RI gives agricultural training to developing counties

Antare News, Thu, April 7 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Agriculture officers of five developing countries are taking part in a two-week long training and apprenticeship program which opened in West Java`s resort area of Lembang on Thursday.

Retno LP Marsudi. (kemlu)

Director General of America and Europe at the Foreign Ministry Retno Marsudi opened the event held jointly with the Agriculture Ministry.

The event consists of international training on fruit and vegetable post-harvest technology for Asia Pacific countries and apprenticeship program for Comoros farmers.

The five countries are Bangladesh, Fiji, Laos, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste.

In her address Retno said the two activities were one of the manifestations of the Indonesian government`s commitment to help develop the agriculture sector of fellow developing countries.

"The agricultural sector is the important asset of Indonesia`s soft power diplomacy and for more than three decades Indonesia has played an active role in facilitating the exchange of experience in the agricultural sector through training, apprenticeship and dispatch of skilled workers to various counties in Asia and the Pacific and Africa," she said.

She expressed her belief that developing countries could contribute to improving the global food security which currently came under the spotlight from the international community.

Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry Hari Priyono meanwhile said the government`s policies on national food security had yielded fruits with the attainment of self-reliance in rice in 2008.

"The agricultural sector is a strategic sector in the Indonesian economy and the Indonesian government will always try to meet the national consumption needs to ensure the public access to foodstuffs which constitutes one of human beings` basic rights." he said.

"Through the two activities the Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry expects that the participants could improve their technical competence so that it could be applied to support the development of the agricultural sector in their respective country," he said.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Five countries studying disaster preparedness in West Sumatra

Padang, W Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Five countries will send delegations to conduct a feasibility study on the disaster preparedness in Padang, West Sumatra, an activist said here on Saturday. 

The five countries which will send representatives to Padang are Malaysia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, executive director of the Indonesian Tsunami Alert Community (Kogami), Patra Rina Dewi, said. 

She said that each country would send two representatives. The delegates will visit disaster preparedness centers and have interviews with the relevant parties on March 17-19, 2009. 

The foreign guests will also attend a regional seminar on "Building Model for Disaster Preparedness" which will be organized by the Kogami and in cooperation the UNESCO. 

Representatives from foreign institutions, such as the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the European Union will also take part in the seminar. 

The seminar will also involve the Padang-based University of Andalas, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the National Disaster Handling Body and the Disaster Alert Journalist Network. 

Dewi said that the seminar was partly organized in connection with the appointment by the government of the Padang city as an exemplary disaster preparedness region in Indonesia. 

Therefore, the seminar will discuss the way of Padang city in preparing its capacity and system in handling disasters, particularly tsunami and earthquakes, she said.

Experts from eight countries formulate post-disaster management

Surabaya (ANTARA News) - Experts from the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium, Srilanka, Germani, China, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia have formulated post-disaster management.

The post-disaster management was formulated in a two-day symposium at Surabaya Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) from January 9-10 which was was concluded with a field trip to mud-hit area in Porong, Sidoarjo, on Thursday.

The experts who spoke in the symposium were Dr Emilia van Egmond of TU Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Dr Francis Edum Fotwe of Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, Prof George Ofori the National Univesity of Singapore, Prof Ananda Jayawardhane of the University of Moratuwa in Srilanka, Prof Jouke M Post of TU Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Prof Sc Techn. Christian Brockmann of Hochscule Brement in Germany, Prof Mohan Kumaraswamy of the University of Hong Kong, Prof Stephen O Ogunlana of Asian Institute of Technology, and Prof Johan Silas of ITS in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Frof Ananda Jayawardane of the University of Moratuwa in Srilanka said wooden houses were the temporary models of post-disaster management.

"Wooden houses are better in quake-prone areas, although woods are expensive and difficult to find in our country," Jayawardane said.

He said Srilanka was also hit by the deadly tsunami on December 26, 2005 but the country`s National Disaster Management Plan had been applied there since 2005.

Meanwhile, ITS Rector Prof Priyo Suprobo said he would design a house module for tsunami, earthquake, flood, and landslide victims.

"We used to design knock-down houses for Aceh tsunami victims," he said, adding that construction of such a kind of house could be completed in nine hours.

He added that one of the primary models in post-disaster management was the efficient, environmentally friendly and easy-to-construct houses.

Priyo Suprobo said ITS was currently designing a model of house which could be built in four hour.

"We are preparing the module, and the experts from various countries have given us input so we will recommend the result to the government," he said.

India's NTPC eyeing JV with Indonesian firm-paper

Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:11am BST

MUMBAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Indian state-run power producer NTPC Ltd (NTPC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) may form a joint venture with Indonesian coal producer PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA) (PTBA.JK: Quote, Profile, Research) to ensure fuel supplies for its projects, the Economic Times said.

Quoting unidentified sources, the paper said NTPC wants to set up two joint venture operations with PTBA, one to provide engineering support to develop a power plant and another for a coal mine.

"If the talks succeed, the two sides could sign an MoU (memorandum of understanding) for development of a thermal power plant and a coal mine," the newspaper quoted an unidentified Indian power ministry official as saying.

The official said officials from NTPC were soon expected to visit Indonesia to hold final discussions with PTBA on the issue.

A NTPC spokesman could not be immediately reached for a comment.

The paper said NTPC would mainly use the coal deal with PTBA to feed a proposed 500 megawatt power plant in Sri Lanka.

Lampung exports 249,728 tons of non-oil commodities to Pakistan

Bandarlampung, Lampung Province (ANTARA News) - Lampung province exported at least 249,728 tons of non-oil/non-gas commodities to Pakistan from January to July 2007, a local official said.

Lampung earned a total of US$20,360 in foreign exchange from the exports, Suparmo of the Lampung trade, industry and cooperatives office said here.

The exports had increased by 91.43 percent in value and by 93.05 tons in volume compared to the figures on the same period last year, he said.

Lampung exported among other things coal and sodium cyclamate to Pakistan. PT Bukit Asam Mining Company (PTBA) exported 37,873 tons of coal worth US$1.7 million, while PT Golden Sari exported sodium cyclamate amounting to 227 tons worth US$557,250 to Pakistan last July alone.

In addition to Pakistan, Lampung also exports non-oil/non-gas commodiies to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nepal, he said.