VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Today in History over RRI World Service -Voice of Indonesia.

We start from an event  on 15 September 1916, for the first time, England used tanks at battle of Somme in France at the First World War.

During the battle in  Somme, British troops attacked sporadically Germany. They introduced their tanks firstly in the history. In Flers-Courcelette,around   40 primitive tanks passed 1,5 kilometers in enemy area. Unfortunately, they were too slow in maintaining attacking position and susceptible to engine damage. Therefore, General Douglas Haig,War Commander of allied troops in Somme looked at big potential for future war so that he ordered it to War Department to produce hundreds of tanks.

We move on to an event of  Google.com registered as domain name

Google was established by 2 friends: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They established  Google while they were still at Stanford University. Address of Google.com has been registered since  15th September 1997. According to Wikipedia, Google officially  became a company on 4th September 1998.Besides the two people, another name that brought Google to be a big technology company  is Eric Schmidt. He is well-known as professional businessman. While it has been 6 years as private company, Google chose to be public enterprise by selling its share to public on 19th August 2004 at stock exchange in New York, USA.

We end Today in History with information about International Democracy Day. It was determined by the United Nations at a meeting in Cairo, Egypt. The meeting of Inter-Parliamentary Council conducted  universal declaration about democracy on

15 September 1997. Finally, the UN held  46^th General Assembly plenary meeting on

8 November 1997 that resulted in resolution of  A/RES/62/7 which stated 15 September as International Democracy Day.

That’s Today in History from RRI World Service Voice of Indonesia in Jakarta.

Here is the Headlines of several national newspapers published today, September 15, 2018.

We begin with Kompas which wrote “Reservoir Water Keeps  Decreasing”.

The water of more reservoirs in a number of regions is decreasing. Effective water management is needed immediately so as not to interfere with national food stability. In Central Java, four reservoirs with a capacity of 6 million - 10 million cubic meters have dried up. As a result, 5,000 hectares of agricultural land do not get irrigation water supply. The four reservoirs are Botok Reservoir and Brambang Reservoir in Sragen Regency, and Kedunguling Reservoir and Plumbon Reservoir in Wonogiri Regency. Head of Irrigation and Raw Water Division of the Public Works Office, Water Resources, and Spatial Planning of Central Java, Ketut Arsa Indra Watara said on Friday that in addition to the four reservoirs that are drying up, the water discharge in 13 other reservoirs also decreases by 20-50 percent. However, overall the water supply is still maintained.

Moving on to Media Indonesia with its headline “Reveal Total the Century case”.

Corruption Eradication Commission -KPK was asked to resolve the handling of the Rp. 6.7 trillion bailout funds to Bank Century, including requesting information from the 6th Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.The Century bank case reoccurs after the media reported from Hong Kong, Asia Sentinel, with the title “Indonesian's SBY Government Vast Criminal Conspiracy”. The results of the investigation written by John Berthelsen said that the SBY government had committed a money laundering conspiracy of US $ 12 billion dollars or around Rp177 trillion in the Century bank bailout. One of the initiators of the Century Bank Special Committee in the House of Representatives -DPR, Mukhamad Misbakhun said that it is time for KPK to fully uncover the mega scandal.

We end the Headlines with Republika which wrote “Producers Are Asked for Halal Certification Immediately”.

Deputy Chairperson of the House of Representatives Commission 8, Ace Hasan Syadzily asked all producers to comply with the rules contained in the Halal Product Guarantee Act. He emphasized that there would be sanctions for producers who do not immediately conduct halal certification of their products in accordance with the provisions in the Halal Product Guarantee Act. Even though, currently the Halal Product Guarantee Agency is still awaiting the Draft Government Regulation to be able to act in a bid to fulfill the rights of Muslim consumers. Ace also pointed out that the sanctions that can be imposed to producers are varied. For example, their products cannot be circulated if they do not meet the Halal Product Guarantee Act. However, the House of Representatives also urged the government to immediately ratify the Draft Government Regulation on Halal Product Guarantees because the Draft Government Regulation will be legally binding for related stakeholders.

That’s Headlines.

On Wednesday, 12 September 2018, in Tangerang, Banten, based on the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra or Ari Askhara officially served as President Director of PT Garuda Indonesia, replacing Pahala N Mansury.

Throughout 2017, PT Garuda Indonesia suffered a loss worth US$213.4 million dollars, equivalent to Rp2.88 trillion. In 2016, Garuda managed to record a net profit worth US$9.4 million or around Rp126.9 billion. The losses during 2017 were due to increased spending by 13%, from US$3.7 billion to 4.25 billion dollars, mainly due to an increase in fuel costs by 25% from US$924 million to 1.15 billion dollars.

Ari Askhara has a target to reduce PT Garuda Indonesia's losses to less than US$ 100 million at the end of 2018 by closing the operating costs leakage gap, optimizing favorite routes, opening good economic value routes and improving employee performance. From 2013 to 2018, Askhara was a director of a number of companies, such as Director of Finance and Garuda Risk, and lastly in 2018, he served as President Director of PT Pelindo III.

