Pustral UGM

Telecommunication has been the important part of everyday life as well as good program such as Universal Service Obligation (USO) in telecommunication sector. Universal service obligation has been the driving force for narrowing the gap between urban and rural area. Universal Service is to achieve availability, non-discriminatory access and widespread affordability of telephone services. Universal Service is in general a per-household concept measured by the percentage of households with a telephone. Universal Access is taken to mean that each person is within a reasonable distance of public-access telephone. Universal service obligation has been a central focus of the development in telecommunication sector contributing to larger development objectives of reducing poverty through creating access for rural community to information and thus new opportunity to improve their livelihood. It further enables rural community, poor people and least developed regions to exploit their social and economic potentials.

The policy migration on USO program to development performance and inter-sectoral approach lead to development of knowledge-based economy. It refers to the use of knowledge to produce economic benefits. It is part of transition to a “knowledge economy”, as an extension of “information society”. The transition requires that the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy need rewriting in an interconnected, globalised economy where knowledge resources such as know-how, expertise, and intellectual property are more critical than other economic resources such as land, natural resources, or even manpower.

From development perspective there is strong demand for policy migration on USO Program, from organizing a regulatory conformance to development performance. Hence, USO program not only focusing in providing the infrastructure and the matter of the regulation compliance, but also providing service or development performance. In addition it also migrates from Independent (Telecommunication Sector) to Interdependent (Multi Sectors).

To respond those issues, a forward-looking technology choices are became very important since the wide range of various demand exist in USO program with multi-sector approach. In the near future, communications facilities and service competition is expected to increase as the communications sector converges. The demand for converging communication will shift  technology  to  one  based  on  IP  protocol  and  gravitates towards new kinds of networks built with technologies such as wireless, wireline, fibre, cable, powerline, and  satellite. Toward this trend the Next Generation Network (NGN) technology offers capability for converging communication and providing unlimited service options.

This project brief indicates a term of reference for participating member states and its dialog partners to identify rural demand for the implementation of Next Generation Network (NGN) in Universal Service Obligation (USO) practices for ASEAN countries and provide a recommendation for intersectoral approach for knowledge base economy in rural area in the region. The main objectives of the project are:

• To produce at a series of recommendations in NGN implementation in rural area in the context of multi-sectoral approach.
• To asses rural demand on NGN technology implementation in rural area in the ASETo identify NGN implementation option in rural area, with its advantage and disadvantage
• To share lesson learnt from multi-sectoral program in rural area for technical, administrative, and costs requirements for NGN in USO implementation in the ASEAN Member States.
• To provide recommendation for NGN implementation in rural areaAN member countries.
• to reinforce the ASEAN Member Countries commitment to USO,
• to promote a common understanding of its importance in extending the benefits of regional integration through future-ready technology in ICT development.

This project is already finished and produce several interesting findings, guidelines, and recommendations. The report can be downloaded at www.pustral-ugm.org/irud. Please note that the contents of this documentation is the sole responsibility of PUSTRAL UGM and in no way be taken reflect the views of the ASEAN nor Government of Japan.

Ninety six crew and passenger of a Merpati Boeing 737-300 airplane survived after the plane skidded off the runway,  breaking into halves, at Rendani Airport, Manokwari, West Papua, during a bad weather on Tuesday.

Manokwari Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Bambang Ricky told Antara news agency that a number of injured passengers have been taken to hospital, without giving exact number of victims.

The passengers include 76 men, 21 women, three children and three babies.

He said that the weather was rainy and foggy when the plane, arriving from Sorong, skidded. The aircraft broke-up after the accident.

Source: The Jakarta Post, Photo: Detik

Ten state companies signed cooperation agreements with Indonesia’s only port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia on Friday for better shipping, loading, and distribution services at ports and on land transport system.

The ten state companies are railway operator PT Kereta Api, construction firms PT Pembangunan Perumahan, PT Jakarta Propertindo, oll road operator PT Jasa Marga, shipping company PT Djakarta Lloyd, postal service PT Pos Indonesia, logistics and warehouse service PT Bhanda Graha Reksa, electricity facility builder PT LEN Industri, shipping industry classification service PT Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia, and the State Logistics Agency (Perum Bulog).

The agreements cover facility and operational service improvements at port, port area utilization, railway service utilization, and toll road service improvements, which expected would “speed-up product distribution”, Director of the Perum Pelabuhan Indonesia II R.J. Lino.

Pelindo is divided into four companies Pelindo I, Pelindo II, Pelindo III, Pelindo IV, which responsible for port operations in different regions.

Source: Tempo interactive

Foreign airlines will not be allowed to serve domestic routes under the flight liberalization ASEAN Open Sky Policy in 2015. They are only allowed to serve international routes.

