Maritime Cooperation signed in 2017.

Australian Maritime Border Command (MBC) Commander Rear Admiral Mark Hill said that Australia and Indonesia have the longest border area in the world, which comes with great risk against maritime security and safety. He also said that as sovereign countries, Indonesia and Australia have challenges in jurisdiction to information sharing. The issues vary starting from natural resources exploitation, drugs smuggling, to terrorism; all that cannot be done by one agency or one country only.

Meanwhile, Bakamla's Deputy for Policy and Strategy, Tatit Eko Witjaksono explained, coordinated patrol between Indonesia and Australia has been done since 2013 under the code Operation Shearwater.  In 2018, the code changed into Operation Gannet. He explained, in the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, both nations agreed to postpone the Operation Gannet to avoid virus infection. However, it was proven successfully that the pandemic did not reduce the commitment in maintaining the border security and safety of both countries.

The GeNoSe C19 inventor team conveyed an update on the technology used in the Covid screening test technology, GeNose C19. dr. Dian Kesumapramudya Nurputra explained that there are several updates on GeNose C19 related to the development and research process, which have been continuously carried out since obtaining distribution permits in December 2020. The updates are to respond to various requests from doctors, health workers, and users who want to learn the forms of curve readings of the GeNose C19 instrument and show how positive and negative patient curves actually are.

Updates are being made regarding artificial intelligence (AI) software. With this AI update, the accuracy of the tool has increased so that GeNose C19 will better serve people who undergo the Covid-19 screening test. The previous version of the AI GeNose C19 was 1.3.2 build 5 which now evolves to version 1.3.2 build 6. The AI is updated in terms of a more operator friendly interface, a larger database, and a manual curve reading feature.

The GeNose C19 artificial intelligence update is able to anticipate new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have emerged. According to dr. Dian, the D64G variant has entered the database and will continue to be updated regularly and periodically. Access to a database of new virus variants was obtained from hospitals that treated patients with new variants, so that researchers were able to obtain breath samples to update the GeNose C19 artificial intelligence. As a medical device, GeNose C19 is also in the post-marketing diagnostic test phase, which is an external validity test conducted by three institutions, namely Andalas University, University of Indonesia, and Airlangga University.

University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) and Universidad Nacional De Colombia (UNDC) signed a cooperation and Academic Exchange agreement on Tuesday (25/5) because of  the initiation of the Indonesian Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. It was the third cooperation agreement in the education sector between universities in Indonesia and universities in Colombia.

Indonesian Ambassador to Colombia, Priyo Iswanto in his remarks explained that the cooperation between the two universities would be beneficial not only for academicians and university students of the two universities, but also for enhancing bilateral cooperation of both Indonesia and Colombia, particularly people-to-people contacts.  This is in line with the efforts made by the governments of Indonesia and Colombia in providing free-visa services for both citizens to visit each other. 

Through the people-to-people contacts among academicians, it is hoped that there will be a better understanding of the potential and opportunities opened for the cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Priyo Iswanto is optimistic that this cooperation in the field of education will complement each other, even it will strengthen cooperation in other sectors, particularly  in the fields of  economy and trade.  

Meanwhile, Ambassador of Colombia to Indonesia, Juan Camilo Valencia González, who also witnessed the signing of the agreement, expressed his belief in the great benefits of the cooperation between UMM and Unal for academicians and for university students interaction with diverse cultures. So, it will increase  insight and broaden their views of  the world. Moreover, this cooperation can increase their creativity and innovation in facing current and future situations.  

University of Muhammadiyah Malang and Universidad Nacional De Colombia are two universities that hold high quality education status with ‘A’ accreditation and have a number of international collaborations between universities in the education sector.  Muhammadiyah Malang University is ranked first in the World Islamic university version of the World University Ranking 2021. Meanwhile, Universidad Nacional de Colombia is the best and largest university in Colombia and is ranked 10th in the Latin American region.