Jakarta (ANTARA News) – The government is planning to build the country`s biggest harbour in an effort to expand and increase the capacity of the current Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta from 5 million to 18 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers.

The commencement of this groundbreaking construction is scheduled next July, when the first phase of the New Priok Port will be constructed on a 195-hectare plot of land located in North Jakarta`s Kalibaru area.

State-owned port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II (IPC II) will begin construction on the New Priok Port after it receives a copy of the Presidential Regulation No. 36/2012 containing development recommendations for the port, the first phase of which is expected to cost about US$2.47 billion.

“With the issuance of the presidential regulation, we can now make preparations for the construction of New Priok Port,” said IPC President Director Richard Joost Lino.

According to the IPC II website, IPC II has officially received a copy of the presidential regulation which mandates IPC II to build and operate the Kalibaru Port (New Priok Port) in North Jakarta.

In implementing Presidential Regulation No. 36/2012, which was signed by the president on April 5, 2012, the IPC II will invest some Rp22.55 trillion, or US$2.47 billion, in the first phase of construction.

The project`s first phase will include the installation of container terminal infrastructure and related equipment worth US$1.38 billion, while a further US$730 million will be made available for constructing a new petroleum product terminal in the port.

According to Lino, IPC II is enthusiastic about the project and believes that it will rise up to the challenge offered by the presidential instruction to make Indonesia`s dream come true – that is, to build a port that the country can be proud of.

IPC II`s challenge is to build the port without funding support from the government or the state budget. “It does not involve a state budget fund. The funds will come from the investors and be facilitated by PT Pengembangan Indonesia, a subsidiary of the IPC II,” Lino added.

IPC II may also raise funds for the port by forging partnerships with and receiving investments from major shipping and port operators as well as loans from national and international lenders.

The New Priok Port will be built to alleviate the load on the currently over-burdened Tanjung Priok Port. Therefore, the New Priok Port`s construction will be accelerated to reduce the old port`s burden by about 1 million TEU containers.

Upon its completion in 2023, the New Priok Port will more than triple the annual capacity of Tanjung Priok Port, from 5 million TEU to 18 million TEU.

Lino remarked that the construction of the New Priok Port, which was previously called Kalibaru Port, will elevate Indonesia`s reputation to the level of countries with international scale ports.

The IPC II has already provided the various requisite documents to the government, and after receiving approval, it will enter the final stage of preparation. Lino explained that the master plan of the port includes three container terminals, two oil and gas fuel terminals, and a 399-m wide two-way shipping lane.

According to Lino, the first phase of port construction will be carried out on 195 hectares of land, with the length of piers reaching 4,000 metres. In the first phase, the port will be able to accommodate 4.5 million TEU containers.

“When all of its three phases are completed, the total capacity of New Priok Port will reach 13 million TEU” Lino remarked. It is expected that phase one of port construction will be completed and operational by 2014. The entire port, from phases one to three, is expected to be operational by 2023.

The New Priok Port is expected to facilitate the movement of large ships, so that ships of EEE class (with a capacity of 18,000 TEU containers) can sail directly to Indonesia without needing to undergo transshipment in other countries. This, in turn, will help reduce transportation and logistics costs.

For this purpose, the 300-m two-way lane in the piers of the port will be dredged as deep as -16 mLWS during the first phase and as deep as -20 mLWS in the subsequent phases of the port`s construction.

Thus, at present and in the future, the New Priok Port is expected to be as productive as other international seaports in the world which are able to accommodate the largest container ships.

With a port of this capacity, Indonesia is expected to attract more investors. The presence of the New Priok Port will help strengthen the national logistics flow, thus attracting investors to Indonesia.

“It should be noted that this is the biggest harbour in Indonesia,” Lino added.
(T.A014/INE/KR-BSR/E002)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
COPYRIGHT © 2012

Πέμπτη, Μαιος 24, Σελιανίτικα (SELIANITIKA)
Ελληνικόν Ειδύλλιον
Παρασκευή, Μαιος 25, Πάτρα (PATRAS)
θέατρο Απόλλων
Σάββατο, Μαιος 26, Δερβένι (DERVENI)
Κλειστό Γυμναστήριο
Κυριακή, Μαιος 27, Μεσολόγγι (MESOLONGI)
Κλειστό Γυμναστήριο

