VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia is an archipelagic country whose waters is bordering directly with 10 neighboring countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Republic of Palau and Timor Leste.

The maritime boundary between Indonesia and Australia has been agreed. However, Indonesia is reviewing the process for the maritime boundary agreement between Indonesia and Australia that was signed in 1997.

Meanwhile, maritime boundaries with other neighboring countries have only been determined by setting the boundaries of the continental shelf and part of the territorial sea boundary (Territorial sea). The completion of Indonesia's maritime boundaries with neighboring countries has been a priority program since the beginning of reform era. However, the process looks slow, and until now the determination has not been completed.
Indeed, it is not easy to negotiate with various countries related to the borders among the neighboring countries. There are several reasons why the negotiation of maritime boundary has been in a slow process. The first cause is that the boundary line must be agreed upon by the two sovereign states. This means that the shared principle must be carried out by both parties. Second, boundaries are related to sovereign ones. Thus, the two countries have to be very careful because once a border is established; it can no longer be questioned. Third, international law on maritime borders, even the 1982 UNCLOS (The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), has not provided standard norms to guide countries to determine a just and acceptable borderline for both parties.

The Indonesian government keeps encouraging the acceleration of Indonesia's maritime border agreements with the 10 neighboring countries. In fact, Indonesia has made accelerating negotiations on the determination of maritime boundaries as one of the priorities of foreign policy.

In accelerating negotiations to determine maritime boundaries, the Indonesian government must not stick on the legal aspect. The more important point is to establish good bilateral relations with other countries. Because good relations between the two countries are one of the factors that influences the acceleration of the border negotiations. 

October 8, 1912, the Balkan War I begins.

The First  Balkan War was a series of battles that took place from 8 October 1912 to 18 May 1913 between the Balkan League (Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria) against the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. It  was the first part of the War on the Balkan Peninsula and aimed at capturing Macedonia,  then controlled by Turkey. The war ended in victory on the Balkan League and the London Agreement was signed. After the end of the war, a dispute arose over the territorial borders between members of the league, which led to the outbreak of the Balkan War II.

October 8, 1929, Jakarta Kota Station was inaugurated.

Jakarta Kota Station, also known as Beos or Batavia Zuid, was originally built around 1887, then closed in 1926 to be renovated into a current building. Around 200 m from the closed station, the new  Jakarta Kota Station was built. Construction was completed on August 19, 1929 and officially operated on October 8, 1929. The inauguration ceremony was carried out on a large scale by planting buffalo heads by the Governor of the Netherlands East Indies from 1926 to 1931,  A.C.D. de Graeff.

October 8, 2009, a meteor crashed in Bone, South Sulawesi province.

Bone meteor explosion is a natural event that occurred on October 8, 2009 by 11:30 local time.  An asteroid fragment entered  into the Earth's atmosphere and exploded in space. This explosion caused anxiety to the surrounding residents. It killed one indirect victim due to shock and a  heart problem. On October 23, 2009 NASA issued a report stating that the explosion was detected by infrasound analysis from several illegal nuclear explosion monitoring agencies. The force of the explosion is estimated to be close to 50 kilotons of TNT, or about three times the strength of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Leading companies from Florida, United States expressed wishes to focus more on cooperating with companies in Indonesia and further increase the value of trade and investment between the two countries. The wishes also received support from members of the United States Congress representing various districts in Florida and Florida high officials who attended the seminar at the JAX Chamber Jacksonville with the theme "The 70th Anniversary of Indonesia and US Relations: Ways to Move Forward" in Jacksonville, Florida, United States on Tuesday (1/10).

The seminar was aimed at enhancing trade cooperation between Indonesia and America, particularly Florida and Jacksonville City and was held in collaboration with the Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC, Consulate General in Houston, and Representative Member of the District Three Congress in Florida, Ted Yoho. The seminar was also attended by Florida District Four Congress member -John Rutherford, officials in the Florida government offices and Jacksonville City and more than 70 businesspeople both from Indonesia and from various regions in Florida.

In his remarks, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States, Mahendra Siregar invited all businesspeople to actively explore efforts to establish a sustainable business ecosystem between Indonesia and Jacksonville City. Ambassador Mahendra also said that Florida as chosen as the venue for the business forum, it was one of the five states in the United States, with the highest trade value with Indonesia.

Ambassador Mahendra also invited Florida businesspeople to attend the Trade Expo in Indonesia on October 16-20 2019. Congressman, Ted Yoho said that the business forum was aimed at promoting Indonesia to businesspeople from Florida. He also said that Indonesia and the United States have many principles in common that could be the basis for strengthening trade cooperation, security politics in the ASEAN region and educational cooperation.

Meanwhile, Florida District Four Congress member, John Rutherford said that Jacksonville City with a very complete logistics infrastructure is ready to collaborate in various fields with Indonesia. The business forum continued with a field visit so that Indonesian business people had the opportunity to obtain first-hand information about the operations of several leading companies in Florida: Jacksonville port operator -Jaxport, and LNG Management Company in Jacksonville -JAX LNG and the expedition company -TOTE Maritime.

At the second week of September 2019, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani said, the Indonesian Government would like to increase the cigarette excise by 23%. She added, with this increase, the retail sale price of cigarettes also increases to 35%. This decision will be stipulated in the Minister of Finance Regulation and will take effect on January 1, 2020.

In Indonesia more recently, the price of a pack of cigarettes has become viral. The price of locally produced cigarettes, which is currently around Rp 23.00, is rumored to reach Rp 48,000. The rising price of cigarettes in Indonesia received a great deal of attention. Based on the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Report entitled 'The Tobacco Control Atlas', the ASEAN Region showed that in 2013 around 65.19 million Indonesians were smokers.

Raising cigarette excise in Indonesia has become a dilemma. If the cigarette excise tax does not increase, the number of deaths due to consumption of tobacco products may increase. On one hand, the results of the 2015 Health Research and Development Agency study showed that Indonesia accounts for more than 230,000 deaths due to consumption of tobacco products annually. Lung cancer ranks first cause of death which is equal to 12.6%. On the other hand, the tobacco industry is one of the national manufacturing sectors, that has a large contribution. The Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia noted that the cigarette industry sector absorbs nearly 6 million workers.

But there is one thing that must be prioritized. Increasing the excise on cigarettes must be taken by the government without further delay, remembering that Indonesia is strongly committed to creating excellent human resources. The fact shows that tobacco consumption has become an effective instrument to degrade the quality of Human Resources in Indonesia. Creating excellent human resources must be done earlier. One cause of the non-formation of excellent human resources is stunting, the failure of child growth due to malnutrition for a long time. Facts on the ground show that almost about 70 percent of smokers in Indonesia are poor families. For them, cigarette becomes the second priority after rice.

An optimal increase in the price of cigarettes needs to be done. There are no cheap cigarette prices. Thus, the poor do not easily buy cigarettes, and the funds spent to buy cigarettes can be used to meet nutritious intakes. Hopefully, Indonesia's excellent human resources will be formed more quickly.