VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Leading companies from Florida, United States expressed wishes to focus more on cooperating with companies in Indonesia and further increase the value of trade and investment between the two countries. The wishes also received support from members of the United States Congress representing various districts in Florida and Florida high officials who attended the seminar at the JAX Chamber Jacksonville with the theme "The 70th Anniversary of Indonesia and US Relations: Ways to Move Forward" in Jacksonville, Florida, United States on Tuesday (1/10).

The seminar was aimed at enhancing trade cooperation between Indonesia and America, particularly Florida and Jacksonville City and was held in collaboration with the Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC, Consulate General in Houston, and Representative Member of the District Three Congress in Florida, Ted Yoho. The seminar was also attended by Florida District Four Congress member -John Rutherford, officials in the Florida government offices and Jacksonville City and more than 70 businesspeople both from Indonesia and from various regions in Florida.

In his remarks, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States, Mahendra Siregar invited all businesspeople to actively explore efforts to establish a sustainable business ecosystem between Indonesia and Jacksonville City. Ambassador Mahendra also said that Florida as chosen as the venue for the business forum, it was one of the five states in the United States, with the highest trade value with Indonesia.

Ambassador Mahendra also invited Florida businesspeople to attend the Trade Expo in Indonesia on October 16-20 2019. Congressman, Ted Yoho said that the business forum was aimed at promoting Indonesia to businesspeople from Florida. He also said that Indonesia and the United States have many principles in common that could be the basis for strengthening trade cooperation, security politics in the ASEAN region and educational cooperation.

Meanwhile, Florida District Four Congress member, John Rutherford said that Jacksonville City with a very complete logistics infrastructure is ready to collaborate in various fields with Indonesia. The business forum continued with a field visit so that Indonesian business people had the opportunity to obtain first-hand information about the operations of several leading companies in Florida: Jacksonville port operator -Jaxport, and LNG Management Company in Jacksonville -JAX LNG and the expedition company -TOTE Maritime.

At the second week of September 2019, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani said, the Indonesian Government would like to increase the cigarette excise by 23%. She added, with this increase, the retail sale price of cigarettes also increases to 35%. This decision will be stipulated in the Minister of Finance Regulation and will take effect on January 1, 2020.

In Indonesia more recently, the price of a pack of cigarettes has become viral. The price of locally produced cigarettes, which is currently around Rp 23.00, is rumored to reach Rp 48,000. The rising price of cigarettes in Indonesia received a great deal of attention. Based on the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Report entitled 'The Tobacco Control Atlas', the ASEAN Region showed that in 2013 around 65.19 million Indonesians were smokers.

Raising cigarette excise in Indonesia has become a dilemma. If the cigarette excise tax does not increase, the number of deaths due to consumption of tobacco products may increase. On one hand, the results of the 2015 Health Research and Development Agency study showed that Indonesia accounts for more than 230,000 deaths due to consumption of tobacco products annually. Lung cancer ranks first cause of death which is equal to 12.6%. On the other hand, the tobacco industry is one of the national manufacturing sectors, that has a large contribution. The Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia noted that the cigarette industry sector absorbs nearly 6 million workers.

But there is one thing that must be prioritized. Increasing the excise on cigarettes must be taken by the government without further delay, remembering that Indonesia is strongly committed to creating excellent human resources. The fact shows that tobacco consumption has become an effective instrument to degrade the quality of Human Resources in Indonesia. Creating excellent human resources must be done earlier. One cause of the non-formation of excellent human resources is stunting, the failure of child growth due to malnutrition for a long time. Facts on the ground show that almost about 70 percent of smokers in Indonesia are poor families. For them, cigarette becomes the second priority after rice.

An optimal increase in the price of cigarettes needs to be done. There are no cheap cigarette prices. Thus, the poor do not easily buy cigarettes, and the funds spent to buy cigarettes can be used to meet nutritious intakes. Hopefully, Indonesia's excellent human resources will be formed more quickly.

Pepe river is located at Tawangsari village, Teras, Boyolali, Central Java. In the past, the river became the target of sand and stone diggers as a livelihood of most Tawangsari villagers. The condition was exacerbated by low awareness on environment, so that the river which flowing from Mt. Merbabu until Bengawan Solo river, is full of plastic garbage. Seeing the condition, a group of society who joined in the River Care Community, finally stopped the digging activity   at the river for the sake of environmental preservation. The community initiated the development of 'River Tubing' with rafting concept.

Pepe River tour is unlike other natural tours because it uses used tire.   The visitors sit on used big rubber tire, then floated and washed away by river currents as far as 1.5 kilometers for one and a half hour. When enjoying Pepe River tour activity, you will feel the sensation of bouncing into the rock, plunging into rapids, until being overturned, and plunging into the river. I suggest you do not forget to stop at many interesting spots for selfie. You can enjoy all of the fun by only paying Rp 40,000- Rp45,000 per person. The ticket is included for safety facility and to taste typical culinary of Boyolali, such as wedang jahe or ginger drink and bobor soup. The Pepe River tour is located at Ngebrak floodgate area, Tawangsari village which is about one kilometers from Solo-Semarang highway.

The fun tour at  Pepe river still continue.Around one kilometers from the location of river tubing, there is available edupark Camp Bell 2 for the visitors. In addition to natural tour such as outbond and farming, the Camp Bell 2 tour package also introduces integrated agriculture which produces  biogas from cattle dung. There is also integrated garbage processing area namely Berkah Asri Mandiri. Not only receive garbage from residents, the edupark activists also routinely conduct cleaning activities twice a week.

The Headlines Begin with Kompas titled, “Face It Professionally.”

Dialog needs to be held immediately to overcome disagreements on some law revision that triggered waves of protest in some regions. Professional moves and without violence are also needed to face the protesters that happened again around Parliament Complex, Jakarta on Wednesday (25/9). This was because victims were falling in the protest that ended with riot on last Tuesday. According to data of Jakarta Metro Police, 254 people were wounded and 11 were hospitalized due to the riot. Around 39 police officers were also wounded.

Meanwhile, Republika with, “Criminal Code Bill will be revised.”

Government and House of Representatives agreed to delegate the discussion of Criminal Code Draft Bill to the members of 2019-2024 periods. The delay was done to accommodate public’s aspiration towards controversial articles. Speaker of the House Bambang Soesatyo at Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta on Wednesday (25/9) said, the House will try to improve the articles disputed by the public. Even, they might drop some articles if necessary. Some articles in the Criminal Code draft were seen as threatening freedom of speech, criminalizing press, and too much intervening private realm.

We end the Headlines with Koran Sindo titled, “New Capital City Boosts Investments.”

Relocation of Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan is projected to boost investment growth for short, middle, and long term. This positive impact could also benefit other parts of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and most of eastern Indonesia. Even Java and Sumatera also will receive investment growth from the capital relocation. The projection was conveyed by National Development Planning Minister and National Development Planning Agency Head - Bappenas Bambang Brojonegoro during his explanation about capital city relocation, in a meeting with House of Representatives’ special committee for capital relocation, at Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta yesterday (25/9).