Ονείρων Χοροθέαμα
ΜΙΜPΙ
Ιδέα •Σύλληψη •Χορογραφία: Werner Schulze

Η Ινδονησιακή λέξη mimpi σημαίνει όνειρο. Πρόκειται για εικόνες του ονειρικού μας χώρου, οί οποίες μας προσπερνούν μέσα από τα εξερευνητικά ταξίδια της ψυχής μας. Εκτός αυτού, όχι μόνο τα όνειρα της νύχτας αλλά περισσότερον εκείνα της ημέρας, τά ζωτικά μας όνειρα, είναι που παίζουν ένα σημαντικό ρόλο.
Το MIMPI δέν είναι ούτε θέαμα ούτε διασκέδαση. Το MIMPI διηγείται μία ιστορία, χωρίς να φαίνεται ότι τη διηγείται.
Είναι διαστολή και συστολή χρόνουχώρος, κίνηση, χορός, μουσική, ποίηση καί θεατρική παράσταση σέ αρμονία. Εσωτερική στάση, αίσθηση και ανοχή επαφής, εμπειρία ενός καινούριου κόσμου. Ή πιο απλά, το MIMPI είναι μία ακολουθία από μαγευτικές εικόνες.
Ένας τυφλός, ένας ιερέας, ράβδοι από μπαμπού, λευκά φτερά. Το αυγό σαν σύμβολο ελπίδας καί ενός νέου ξεκινήματος. Όλα αυτά οδηγούν σε σκέψεις απ’ όπου αναβλύζουν εκείνα τα θέματα που θέτουν τόν άνθρωπο σε δράση: η ένωση της αγάπης καί του πόνου, του θανάτου καί της γέννησης, της ευτυχίας καί της ελπίδας.
Τέτοια θραύσματα από όνειρα παρακινούν τον παρατηρητή στο ν’αρχίσει μία νέα έρευνα για να εξιχνιάσει την ιδιαίτερή του ζωή. Ίσως ο παρατηρητής νά αναρωτηθεί: Ήταν άραγε οι εμπειρίες από τις περιπέτειες του ταξιδιού μεγαλύτερης σημασίας από τον ίδιο τον στόχο, δηλ. το τέρμα του ταξιδιού;
Ή μουσική προέρχεται από ποικίλους πολιτισμικούς χώρους (Ινδονησία, Ιράν, Ευρώπη) και συμβάλλει στην εξομάλυνση των αντιθέσεων καί στην προαγωγή εκπλήξεων.
Ή πρώτη παράσταση έλαβε χώρα τον Δεκέμβριο του 2011 στή Jakarta, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Teater Kecil.
Διάρκεια παράστασης: 80 περίπου λεπτά χωρίς διακοπή.

The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in co operation with TRAVEL PLAN, INSIDER MAGAZINE, QATAR AIRWAYS and THE WESTIN ATHENS, ASTIR PALACE BEACH RESORT is proudly to present a 10-day Indonesian Food Festival, starting 20 April to 29 April 2012. The Festival will be held in Al Fresco Restaurant, Astir Palace Beach Resort, Voulagmeni. It will feature many original yet tasty Indonesian dishes including Chicken Satay, Nasi Bali (Balinese style dishes) and more dishes from various parts of Indonesia. For reservation, please kindly contact the hotel.

Jakarta Globe

Banda Aceh. Giant quakes off Indonesia caused panic but little damage, in a successful test of warning systems and evacuation plans introduced after the catastrophic 2004 Asian tsunami, experts said on Thursday.

In the tense hours that an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami watch remained in effect Wednesday, Indonesian meteorologists were monitoring offshore buoys that measured the waves, confidently predicting that the likelihood of a large tsunami was minimal.

Another warning system has risen to the fore since 2004 as the use of smartphones and social media has exploded across Asia, helping to spread the word on Wednesday across other affected nations such as Thailand and India.

“The early warning system is working well,” Indonesian President Susilo Bambang reassured the nation in a televised address on Wednesday. “So far, there is no tsunami threat.”

Indonesia launched a $130-million tsunami warning system in November 2008 in a bid to prevent a repeat of tragedies like the 2004 disaster, which killed around 170,000 people in the archipelago nation alone.

“We knew that a tsunami could hit the coast in about 50 minutes, and we were monitoring for it,” said Suharjono, head of the earthquakes department at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

“We also knew which parts of the coast to watch,” he said, explaining that offshore buoys send signals to monitoring stations in Indonesia and beyond.

The BMKG reported only a few small tsunamis of up to 80 centimeters had hit Indonesia’s coast, its reports confirmed by witnesses.

“I think the warning system responded very well, it’s picking up the size of the event, it’s picking up where it came from, it’s saying this is shallow,” said James Goff, director of the Australia-Pacific Tsunami Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.

