A rainbow forms over the Ulu Baram rainforest in the Miri interior, eastern Malaysian Borneo state of Sarawak, on Dec. 13, 2007.

The need for better protection of Malaysia’s forests

Learning from past experience, the government moves to fortify existing legislation to prevent exploitation and destruction of rainforests.

2 years ago

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Navigating the risks and challenges of financial automation in Indonesia

By automating tasks such as invoicing, payment processing and expense management, businesses can save time and reduce the risk of human error, allowing employees to focus on more valuable tasks to operate businesses more efficiently. ...

2 years ago

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The new landscape of value-added tax on collateral

The policy has provided a level playing field between those who buy property through developers and those who do so through auctions or outside auctions. ...

2 years ago

The Latest

Change of guard: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) accepts a gavel from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as the ASEAN chairmanship is passed to Indonesia at the closing ceremony of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits in Phnom Penh on Nov. 13, 2022.

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UNSC resolution on Myanmar a vote of confidence in Jokowi

A good relationship with Jokowi may have been the reason Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin abstained from, rather than vetoed, the recent UNSC resolution.

2 years ago

President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo installs Adm. Yudo Margono as the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief at the State Palace, Central Jakarta, on Dec. 19, 2022.

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Jokowi’s national-security leadership is personalized

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo would appoint officers that he personally knew, or a key ally knew, and has had close working experience with, to strategic posts.

2 years ago

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) gestures as United States President Joe Biden (front, left), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (back, left), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (back, center) and other leaders walk together during a tree planting event at Taman Hutan Raya Ngurah Rai Mangrove Forest, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Nov. 16, 2022.

Academia

From G20 to U20, Indonesia replenishes its middle power status

Indonesia can make an impact globally by being a good host and organizer of the FIFA U-20 World Cup and given the global spotlight, Indonesia can show that it has the necessary credentials to be a global power to reckon with.

2 years ago

Workers from the Depok General Elections Commission (KPU) stack ballot boxes on November 25, 2020 at a warehouse in Cimanggis district, Depok, West Java.

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A year of living dangerously for Indonesian democracy

Elections postponement would be an ominous rejection of the institutions of democracy and would dramatically further a worrying trend of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) seizure of power.

2 years ago

People watch a screen showing China's President Xi Jinping speaking during the opening session of the 20th Chinese Communist Party's Congress in Shanghai, on Oct. 16.

Academia

China’s modernization and ecological governance

In the land of China today, the “endangered” giant panda has been downgraded to "vulnerable".

2 years ago

Training on a jet plane: Christian Kampff (left) of Brazil and Nicolas Durand of Canada take a training course on a Boeing 737 jet simulator at the Pan Am Flight Academy on May 19, 2022 in Miami Springs, Florida, the United States.

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Push for one-pilot large-jet transport is absurd

It will take a herculean effort to convince the public that an aircraft flown by a single pilot with remote operation back-up will be as safe as an aircraft flown by dual pilots.

2 years ago

Nickel tussle: Employees ride motorcycles outside the Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry nickel smelting facility in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, on Sept. 21, 2022. The government has banned exports of nickel ore to support its downstreaming policy.

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Mineral export ban: A revival of Prebisch-Singer and Sukarno idea?

The less-developed countries' lack of savings results from their low level of GDP, while their lack of forex reserves is due to their weaknesses in international trade.

2 years ago

Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (left), Thailand’s Prayut Chan-O-Cha (third left), Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (fourth left), Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah (fifth left), Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni (5th right), Prime Minister Hun Sen (fourth right), President Joko Widodo (third right), Laos' Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh (second right) and Malaysia's lower house speaker Azhar Azizan Harun walk during a courtesy call to Cambodia's king before the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh on Nov. 10, 2022.

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Indonesia’s chairmanship and ASEAN’s challenges in 2023

As the chair, Indonesia must continuously emphasize ASEAN’s strategic interests that the grouping does not want either pax-Americana nor a pax-Sinica in the region.

2 years ago

Toward a single market: The ASEAN Economic Community, which took effect on Jan.1, 2016, aims to integrate the diverse economies of Southeast Asian countries.

Academia

ASEAN at the crossroads: Reimagining the ASEAN Community

Taken together, these challenges have exposed gaps or weaknesses in the ability of ASEAN to address some its goals such as participation in global value chains, enhancement of macro-financial coordination and narrowing the development gaps.

2 years ago

Academia

12 crazy months of 2022: An Asian VC's perspective

Naturally, investors have different risk assessments of the global slowdown and inflationary environment. But overall, it feels like a relatively warm winter in our region.

2 years ago

A building of the Directorate General of Taxation in Jakarta.

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Indonesian transfer pricing outlook 2023: Trends to watch

The increased use of big data and emerging technology has advanced transfer pricing practices.

2 years ago

A COVID-19 patient is moved on a wheelchair at Tianjin First Center Hospital in Tianjin, China, on Dec. 28, 2022. Cities across China have struggled with surging infections, a resulting shortage of pharmaceuticals and overflowing hospital wards and crematoriums after Beijing suddenly dismantled its zero-COVID lockdown and testing regime.

