Indonesia

In the past five years, tropical forests and peatland areas greater than the Netherlands have burned in Indonesia, Greenpeace on the other hand, lambasting the government of President Joko Widodo for enabling the pulpwood and palm oil industry to operate with impunity while bearing major responsibility” for the fire crisis. The influential environmental group said in a new study on …

In the Job Creation Legislation, the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) raised questions about the security of the environment-or the lack thereof-and called on the government to ensure sustainable development. Thomas Helbling, IMF mission chief for Indonesia shared that while the new omnibus law would ease restrictions defined as barriers to job-creating investment and higher efficiency, which could boost development …

Japan and Indonesia have agreed to strengthen their security relations by expediting talks on the export of Japanese defense technology and consulting their defense ministers and foreign ministers in the near future. As Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the presidential palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, this reflects concerns about increasing Chinese regional assertiveness. …

After a meeting in Washington between Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Indonesia and the United States agreed to enhance defense and security cooperation. According to a joint statement by the Ministry of Defence of Indonesia and the US Department of Defence on the same day, the top defence officials discussed regional stability, bilateral defence …

Mr Joko Widodo, President of the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world called on Indonesia not to rush the roll-out of vaccinations, citing public awareness issues as to whether they were halal. Indonesia has struggled to get its epidemic under control with more than 365,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 12,000 deaths, and the government has been rushing to …

Setiono Ono stops his morning wildfire patrol at a small timber dam between a logged area and an oil palm plantation near the northeast coast of the island of Sumatra. Water leaks the color of charcoal from the dam through a small canal cut to drain the peatland surrounding it. The dam, built by the local community in Riau province’s …

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati stressed that Indonesia’s omnibus job creation legislation had attracted praise from a number of multilateral institutions and credit rating agencies as it offered a glimmer of hope for Indonesia’s economic recovery. Moody’s concluded that in the long term, the Job Development Legislation will be able to draw investment for the economic growth of Indonesia. …

In Indonesia, it’s serious business to be seen as halal. Starbucks and KFC show their halal certification from the top clerical body of the world, even though booze or bacon are seldom associated with the franchises. But Indonesian households and companies are less picky when it comes to banking. According to the Indonesian Financial Services Agency (OJK), less than 10 …

As of yesterday, Indonesia has taken over from the Philippines as the latest pandemic hot spot of South-east Asia as it struggles to control surging Covid-19 infections, with new cases reaching 4,000 a day. The total in the world’s fourth-most populous nation reached 349,160 yesterday with 4,411 new cases in the past 24 hours-the highest in South-East Asia. 12,268 deaths, …

The administration of President Donald Trump will welcome Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto to the Pentagon on Friday (Oct 16) after dropping a de facto ban on his entry into the country imposed on allegations of human rights abuses. Prabowo, a 68-year-old former chief of the special forces, has long been a controversial figure in Indonesia, accused in places …