Askhara will involve all employees and regulators in achieving the target. Part of his experience at Pelindo III will be applied on Garuda. One of them is the transformation of human capital. Because Garuda Indonesia is engaged in the service sector, employees’ happiness is very important so that service to passengers increases. Furthermore, he will attempt to increase revenue by creating new routes at several points of foreign tourist sources, and optimizing the old domestic routes compared to international ones.

To reduce operating costs and prevent inefficiency, there will be renegotiation of incoming aircraft leases, especially for narrow body and wide body existing flights in a bid to extend the lease period. So, the monthly rental fee will decrease by 10-20%.

Amid Rupiah’s worsening conditions and rising oil prices, the next step to be taken is redefining cost structure, changing and improving operational costs.

Along with other directors, such as Commercial Director -Pikri Ilham Kurniansyah, Director of Cargo and Business Development -M Iqbal, Operations Director Bambang -Adi Surya, Director of Finance and Risk Management -Fuad Rizal, HR Director -Heri Akhyat, Technical Director -I Wayan Susena and Service Director - Nicodemus P Lampe, Ari Askhara with the support of shareholders will try to realize the achievement of the target to reduce PT Garuda Indonesia's losses to below US$ 100 million by the end of 2018.

With the experience of leading various divisions in various companies along with the management of the new Garuda Indonesia, Ari Askhara's strong commitment is expected to become a reality, instead of writing on paper, with the support of various parties.

That’s Commentary!

This is RRI World Service -Voice of Indonesia with Diplomatic Corner, a program which presents information about activities and progress of Indonesian diplomacy in the international world. 

The first information is from Cairo, Egypt.

Spice products from Indonesia, especially nutmeg and clove are in demand by Egyptian market. To fulfill the demand of the market, an Indonesian company has booked contract of shipment of 28 tons of nutmeg to Egypt.  The nominal of the purchase contract reaches more than US$163 thousand dollars. The signing of the contract between Indonesian and  Egyptian company was conducted at Indonesian embassy of Cairo, Egypt on Sunday (9/9). In addition to exporting nutmeg, the contract also booked purchase of 15 tons of nutmeg from Indonesia, worth US$99 thousand dollars. The signing of the contract was witnessed by Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt, Helmy Fauzi and Attaché of Trade of the Indonesian embassy of Cairo, Burman Rahman. After the signing, Ambassador Helmy Fauzi revealed that the demand on spice commodities from Indonesia at Egyptian market is quite high and continues to increase. Moreover, Egypt can play a major role as hub for Indonesian products to enter African market. 

The next information is from New Delhi.

The fifth meeting of Indonesia-India Joint Working Group on terrorism contra (JWG) was conducted in New Delhi on Monday (10/9). The meeting was jointly led by Mr. Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary of terrorism contra, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India and Inspector General Hamidin, Deputy of International Cooperation, National Counter Terrorism Agency, Indonesia. The two sides have changed views on development of terrorism and steps that are taken by each government, program of the increasing of capacity and cooperation in the bilateral, regional and multilateral level. The two sides are committed to strengthening cooperation in fighting terrorism. Indonesia and India have established comprehensive strategic partnership which was agreed when Indian Prime Minister visited Indonesia on May 29 – 30, 2018. The cooperation of anti-terrorism has become an important element of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.  

We end Diplomatic Corner with the information from Islamabad.

Various efforts keep being conducted by Indonesian embassy of  Islamabad to defend and to increase Indonesian palm oil market in Pakistan. One of the efforts is to hold international seminar with the title "Palm Oil: Health, Nutrition & Development". The seminar was conducted under cooperation with University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), and Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) at UAF auditorium on Monday (10/9). UAF was selected because it is the oldest university of agriculture in Pakistan and becomes reference of food supervisory agency, Punjab Food Authority -PFA. Last year, the agency planned to ban the circulation of Vanaspati Ghee product, namely 70% mixture of palm oil  in July 2020 because it is dangerous for health in Punjab province which is inhabited by more than 110 million people. Remembering that Pakistan is the third biggest palm oil market after China and India, Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan, Iwan Suyudhie Amri viewed that it is strategic to enhance understanding of Pakistani stakeholders regarding the safety of palm products. The way is by synergizing between academicians and chambers of Commerce and Industry through the seminar. The seminar attended by more than 160 people, including Indonesian consulate general of Karachi, officials related to Pakistan, business community, researchers, lecturers and students took place smoothly and succeeded to give more understanding that  palm oil does not endanger health, it is rich of nutrition, and very potential to increase economy and Gross Domestic Income. Previously, the Indonesian embassy of Islamabad along with the Indonesian consulate general of Karachi also conducted Conference and Exhibition on Indonesian Palm Oil on September 6.

That was Diplomatic Corner.