“This is a way to protect national airlines,” said the Director General of Air Transportation Herry Bakti S. Gumay in Jakarta, last Friday. Herry said that foreign airlines could only fly from abroad to five airports open for liberalization, including countries besides the country of origin of the airline.

However this also depends on flying slots at national airports. The government, he said, could refuse the entrance of foreign airlines if the slots were already filled. The government also helps national airlines to obtain regional route flying permits.

“If foreign airlines want to fly here, we also want national airlines to have a slot there,” he said. He said that the government has pushed Japan to provide a slot for Garuda Indonesia, which wishes to open a Jakarta-Tokyo direct route. A meeting with the Japanese authorities will be carried out this month. He is optimistic that Japan will fulfill Garuda Indonesia’s wishes.

“It appears that they want to give in, because we keep on pushing,” he said. Sriwijaya Air has also proposed a flying permit for the Palembang-Kuala Lumpur route. He said he considered that national airlines, such as Garuda Indonesia, Sriwijaya, Lion, Batavia and Mandala were capable of competing with foreign airlines. The transportation ministry plans to open five out of 26 international airports to be included in the flight liberalization. The five airports are Soekarno-Hatta, Polonia, Ngurah Rai, Juanda Surabaya, and Hasanuddin Makassar. The limitation is being carried out to protect national airlines.

Moreover there are ASEAN countries, like Singapore, that only have one international airport.

Source: Tempo interactive

DENPASAR: Denpasar Transportation Agency said it plans to expand areas hosting car-free days to a number of places, including former Badung office complex in Lumintang. Since August 2009, Denpasar municipality has enforced a car-free day every Sunday in Renon in downtown Denpasar. The city administration also developed special bicycle lanes along major streets on Jl. Jenderal Sudirman and Jl. Hang Tuah near the Sanur resort area.

The car-free day policy was implemented to reduce air and noise pollution in Denpasar, key issues that the city is struggling with.

Source

The second largest city in Sweden, Gothenburg, plans to introduce a road user charge in 2013 similar to the one adopted in Stockholm, it has been announced following a vote by the city council last week. The scheme – which will include some 40 toll stations around the city – is aimed at financing infrastructure investments, reducing greenhouse gases and cutting traffic in the city center by around 15%.

Located on Sweden’s west coast, Gothenburg, has some 506,000 inhabitants and has been evaluating the feasibility of advanced urban road pricing through a field trial as part of the EU’s PRoGR€SS project. “The issue will now be put to the government,” a statement from the city council reads. “A decision about a congestion charge will be taken by parliament this spring and the plan is for the congestion charge to be introduced in 2013.”

The charge would be similar to the one levied in Stockholm in 2007, whereby motorists entering and leaving the city between Monday and Friday pay between SKr10 and SKr20 (US$1.40 and US$2.80), depending on the time of day, with an upper limit of SKr60 (US$8.40) a day. A number of other cities have introduced similar toll schemes including London, Rome and Singapore.

The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering of University of New South Wales has welcomed a group of senior Indonesian government officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transportation, Jakarta, as well as senior academics from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.

The group are in Sydney as part of an action-based research program GREAT (Governance Reform in the Indonesian Transport Sector), and will participate in a five day intensive short course at the School on transport infrastructure planning and implementation.

The course will include technical briefings, tours of transport infrastructure and operations, and lectures and seminar exchanges held with leading Australian transport researchers and practitioners from various government and private sector organisations, including UNSW, the University of Sydney, companies including Metro Transport Sydney, Jackson Teece Architects, Transfield Ltd, AtkinsGlobal, Urban Research and Planning, (URaP), and the Sydney Harbour Tunnel Company, as well as NSW Government agencies such as the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, Sydney Metro, NSW Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation.

The course has been coordinated by Emeritus Professor John Black, who has twenty years involvement as a higher level consultant for governments and the private sector, and researcher in sustainable cities and transport.

Professor Black says, “Indonesia faces enormous challenges in expanding its transport infrastructure and services in an efficient, sustainable and equitable way. Both public sector and private sectors need to take a lead nationally, provincially and locally, with sustainable partnerships being the way forward. This course enables senior government officials to learn the problems and solutions from Australia’s long experience with public-private sector partnerships in transport, and to distill relevant procedures for Indonesia’s economic and social development.”

GREAT research is funded with a competitive grant through the Australia Indonesia Governance Research Partnership – an Australian Government initiative managed by the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University. The University of New South Wales and the Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, are collaborating on the continuation of the GREAT research project during 2009.

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The Presidential Instruction (INPRES) No. 5/2007 concerning the Acceleration Development in Papua and West Papua instructs the establishment of an Assistance Team responsible for coordinating and synchronizing sector programs and policies necessary to support the development acceleration program in the provinces.

