[Marinir] Indonesia Digest No: 28.05 ; 08-08-'05,

[Yap Hong Gie]

INDONESIA DIGEST

Indonesia's complex Issues in a Nutshell
By: Ms. Wuryastuti Sunario
Published by: TBSC-Strategic Communication
No.: 28.05 - Dated:  8 August 2005
In this issue:

MAIN FEATURE:

INDONESIA HOSTS ASIA-PACIFIC MILLENNIUM
 DEVELOPMENT GOALS MEET

NEWS AND BACKGROUND:

1.      Tourism and Transportation:
Average Occupancy Rate of Jakarta Hotels 62.8%

2.      The Economy, Trade and Industry:
 273.7 million Indonesians in 2025

3.      Politics and Security:
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore jointly patrol the Malacca Straits
Truth and Friendship Joint Commission with Timor Leste established
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MAIN FEATURE:

INDONESIA HOSTS REGIONAL MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS MEET

Two thirds of the world's poor of 1.2 billion people, earning less than US 1 
Dollar a day, live in our Asia-Pacific region, said Foreign Minister Hasan 
Wirayuda, opening the Asia-Pacific Ministerial meeting on the Millennium 
Development Goals (MDGs)  in Jakarta, held here from 3rd  to 5th. August. 
And, when the minimum measure for poverty is counted on those who earn less 
than US 2 dollars per day, then the world's poor will reach 2 billion 
people.

The meeting was held in cooperation with UN special envoy for MDGs, United 
Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nation Economic and Social 
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) as well as the Asian 
Development Bank (ADB) and was attended by 400 officials from 41 countries 
and institutions.


In the Asia Pacific, for example, 27.1% of Indonesia's population are in the 
very poor category, as are 13.1% of Thailand's population, 36.8% of the 
Philippines', 4.6% of China's, and 49.8% of Bangladesh, said an ADB report.

Although campaigned since 1995, it was only in 1999 that the UN passed the 
resolution where member countries pledged to achieve the Millennium 
Development Goals by 2015.

In essence, The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's 
time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many 
dimensions, namely income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate 
shelter, and exclusion. The Goals also aim to promote gender equality, 
education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human 
rights, which are the rights of each person on the planet to health, 
education, shelter, and security.

MDG has 8 main targets that are again detailed into 18 sub-targets, with 
success or failure measured by 48 indicators, ranging from the percentage of 
population that have access to medication, up to the number of telephones 
available per capita. But, its first chief goal is to cut by half - by 
2015 - the number of population living in extreme poverty below US$ 1 a day. 
Others include (Goal 2) ensuring that all boys and girls will receive 
primary education; (goal 3) promote gender equality and empower women; (goal 
4) reduce child mortality of children below five years  by two third the 
number; (goal 5) improve maternal health  by cutting down by three quarters 
the number of deaths at childbirth; (goal 6)  Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and 
other communicable diseases; (goal 7) ensure environmental sustainability; 
and (goal 8 )develop a Global Partnership for Development

By and large, the world has made significant progress in achieving many of 
the Goals, said the UN. Between 1990 and 2002 average overall incomes have 
increased by approximately 21 percent. The number of people in extreme 
poverty has declined by an estimated 130 million. Child mortality rates fell 
from 103 deaths per 1,000 live births a year to 88. Life expectancy rose 
from 63 years to nearly 65 years. An additional 8 percent of the developing 
world's people received access to water. And an additional 15 percent 
acquired access to improved sanitation services.

However, Deputy President of the Asian Development Bank, van Der Linden, 
said that in the Asia Pacific, poverty remains a real threat. Too many 
children here still die from hunger or malnutrition, and hundreds of 
thousands still need to extricate themselves from slum dwellings. These 
conditions are in stark contrast to developed countries, where living 
standards are constantly on the rise.

At the end of their meeting, the Ministers issued the Jakarta Declaration 
that contained formulations on the need for closer regional cooperation to 
reduce poverty and reach the MDG targets by 2015, informs Antara.

