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After experimenting with localized trials in Bali, Bintan and Batam, Indonesia effectively reopened its borders to tourists by reinstating visa exemptions for ASEAN nationals and scrapping on-arrival COVID-19 tests for vaccinated travelers on April 6. Citizens of 33 other countries including the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan and multiple European Union nations are also eligible for visas-on-arrival. The reopening will provide a further boost to Southeast Asia’s largest economy, which has been on a gradual recovery after gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 2.1 percent in 2020 following a nationwide outbreak of COVID-19’s deadly delta variant. Businesses in the retail, transport, and hospitality sectors in particular will rejoice at a likely surge in visitor arrivals as travelers return in force – Indonesia saw 16.1 million visitors pre-pandemic (2019), but only 4 million in 2020 and 1.6 million in 2021. These encouraging prospects were undoubtedly on the minds of investors participating in the initial public offering ( IPO) of Indonesian tech juggernaut GoTo, whose shares jumped 13 percent on the first day of trading.

Nonetheless, to focus solely on pandemic-hit sectors like hospitality would also miss the larger picture of Indonesia’s growth trajectory. At a time of heavily disrupted supply chains and rising commodity prices, Indonesia’s abundance of natural resources – from coal to iron to palm oil – places the country in an enviable position of strength. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent spate of sanctions placed against the former has only accentuated the strain on commodities. Significant attention has already been paid to Russia’s supplies of oil and gas as well as wheat, but it would be remiss to neglect other resources like nickel (used for producing steel and car batteries, among others), of which 10 percent of the world’s supply originates from Russia. Incidentally, Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves at 21 million metric tons. However, companies hoping to rely on Indonesia as an easy source of raw materials should temper their expectations. In 2021, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the urgency for the country to upgrade from its status as a commodity-based economy to encompassing more downstream components of the value chain. He made these statements at a groundbreaking ceremony of an electric vehicle battery plant in Karawang, West Java – described as Southeast Asia’s first – a non-too-subtle signal highlighting Indonesia’s “downstreaming” manufacturing push from nickel extraction to electric vehicle (EV) battery production. The country has aggressively courted investments in battery manufacturing in recent years, with Chinese and South Korean firms among the first to respond to the call.

The idea itself is nothing new. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration passed the Law on Mineral and Coal Mining 2009 as well as the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Regulation (Permen ESDM) No. 1/2014, which forces mineral extraction companies to convert a minimum amount of raw material (ore) into semi-processed products. However, this was never strictly enforced, and exports continued until the current administration issued Permen ESDM No. 25/2018 which imposes a gradual ban on ore exports – including nickel, cobalt, iron, bauxite, copper, gold, and tin – with only processed or semi-processed materials allowed for export. This has led to hundreds of new smelters being established across the country, with the largest operated by Virtue Dragon (owned by Chinese firm Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry) in Central Sulawesi.

The Indonesian government has similarly targeted exports of coal, which supplies more than 60 percent of Indonesia’s energy needs: in 2021, it increased the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) for national coal producers from 10 percent to 25 percent, meaning that each holder of coal mining concession rights must sell 25 percent of all production at a discounted price to domestic market. In February 2022, the government also banned coal producers who failed to fulfil their DMO from exporting coal. In a nod to the downstreaming agenda, state-owned coal producer PT Bukit Asam is aiming to increase the gasification of coal into dimethyl ether (a substitute for LNG) as one way to add value to Indonesian-sourced coal. Indonesia’s downstreaming agenda has taken a long time to come into fruition, and – as with many of its other government policies – time will tell if this recent push bears success. That said, the odds have never looked better for a meteoric resurgence by Southeast Asia’s sleeping giant.

Source Article: The sleeping giant awakens: Indonesia reopens to the world – The Jakarta Post

RIM Cargo, a leading International Air & Sea Freight Forwarder solutions provider, is excited to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website: rimcargo.com. The streamlined, modern design offers easy navigation, user-friendly interface, and engaging content to help website visitors better comprehend our solutions and offerings.

“We are very happy at the launch of the new website for our partners, clients, and visitors looking to explore our solutions and offerings,” said, Paul Barker and Nengah Danta, Managing Director and General manager of RIM Cargo. “I feel that this new website aligns well with our company’s vision for growth and expansion by encompassing our entire solutions portfolio.”
Created with keeping the user experience a top priority, the new comprehensive website includes features like:
• Easy navigation – User-friendly interface and latest content allows the end-users to navigate through our solutions portfolio based on their business requirements.
• Accentuates value proposition – The updated content clearly articulates the value propositions of our solutions and enhances the RIM Cargo brand.
• Quick access to news and insights – Website visitors can stay informed with the relevant news and resources, latest insights, product launches, corporate milestones, case studies, and events information with just a few clicks.

The US Senate yesterday passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, as the House of Representatives did in December. Presently the two renditions of the bill – the Senate’s and the House’s – should be explored and contrasts settled, before a solitary variant can go to President Biden for marking.

Congressperson John Thune, co-backer of the regulation with Senator Amy Klobuchar, said the regulation, “would even the odds for American ranchers, exporters and customers by making it harder for sea transporters to absurdly deny products that are prepared to send out at US ports. Particularly with record expansion in costs of merchandise, this regulation would likewise help customers by advancing the smoothness and productivity of the store network.”

Klobuchar underlined the regulation’s normal positive effects on port blockage and delivery costs. “Sea transporters that are generally unfamiliar possessed have revealed record benefits. This regulation will assist American exporters with getting their merchandise to showcase promptly at a fair cost,” she said.

The demonstration would reinforce the investigatory and authorization authority of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and give the organization another standard making authority. Sea normal transporters would be expected to answer to the FMC each schedule quarter on complete import and commodity weight and TEUs (stacked/void) for each boat that calls at US ports.

On March 22, the World Shipping Council gave an assertion saying that the Ocean Shipping Reform Act “addresses none of the underlying drivers of the US landside clog.” The Council noticed that “import blockage is additionally consuming the limit and space expected to guarantee the continuous progression of US sends out.” According to the WSC, the House variant of the bill “would aggravate existing clog.”

Source: https://splash247.com/us-senate-passes-ocean-shipping-reform-act/

Photo: Port of Los Angeles