He said Wednesday’s alert was a “decent test” of the Indian Ocean tsunami warning system, an ambitious network of tidal gauges, deep ocean buoys and seismic monitors modelled on the decades-old Pacific model completed after the 2004 tsunami.

Suharjono said that in Indonesia, the data can be processed and disseminated within three minutes.

The local government is sent the information and is in charge of acting on it.

“We thought it went extremely well yesterday, according to reports from conversations we’ve had with NGOs and people on the ground,” said Denis Okello, information officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jakarta.

He said sirens meant to warn people to move to higher ground had been activated by the local government, which was receiving SMS messages and emails from BMKG.

“We took action quickly as soon as I got phone messages from BMKG,” said Teuku Ahmad Dadek, head of western Aceh’s disaster management agency, adding that some people on the coast were immediately warned to head for higher ground.

In a nation with one of the world’s highest number of phone texters — and the globe’s fastest growing major market for BlackBerry smartphones — telephone alerts are also an important way for the BMKG to spread its warnings.

“I think some people got text messages, but we didn’t get any at the school because the phone lines were down for some time after the quake,” said Nunik Nurwanpi, a 20-year-old primary school teacher in Banda Aceh.

“We all knew what to do anyway because we’ve had regular tsunami drills since the big one in 2004,” she said, adding that children were evacuated from the school and moved to higher ground when sirens blared.

Unlike the 2004 quake and tsunami, which all but wiped out Aceh’s provincial capital Banda Aceh, Wednesday’s quake caused minimal damage because the epicentre was much farther offshore, Suharjono said.

Residents said that new wider roads, to facilitate easier evacuation, had helped during Wednesday’s quake.

Last year, a 9.0–magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, killing some 19,000 people.

Agence France-Presse

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that there was “no tsunami threat, although we are on alert,” in a televised speech from the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon, according to Reuters.

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.5 hit waters 308 miles (495 kilometers) off Banda Aceh Wednesday afternoon, causing a tsunami warning to be issued for much of the Indian Ocean.

But the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said that the earthquake was not as likely to produce a tsunami as past quakes.

Wednesday’s earthquake caused the earth to shift horizontally along fault lines in what is called a “slip-slide” motion, Sutopo said. The 9.1-magnitude that struck Aceh on Dec. 26, 2004 triggered a tsunami because the earth’s crust moved vertical in what is called a “megatrust” motion, he added.

“The potentials for a tsunami is not as big as in 2004,” Sutopo told Antara on Wednesday.

But tsunami warnings for western Indonesia will stay in effect, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the BNPB said.

“The tsunami warnings along the western coasts of Aceh and North Sumatra will last for about an hour, in West Sumatra for about
one-and-a-half hours and in Lampung between two and two-and-a-half hours,” Sutopo said.

Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) issued a tsunami warning for Aceh, West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Lampung and Bengkulu immediately after the quake was reported.

“There is potential for a tsunami to hit five provinces in the region — Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Bengkulu and Lampung,” Marzuki, an analyst at the BMKG, told Agence France-Presse.

In total, more than 25 countries were warned of a possible tsunami, including: Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Burma, Thailand, Maldives, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Reunion, Seychelles, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Madagascar, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Comores, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, South Africa and Singapore.

Wednesday afternoon’s earthquake was felt as far away as southern India and Thailand as residents reported the shaking on their Twitter accounts.

Residents in Banda Aceh reported the ground shaking violently.

“It began as a mild tremor and then got stronger,” an AFP correspondent in Banda Aceh said. He said the ground shook for about five minutes, and telephone connections went down briefly.

“There are people trying to evacuate, some are praying and children at a school were panicking as teachers tried to get them out,” he said.

“There are traffic jams everywhere as people are trying to get away from the coast — many are on motorcycles,” the correspondent said.

Live coverage from Metro TV reported power and internet outages in Banda Aceh.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the powerful quake was centered 20 miles (33 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor around 308 miles (495 kilometers) from Aceh’s provincial capital. Afterquakes with magnitudes of 6.5 and 6.1 were recorded by the BMKG in the following hours.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

A giant 9.1-magnitude quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, nearly three quarter of them in Aceh.

JG/ AP/ Reuters/ AFP/ Antara

The Jakarta Globe

The thrill ride that is the movie “The Raid,” an Indonesian indie martial arts flick that has garnered critical praise and a building box office worldwide, is just as much a roller coaster for its director, Welshman Gareth Evans, who is based in Jakarta.

“It’s been a crazy couple of months,” he said on the Insight Indonesia talk show late last week just before heading off to Paris for more screening of the low-budget thriller.

