Travel-Quarantine Reduced to 5 Days/Bali Open
Indonesia reduced its quarantine for international travelers from 7 to 5 days, stipulating that the change applies to fully vaccinated travelers. “The government has changed the quarantine regulation from seven to five days. But only if the travelers, either Indonesian or international citizens, have been completely vaccinated,” said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan, in a virtual press conference on January 31. All travelers are given PCR tests upon arrival and on the 5th day of quarantine.
During the same event, Luhut indicated that Bali will ‘gradually” reopen for all tourists on February 4th.
Singapore Airlines said on Friday it would resume flights to Bali from Singapore starting on Feb. 16.
Updated Travel Restrictions for Airplane Passengers Traveling within Indonesia during PPKM
These restrictions apply to flights between airports on the island of Java, flights from/or to airports on the island of Java, and flights from/or to airports on the island of Bali.
· The documents below are required and to be presented (digital copies available using PeduliLindungi App for Indonesian citizens) during check-in at airports:
· Vaccine certificate/card, minimum of first dose.
· Certificate or letter of negative RT-PCR results whose samples were taken within a maximum period of 2×24 hours before the departure.
· Indonesia Health Alert Card (e-HAC) for all passengers (Indonesians and non-Indonesians)
Economic-
· QR Payments: During AICC’s January 13 Zoom meeting with Bank Indonesia’s Governor, Perry Warjiyo, he mentioned digital payment advances. This week Bank Indonesia (BI) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) launched a cross-border QR payment linkage. It will enable instant, secure, and efficient cross-border payments between Indonesia and Malaysia. Through this linkage, consumers in both countries will be able to make retail payments by scanning the QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) or DuitNow QR codes displayed by offline and online merchants. This initiative links cross-border payments through the interconnection of national QR codes of the two countries and also represents another milestone of the Indonesian Payment System Blueprint 2025.
· China-Indonesia Currency Swap: Bank Indonesia and The People’s Bank of China have renewed the Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement (BCSA) on January 21, 2022. The Agreement allows for the exchange of local currencies between the two central banks of up to CNY250 billion or IDR550 trillion (about USD 38.8 billion equivalent). It is valid for three years and can be extended upon mutual consent.
· IMF Lowers Indonesia’s Growth Forecast: The International Monetary Fund has revised down its forecast for Indonesia’s economic growth amid a rising number of COVID-19 infections driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Indonesia’s GDP is now expected to expand by 5.6 percent this year and 6 percent in 2023.
· Palm Oil Export Control: Indonesia has imposed a rule starting Thursday for a mandatory portion of palm oil to be sold domestically at a maximum price of Rp 9,300 (US$0.6465) per kilogram for crude palm oil (CPO) and 10,300 rupiah per kg for olein. The requirement comes as the world’s top producer and exporter of palm oil tries to curtail a rise in domestic cooking oil prices that have climbed about 40 percent from a year earlier, in line with high global CPO prices. A so-called domestic market obligation (DMO) will be applied to all cooking oil producers, which must sell 20 percent of their planned exports to the domestic market, Trade Minister M. Lutfi told a virtual briefing on Thursday. Indonesia recently imposed a similar domestic obligation for coal exports. The domestic check price is usually set below world market prices and can result in smuggling.
· PLN Scuttles Diesel: State Power Company (PLN) Chief Director Darmawan Prasodjo disclosed that a tender is underway for a project to retire diesel generators in remote areas, replacing them with renewable energy sources. In a hearing with parliamentarians on 26 January, Prasodjo said that 120 eligible companies have registered to bid. A great many remote regions, including islands, lack access to power grids, and PLN supplies electricity locally by running diesel generator sets. The service is both costly and carbon intensive. Innovations in renewable energy, including solar, wind and micro-hydro generators, provide options for alternatives that are both cleaner and cheaper. The program will involve replacement of 5,200 generators in 2,130 locations. The first phase will affect 265 megawatts power in isolated regions. A second phase, in 2025-26, will target 2,000 megawatts. (Reformasi Weekly)
| Foreign/Security Affairs
Singapore-Indonesia Extradition Treaty: Indonesia and Singapore will ink an extradition treaty during leaders’ retreat in Bintan Island on Tuesday, thus making it easier for Indonesia to catch its graft fugitives. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said that the Indonesian government had been seeking this extradition treaty since the 1990s. The Indonesia-Singapore extradition treaty enables the governments to surrender an individual to the requesting country for prosecution, trial, or punishment for an extraditable offense. “The extradition treaty will cause a deterrence effect for criminals in Indonesia and Singapore,” Yasonna added. The treaty requires Parliamentary ratification. Both countries already signed a different extradition treaty in April 2007, witnessed by then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. However, the treaty has not come into force pending ratification by the Indonesian House of Representatives. The Indonesian parliament, for its part, objects to the treaty being attached to a bilateral defense cooperation agreement that requires Indonesia to provide Kayu Ara Island near Sumatra as a training ground and shooting practice area for the Singaporean military. |
(sources: International and Indonesia news media, Bali Update (from balidiscovery.com), Reformasi Weekly, US Embassy website) |
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