"One of the important points in the declaration is the agreement to 
formulate concrete cooperation involving all parties to reduce poverty and 
reach the MDG targets on time," Indonesian Coordinating Minister for 
People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said following the closing of the meeting at 
the Jakarta Convention Center.

Indonesia will bring the results of the three-day meeting to the 60th UN 
General Assembly to be held in New York on Sept 14-16, he said. Some main 
topics mentioned in the Declaration was that Asia-Pacific countries are 
committed to reach MDG by integrating it into regional cooperation to reach 
MDG goals by 2015, Minister Shihab said.

The Asia-Pacific countries, he said, also agreed to boost efforts to 
accelerate the achievement of MDGs goals by creating long-term and 
short-term programs. However, situational issues such as soaring world oil 
prices could affect the achievement of MDGs . For that reason Asia and the 
Pacific nations need to join efforts to anticipate the trend, for example, 
through finding alternative energy resources and supporting energy 
efficiency programs. The region, he said, had been looking for efforts to 
increase the availability of financial sources to reach MDG by 2015 through 
innovative funding like debt swaps and micro financing schemes.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific had asked UNESCAP to draw up a road map to 
MDGs and to help mobilize financial sources to fund MDGs programs. Minister 
Alwi, however, mentioned two main constraints to reach MDGs to reduce 
poverty in Indonesia, these are, the lack of people's participation and 
rampant corruption.

He also said that widespread corrupt practices should be eradicated so that 
the country would be able to reach the common goal of wiping out poverty.

"Delegates to the Asia-Pacific ministerial meeting have made the commitment 
to realizing good governance, upholding the law and fight corruption at all 
levels as these efforts are important to create sustainable economy and 
carry out development, reduce poverty and
famine," said Alwi Shihab.

(Sources: Antara, Kompas)                               (Tuti Sunario)
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NEWS AND BACKGROUND:

4.      Tourism and Transportation:

Average Occupancy Rate of Jakarta Hotels 62.8%

Bisnis Indonesia reported that a survey made by Bank Indonesia recently on 
three-, four- and five star hotels in Jakarta revealed that in June 2005, 
average occupancy of the three categories of hotels rose by 2.1% from 60.7% 
in May to 62.8%. Best increase was made by four star hotels from 65.51% in 
May to 71.33% in June. This was followed by three star hotels that improved 
from 72.45% in May to 72.96% in June. While average occupancy of five star 
hotels decreased slightly, from 49.33% to 49.18%. Year on year average 
occupancy in June improved 5.43% compared to the 57.38% in June 2004.


Average room rate for all three categories was Rp. 434,897 per night (or 
around US$44.60/night at an exchange rate of Rp 9,750 per US Dollar), an 
improvement of a negligible 1%, comparing month on month.  Year on year, 
however, this was an improvement of 6.62% from Rp. 407,885 (around US$ 
41.85) per night in June 2004.



5.      The Economy, Trade and Industry:

273.7 million Indonesians in 2025

In 2025, Indonesia's total population is expected to become 273.7 million 
people, up from 205.8 million in the year 2000. The good news is that life 
expectancy in 2025 will have improved from 67.8 years during period 
2000-2005 to 73.6 years in 2025, said Minister for National Planning Sri 
Mulyani Indrawati at the launch of the book on Population Projection of 
Indonesia 2000-2005 compiled by the National Planning Board, together with 
the National Statistics Board and the United Nations Population Fund.

Further, the report mentions that Indonesia's population growth per year has 
in fact slowed down to 1.36% during 2000-2005, as compared to 1.49% in the 
period between 1990-2000, while during 2020-2025 growth is expected to slow 
down further to 0.98%. This slowing down in growth is due to reduced births 
and deaths, where data on births have slowed down faster than on the number 
of deaths.

The report further mentions that the percentage of population living on the 
overcrowded island of Java is decreasing from 58.9% of total population in 
the year 2000 to an expected 55.4% in 2025. Whereas, percentages of 
population living on the other islands are increasing, from 21% in 2000 to 
23.1% on Sumatra, and from 5.5% to 6.5% on Kalimantan.