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Everything changed overnight: China’s relaxing of its zero-COVID policy

It is plausible that the whirlwind turn of COVID-19 policy in China must have been a result of some extreme imperatives.

2 years ago

Exercise makes perfect: Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces take part in their annual live-fire exercise at the Higashi-Fuji firing range in Gotemba in Shizuoka prefecture on May 23, 2020. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to double Japan’s defense budget by 2027.

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New Japanese defense spending faces domestic resistance

The truth is every solution facing Kishida seems to have its own problem, as Japan is no longer a country capable of solving its public finances by adopting an easy monetary policy.

2 years ago

Trust building: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (center) leaves the lower house of parliament after receiving a vote of confidence in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 19.

Academia

Asia bids farewell and good riddance to 2022

What should have been a good year for Chinese President Xi Jinping as he consolidated power and set the stage for another term as China’s president has instead closed with a wave of Chinese discontent.

2 years ago

A number of workers planted rice during the second planting year in 2020, during the Corona Virus (Covid-19) epidemic in the rice field area of Tunggulwulung village, Malang City, East Java, on April 10, 2020.

Academia

Championing ‘gotong royong’ spirit to the next level through Social Innovation Platform

Villages have been hampered by challenges such as access to sanitation facilities; currently only available to just 75 percent of people in rural areas.

2 years ago

BI Governor Perry Warjiyo speaks during the Economy and Monetary Police Perspectives at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Oct. 14, 2018.

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Central bank’s new mandate follows global best practice

Most of the central banks in the world, however, emphasize the goal of price stability, either as a single objective with sub-objectives, or parallel to other objectives.

2 years ago

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) receives the symbolic gavel from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, marking the handover of the ASEAN chairmanship from Cambodia to Indonesia, during the closing ceremony of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits on Nov. 13, 2022 at the Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh.

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New ASEAN chair Indonesia can change the game in Myanmar

Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world and the leadership and people of Indonesia will understand well the suffering of the people of Myanmar under a decades-long military dictatorship.

2 years ago

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Why Indonesia should emulate Australia’s ASAT test ban

Australia’s move to ban ASAT testing will at least not add tensions to the region amid the ongoing competition among big powers in the South China Sea.

2 years ago

Call to action: The Sustainable Development Goals consist of a set of 17 goals designed to bring the world to several life-changing “zeros”, including to take urgent action to combat climate change, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

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National data collaboration key to addressing SDG indicators data gap

BPS is the backbone of data provision for SDGs monitoring in Indonesia; it is the custodian for 39 percent of the national SDG indicators.

2 years ago

Climate activists hold a rally on Dec. 16, 2022 during the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal, Canada.

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Biodiversity and climate, ASEAN’s next challenge

Indonesia's 2023 ASEAN chairmanship presents an opportunity to tweak the bloc's institutional structure to mainstream policies and actions on biodiversity preservation and climate change across all three ASEAN communities

2 years ago

Academia

Indonesian research access: quantity over quality?

Prestige drove Indonesian universities to open their research to the world. Now they need to tidy their files.

2 years ago

Academia

India-wide subscription to research journals paves path for Global South

With rising fees for research journals, India is pressing ahead with a nation-wide subscription to allow more people to access science.

2 years ago

Financial barriers posed by global publishing houses have inspired African scholars to find new ways of sharing information.

Academia

How Africa is overcoming ‘knowledge colonialism’

Attempts to more fairly share scientific knowledge have had the opposite effect in Africa. But a new initiative is bringing true equity.

2 years ago

Women weave handbags on Aug. 23, 2022 during the Love Indonesian Products exhibition for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), held at the Cenderawasih Sports Hall in Papua with the support of Bank Indonesia.

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Women's financial literacy key to post-pandemic economic recovery

Women have proven their resilience in running businesses and managing household finances as the primary breadwinner during the pandemic, and with added support to increase their financial literacy, they will be the key to economic recovery after the pandemic.

2 years ago

Safe haven: Community figure Kolinus Beanal (center) and people of Banti hamlet in Tembagapura district, Papua, gather near their shelter in Timika on Oct. 29, 2020. About 1,800 residents of Banti, Kimbeli and Opitawak hamlets sought refuge in Timika in March 2020 to evade armed conflict between security forces and rebel groups.

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Selective welfare and the impromptu humanitarian pause in Papua

The majority of indigenous Papuans live in highlands and mountainous areas and barely reap the benefits of economic growth.

2 years ago

King Willem-Alexander looks on during a visit at the hydrogen cluster at Industriepark Kleefse Waard, in Arnhem, on November 16, 2022. The visit focused on the growing hydrogen economy and the important role that hydrogen plays in the energy transition.

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Dutch PM’s apology will only open old wounds, unnecessarily

The Dutch should not shift their burden to others, especially on nations who endured their horrific colonization in the past.

2 years ago

One of the efforts to develop new renewable energy is through the use of solar panels in Pertamina’s operational areas, here seen at the refinery in Cilacap, Central Java.

Academia

Renewable energy bill: An ambitious attempt at energy transition

Supporting state-owned power companies in purchasing green energy is especially relevant because Indonesia’s green energy prices are around 10 percent to 65 percent higher than other Asian countries.

2 years ago

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