https://www.scmp.com/rss/500842/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Japan, after being outbid by China for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project, has been working with the Indonesian government to develop a separate medium-speed line connecting Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java. Now these two lines are to be brought together, forming a Jakarta-Bandung-Surabaya line, in a rare Belt and Road Initiative project that will see some collaboration between Chinese and Japanese engineers. Indonesia’s foreign affairs minister Retno Marsudi last month said Jakarta... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3092487/indonesia-moving-towards-japan-and-away-china-just-follow-railway?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3092487/indonesia-moving-towards-japan-and-away-china-just-follow-railway?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jul 2020 10:00:13 +0000 When the bones of a hitherto-unknown relative of modern man were found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, the discovery shocked the scientific world into rethinking some of its most basic assumptions about our evolution. What surprised scientists about this one-metre-tall pygmy human (homo floresiensis or “the little lady of Flores”) was not only that she had existed so recently – 50,000 years is the blink of an eyelid in evolutionary terms – but also that clues to her existence had... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3076089/coronavirus-covid-19-could-live-indonesia-long-after-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3076089/coronavirus-covid-19-could-live-indonesia-long-after-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2020 02:30:12 +0000 The cannabis plant is not new to Indonesia. According to Inang Winarso, executive director of the Sativa Nusantara Foundation, an organisation actively researching the use of medical marijuana, it was first brought by merchants and sailors from Gujarat in India to Aceh in the 14th century to be used not only for smoking, but also as a steeped drink, a cooking spice, and as a type of pest control. And since the 15th century in Ambon, cannabis has been used as a medicine for various diseases such... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3074058/fears-drug-abuse-aside-indonesia-should-give-medical-marijuana?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3074058/fears-drug-abuse-aside-indonesia-should-give-medical-marijuana?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Mar 2020 09:00:18 +0000 The confirmation on Monday that Indonesia had two cases of the coronavirus ended weeks of insistence by officials that the country had no infections within its borders. The patients are a 31-year-old woman and her 64-year-old mother who live in Depok in West Java, just outside the capital Jakarta. The younger woman had come into contact with an infected Japanese traveller from Malaysia last month, and is believed to have infected her mother. There are now six other patients suspected of having... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3065004/can-indonesians-trust-jokowis-government-coronavirus-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3065004/can-indonesians-trust-jokowis-government-coronavirus-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2020 09:00:15 +0000 Although the 238 Indonesian citizens evacuated from Wuhan, China, to the Natuna Islands for a two-week coronavirus quarantine have been released, the circumstances of their quarantine have had one clear consequence – the fraying of trust between the local government and people and the national government, underlining the need for greater policy coordination should future exigencies occur. Based on World Health Organisation rules, Indonesia should have first demonstrated that it had the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3051007/no-coronavirus-indonesias-handling-wuhan-evacuees-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3051007/no-coronavirus-indonesias-handling-wuhan-evacuees-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:00:09 +0000 China and Indonesia have both used integrated rural development policies as part or their overall poverty-reduction programmes, yet they have achieved two very different outcomes. While China has been able to minimise poverty through the implementation of its programmes, Indonesia has not been as effective, ranking 62nd out of 113 countries on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index, which measures food security globally. Although the country has experienced solid economic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049814/feed-hungry-nation-indonesia-can-follow-chinas-blueprint?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049814/feed-hungry-nation-indonesia-can-follow-chinas-blueprint?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Feb 2020 02:00:14 +0000 The recent policy changes in Indonesia’s national health insurance programme have been invaluable: they have not only made health care accessible to millions of formerly neglected patients, they have also breathed fresh air into the country’s pharmaceutical industry thanks to now soaring demand for drugs from new patients. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Indonesia’s pharmaceutical industry is the fact that almost 90 per cent of the raw materials used in making drugs are imported from... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3048628/china-could-be-key-partner-lifting-indonesias-pharmaceutical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3048628/china-could-be-key-partner-lifting-indonesias-pharmaceutical?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Feb 2020 02:00:18 +0000 As Indonesia faced off against China in the Natuna Sea earlier this month, it agreed to strengthen maritime cooperation with Japan, in a sign of how it intends to balance its ties with its largest foreign investors. On January 11, three Indonesian military vessels expelled more than 50 Chinese ships from its exclusive economic zone in the Natuna Sea off the coast of Borneo, after days of incursions in the fishing-rich waters bordering the South China Sea. A day earlier, Indonesian President Joko... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046429/indonesia-stands-china-natuna-islands-can-japan-come-rescue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046429/indonesia-stands-china-natuna-islands-can-japan-come-rescue?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jan 2020 02:00:18 +0000 Indonesia is one of the world’s most biodiverse nations. It is thought that as many as 300,000 species, or almost one in five of the world’s animals, are to be found in this sprawling Southeast Asian nation. It is home to 515 species of mammals and 1,539 species of birds, and almost half of all fish species live in its waters. Unfortunately, this biological wealth is not matched by efforts to preserve it. After drugs and human trafficking, offences against wildlife are the third-most pressing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3027632/indonesias-pre-social-media-laws-are-no-match-animal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3027632/indonesias-pre-social-media-laws-are-no-match-animal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Sep 2019 07:37:09 +0000 China has been one of the biggest foreign investors in Indonesia, spending no less than US$2.37 billion last year to finance 1,562 projects. And with new investments expected from agreements signed at last month’s Belt and Road Forum, China could soon be the archipelago’s largest investor. This comes as no surprise, given the increasing convergence of interests between both economies. Incumbent president Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, has shown his commitment to further develop the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3010278/indonesia-could-be-beijings-best-belt-and-road-friend?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3010278/indonesia-could-be-beijings-best-belt-and-road-friend?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 May 2019 05:30:36 +0000