There are, however, also provinces were population growth is thinning out 
compared to other provinces, namely at 0.5%, in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, 
South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Central Java, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo and 
Papua. While provinces where population growth is expected to grow at 0.4% 
are among others, in Lampung, the islands of Bangka Belitung, Jakarta and 
North Maluku.
(Sources: Bisnis Indonesia, Kompas)

 Politics and Security:

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore jointly patrol the Malacca Straits

On 1-2 August, Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore met on 
the Indonesian island of Batam at the mouth of the Straits of Malacca, to 
discuss the safety of navigation, environmental protection and maritime 
security in the busy Straits of Malacca and Singapore. Earlier, Lloyds had 
categorized the Straits of Malacca and Singapore as "high risk zone" for 
piracy and terrorism. In their statement, however, the Ministers regretted 
that this was announced without their prior consultation nor without taking 
into consideration such efforts made by the littoral States of Indonesia, 
Malaysia and Singapore to deal with problems of safety and maritime 
security. The Ministers, therefore, urged that the Committee review its risk 
assessment accordingly.

At about the same time, an Informal Meeting of Chiefs of Defense Forces of 
Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand (CDF-MIST Informal Meeting) was 
taking place in Kuala Lumpur on 1-2 August 2005.

In their Statement, the three Foreign Ministers reaffirmed the sovereignty 
and sovereign rights over the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, that remains 
with the Littoral States (of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), as defined 
under UNCLOS 1982 as straits used for international navigation. As such, the 
primary responsibility over the safety of navigation, environmental 
protection and maritime security in these waters, therefore, lies with these 
States. Whatever measures are undertaken in these seas should thus be in 
accordance with international law, including UNCLOS 1982. Nonetheless, the 
interest of user States and relevant international agencies are acknowledged 
as well as the role they could play.

In handling maritime security, this will be undertaken comprehensively, 
including trans-boundary crimes such as piracy, armed robbery and terrorism, 
trafficking in persons, and smuggling of people, weapons and other 
trans-boundary crimes, to be managed through appropriate mechanisms.

Minister Hasan Wirayuda in a press conference after the meeting later 
explained that the three littoral countries will each be responsible for 
safety in their own territorial waters, while keeping close communication 
with one another. This system is deemed to be most effective, while user 
states of the Straits are expected to support the system in areas of 
capacity building, training and transfer of technology.

Further, the Meeting encouraged closer cooperation between the three 
countries and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to put in place 
the Pilot Project of Marine Electronic Highway (MEH), and welcomed the 
establishment of the ReCAAP Information Sharing Center in Singapore, to 
which Indonesia and Malaysia will give their cooperation.

In this connection a "Meeting on the Straits of Malacca and Singapore: 
Enhancing Safety, Security and Environmental Protection" will be held on 7-8 
September 2005 in Jakarta, Indonesia, in collaboration with the 
International Maritime Organization.

Truth and Friendship Joint Commission with Timor Leste established

The governments of Timor Leste and of the Republic of Indonesia in their 
meeting in Bali on 1 August 2005, have agreed on personalities to be 
included as members of the joint Commission of Truth and Friendship. The 
nomination is a follow up to the agreement signed on 14 December 2004 when 
leaders of both countries agreed to establish the Commission of Truth and 
Friendship with the task to investigate and resolve gross violations of 
human rights committed during the conflict period prior to and during the 
1999 referendum, when the majority population of former Indonesian East 
Timor opted for independence.

Composition of membership includes ten personalities of "high standing and 
competence". These are:

For the Indonesian side : Mr. Achmad Ali, Mr. Wisber Loeis, Mr. Benjamin 
Mangkudilaga, Mgr. Petrus Turang and Mr. Agus Widjojo.

For the Timor Leste side : Mr. Jacinto Alves, Mr. Dionisio Babo, Mr. Aniceto 
Guterres, Ms. Felicidade Guterres and Mr. Cirilio Cristovão.

The Commission will commence work as soon as possible, with a Joint 
Secretariat established in Denpasar, Bali. .
(Source: www.deplu.go.id)

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