GENERAL NEWS AND HEADLINES

Democrats rejoin discussions on job creation omnibus bill
CNN Indonesia (https://tinyurl.com/y6dbvssr)

The Democratic Party faction at the House of Representatives has rejoined discussions on the omnibus bill on job creation with the House’s Legislative Body (Baleg).

Hinca Pandjaitan, a member of the Democratic Party faction in Baleg, said his faction had previously taken a step back in the deliberation of the omnibus bill to “fight for the interests of people.”

“Three members of the Democratic Party have been assigned to the jobs bill, namely Bambang Purwanto, Hinca Pandjaitan and Benny K. Harman,” Hinca said on Wednesday.

Previously, the Democratic Party withdrew from discussions on the job creation omnibus bill, claiming that it would be difficult to carefully deliberate the bill amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Benny, the bill had little relevance to the country’s COVID-19 management.

 

State budget exhausted due to too many echelons
Kompas (https://tinyurl.com/yy3c9daw); CNBC Indonesia (https://tinyurl.com/y2pl4meo)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo repeated his commitment to slash the number of echelon officials in government institutions as it is important in improving the effectiveness of the government’s performance.

“We must continue to carry out bureaucratic reforms. We have to simplify the bureaucracy as there are still too many tiers and divisions,” Jokowi said at the National Corruption Prevention Act event at the Bogor Palace on Wednesday. Jokowi added that too many echelons lengthened the bureaucracy and budgets allocated to smaller units would be too difficult to monitor.

Jokowi reiterated that he wanted the state budget to be directed toward financing strategic and more relevant programs that directly answer to the interests of the public.

 

House speaker urges govt to distribute wage subsidy
Kompas (https://tinyurl.com/y5tdneuu)

House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani has urged the government to distribute the wage subsidy to workers who earn less than Rp 5 million per month. Those eligible to receive the wage subsidy, however, must be registered with the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan). This has prompted Puan to find a solution for workers who are not registered with the BPJS.

Puan emphasized that the government must pay close attention in programs aimed to spearhead economic recovery amid the pandemic.

The Manpower Ministry has not yet distributed the wage subsidy as it wants to verify the recipient data. The verified data will then be submitted to the State Treasury Services Office (KPPN) and then immediately delivered to channeling banks.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS NEWS AND HEADLINES

BP Jamsostek: Only 10.8 million bank accounts eligible for wage subsidy program
CNBC Indonesia, (https://tinyurl.com/y4yjfhcc); CNN Indonesia, (https://tinyurl.com/y58lathm) 

BP Jamsostek, previously known as the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan), revealed that only the holders of 10.8 million bank accounts were eligible for the wage subsidy offered by the government. The program targets 15.7 million workers with wages below Rp 5 million (US$340) per month. There were still 4.9 million bank accounts that needed to be checked, BP Jamsostek director Agus Susanto told House of Representatives members. The agency has asked employers to provide updated data on their employees, Agus added.

 

Coronavirus infects 238 employees at LG’s Cibitung plant
CNN Indonesia, (https://tinyurl.com/y27kxnn5) 

South Korea’s LG Electronics has temporarily shut its factory in Cibitung, West Java, after more than 200 employees were infected with the coronavirus. “We have tested all employees, and workers who tested negative will return to work starting next week,” the company wrote in a statement. LG’s Cibitung plant manufactures televisions and parts of digital signs. About a third of LG’s employees tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the company to shut the factory for nine days.

 

COVID-19 task force: Cinemas in Jakarta to open again
Kontan, (https://tinyurl.com/y4sygppd); Kompas, (https://tinyurl.com/y4m377fm) 

COVID-19 task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito stated that the government’s task force had conducted a study in the past few weeks assessing the possibility of reopening cinemas in Jakarta. Currently, the task force was preparing the health protocol to ensure the safety of moviegoers and employees. The task force would prohibit visitors with health problems, such as diabetes, cardiovascular, lung, kidney or autoimmune diseases from entering cinemas. Moreover, only people from 13 to 59 years of age could enter cinemas, Wiku added.

 

Pertamina, Chandra Asri to build petrochemical plants
Kontan, (https://tinyurl.com/y6pk5tha) 

State-owned oil and gas holding company PT Pertamina, through its subsidiary PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, has signed an agreement with petrochemical producer PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical to build petrochemical plants. The partnership with Chandra Asri will become a part of Pertamina’s dowstreaming strategy by integrating its oil refineries with petrochemical plants. Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati said that, through this partnership, Pertamina aimed to fulfil domestic demand for petrochemical products.

Download PDF