“It’s really overwhelming,” added Joe Taslim, one of the stars of the film, which opened in Indonesia in late March and has been adding screens and box office receipts steadily. “I never expected it would be this huge. Sometimes I still can’t believe it is happening.”

The film, which features pencak silat master Iko Uwais as a member of a SWAT team sent to take out of building full of bad guys, has been praised for its non-stop action and meticulous fight choreography.

Originally slated just for Indonesian release, it was picked up by Sony Picture Classics in the US.

It opened March 23 in both Indonesia and the US and has gone from just 14 screens in the US to 230 screens this past weekend.

“Action movies don’t get much more exciting or inventive,” the Hollywood Report enthused in its review.

The response from the usually critical American press has been effusive. Gary Goldstein, a reviewer with the LA Times, called it “a slam-bang, knock-your-socks-off action bonanza with some of the most peerlessly shot, performed and choreographed fight sequences you’re likely to see on screen.”

Salon.com named “The Raid” its movie pick of the week, calling it a “proud, even celebratory genre movie” that “delivers an invigorating and entirely unpretentious legal high.”

Washington Post reviewer Michael O’Sullivan perhaps summed it up best: “You don’t go to ‘The Raid’ for the side dishes, but for the steak. For fans of martial-arts action, it’s a sizzling and stylishly served-up order of butt-kicking.”

Most other critics have been just as enthusiastic — although not Roger Ebert, the reigning dean of US critics.

“He is not our biggest fan,” said Evans smiling.

Next up for Evans will be more premieres worldwide to follow up the film’s positive reception at both the Sundance Festival and South by Southwest in the US.

A sequel to The Raid is to begin shooting next year, Evans said.

Jakarta Globe, Francezka Nangoy

Google is setting up an office in Jakarta in an attempt to tap into the country’s huge demand for connectivity and technology.

With a population of 240 million and growing access to the Internet through mobile phones, Indonesia holds major potential for Google, ranking second worldwide in the number of Facebook users and third for Twitter.

“By putting people on the ground we find much stronger ties with our partners, the government, our advertisers, and so on,” Julian Persaud, Google’s managing director of Southeast Asia, said during a meeting with reporters on Friday.

Google wants to improve its products and services according to Indonesians’ preferences, he said. For example, Google Maps in Indonesia offers information about road traffic volume, especially important for residents in major cities such as Jakarta.

The Jakarta office will be Google’s fourth in Southeast Asia after opening others in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Persaud said the Web economy moves three times faster than the real economy, and as Indonesia’s economy continues to expand at a steady pace, he expects to tap into the solid digital expansion that accompanies it.

The company is also eyeing Indonesia as a growing market for its mobile operating system, Android. Worldwide, an average 750,000 new Android systems are activated for smartphones and tablets every day, and as Android-compatible phones continue to become less expensive, Persaud said he expects Indonesia to help push growth in the global Android market.

Shipments of Android-operated mobile phones to Indonesia rose by 22 percent in the fourth quarter last year compared to the previous quarter, according to International Data Corporation, which did not release statistics on the number of units.

As companies offer mobile phones at prices below Rp 1.2 million ($131), IDC said it would “expect Android to dominate the market in the coming quarters.”

Google will hire Indonesian employees as it builds up its operation here. Persaud said the company will start with a small staff but he is confident it will grow.

“It’s like in Singapore, where we opened an office in 2007. We started with a handful of people and now we have a couple hundred,” he said.

Jakarta Post, Fidelis E. Satriastanti

A total of 11 orangutans aged from 8 to 24 years old were released into the wild at Batikap forest in Murung Raya district of Central Kalimantan on Saturday. It was the second release by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which was also joined by the provincial forestry agency and the local administration.

The foundation aims to return 49 orangutans to the jungle this year, foundation spokeswoman Meirini Sucahyo told BeritaSatu on Saturday.

“There are 25 orangutans left that will be released in the next months ,” she said.

The Saturday release was performed by two teams. Beforehand they were tested for TB, hepatitis, HIV, herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases as a precaution. The first team transported Bang Jagur, Bunga, Kali, Mama Tata and Tata in the morning and the second team went with Ompong, Jojo, Heldi, Komeng, Yaya and Ika.

“They are all anesthetized first and transported on helicopters,” Meirini said, adding that 15 people were involved in the release.

Afterwards, the foundation tracks the animals two to three times a week in the jungle. The monitoring team will observe for behavioral changes among the primates and see how they are adapting to their new environment.

Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

They are faced with the threat of extinction from poaching and the rapid destruction of their forest habitat, driven largely by palm oil and paper plantations.

Conservationists in the region have been raising awareness about the plight of the endangered orangutans for some time.