The Team is chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs (CMEA), with 10 other ministries, including BAPPENAS and Ministry of Finance as the members. INPRES 5/2007 also indicates five priority areas for the provinces’ development, including the improvement of basic infrastructure required to provide better access to services for the communities living in remote and rural areas as well as the ones close to the national border. It also specially indicates the need for special efforts to accelerate the provinces’ development through the transportation infrastructure development.

Considering the complexity of issues and challenges of the infrastructure development in the provinces, a sustainable approach to capacity building is needed. The development of local HEI capacities for infrastructure development is a way to ensure sustainability of efforts since their participation is strategic in providing assistance to improve government capacities in infrastructure development management. CMEA has indicated that technical support is for improving the capacity of local Higher Education Institutions (HEI) to support and supervise the local government in undertaking planning, design, implementation and monitoring of infrastructure development in the provinces.

The objectives of this project are to:

• Analyze capacity development needs of local governments and communities in the implementation of infrastructure development; and to
• Analyze the capacity of local HEIs to provide education, training and coaching resources and services as a response to the capacity development needs which have been identified.

Want to know more? Please visit our Papua Project website.

The Government of Indonesia recognizes that poor transport infrastructure and services are constraining the economic and social development of rural areas and impeding its efforts to alleviate rural poverty, stem rural-urban migration, and more generally to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

With current transport infrastructure expenditure accounting for approximately 10-15% of national spending, the sector is obviously an ideal subject for governance reform. If the government subsidy for the transport sector managed by the Ministry of Finance is included (in the form of transport service/fare subsidy, Public Service Obligation in transport sector, pioneering transport/operator subsidy, and fuel subsidy), this sector has the highest percentage of government expenditure and GDP. A significant increase of the public works and transportation sector budget in 2008, and presumably in following years, requires better safeguards in order to achieve sustainable policy for delivery of infrastructure. Government policy to promote public-private partnership (PPP) schemes needs to address governance issues in the area of sustainability, planning, the design of concession agreements, as well as subsidies, contracting and procurement processes, and enforcement of user charges.

The decentralization process in Indonesia requires sub-national or local governments to play an active role in infrastructure project assessment and procurement and local level/smaller scale PPP projects. Fundamental research is therefore required in designing subsidy policy and public service obligation in the transport services; the design of concession agreement for private sector-financed projects in transportation infrastructure and service provision (including the role of risk allocation); and policy and regulatory frameworks for contracting and procurement for transport projects, especially strategic planning and transparent guidelines for private finance initiatives (PFI). In this field strengthening the capabilities of central and local government agencies, and to educate the domestic and international private sectors are both of high priority and should be addressed by the provision of appropriate training and education support.

Want to know more? Please visit Great Project website at http://great.pustral-ugm.org/

The quality of infrastructure in Indonesia is poor. This limits the health and well being of the Indonesian population and severely restricts their potential for economic development. The infrastructure sector has difficulties getting to grips with the challenges the country is facing. To address this situation, promising policies are being developed and implemented such as the policy on decentralization that mandates local government agencies to play a leading role in infrastructure planning, construction and operation at the local level. Additionally, a policy is being implemented to relax the past rigid planning procedures and come to a more community centered planning and development of infrastructure systems.

It is recognised by national level agencies in Indonesia that the successful implementation of these policies is frustrated by the severe capacity limitations that exist with various local level stakeholders. In order to address these, the Centre for Transportation and Logistics Studies (PUSTRAL) of the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) has been requested by the National Planning Development Agency Bappenas, to prepare a postgraduate programme in Infrastructure and Community Development. In its turn, PUSTRAL has approached ITC to assist in the development of this programme. To be able to respond to this request the current project is proposed.

The long-term objective of the project is to contribute to the establishment of a critical mass of multidisciplinary professionals that are able to apply innovative approaches to the complexities of integrated and community centered planning and management of infrastructure. This will be achieved through supporting the design and implementation of an academic programme in community infrastructure development consisting of a M.Sc., short courses and a PhD research programme developed and executed by the involved partners.

These activities are already under development by the Indonesia partner and are foreseen to continue beyond the duration of the project. The activities to be executed within the project will have a supporting role in the development of this programme, and are meant to improve thematic coverage and scientific quality to international standards and increase societal relevance. Important short term objectives of the project are the development of the curriculum for the MSc and short course activities, a substantial amount of teaching material (including an extensive integrated infrastructure project), the training of local staff, the development of a regional training and marketing plan, the initiation of a joint research programme, the implementation and evaluation of 1 cycle of the MSc programme and the short courses.

Want to know more? Please visit our INDF website at http://indf.pustral-ugm.org/