The legislative body took the unanimous decision to pass the bill into law during a plenary meeting, despite mounting criticism from researchers who argue that the law may curtail academic freedom and hinder scientific development in the country.

Lawmaker and National Mandate Party (PAN) politician Andi Yuliani Paris said the law stipulated criminal sanctions because it included two types of research, namely high-risk and dangerous research.

“Researchers do not have to worry [as long as] they possess ethical clearance [from the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry],” Andi said.

According to the law, a copy of which was obtained by the Post, any foreigner who conducts research without a valid permit could face a fine of Rp 4 billion [US$287,418] and be banned from applying for a permit for five years.

If the researcher causes damage to invaluable objects or harms or causes the death of people involved in the research, they would be subject to criminal charges carrying a prison term of between two and seven years and a fine of between Rp 3 billion and Rp 7 billion.

The law also states that anyone conducting high-risk or dangerous research must obtain a permit from the government or else they could be subject to a one-year jail term and a fine of Rp 2 billion.

The law also imposes criminal charges on foreign researchers who steal biodiversity samples with a prison term of two years and a fine of Rp 2 billion.

The Indonesian Sciences Academy (AIPI) said the law could threaten academic freedom and called it counterproductive to encouraging research collaboration.

“The criminal sanctions and the complicated process for acquiring a research permit could restrain the research ecosystem in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Malaysia and Singapore are more open to foreign researchers and thus contribute significantly to the sciences,” AIPI’s secretary-general Chairil Abdini told The Jakarta Post through text message on Tuesday.

Academic freedom, he said, was necessary to advance the sciences, particularly in finding scientific evidence. “It [academic freedom] also includes the freedom to express the facts even though it [could be] unpleasant for political or social groups,” Chairil said.

A 2016 regulation stipulates that foreign scientists must acquire a permit and limited stay visa to conduct research in the country.

Local scientists have often criticized the strict visa policy as well as the long bureaucratic procedures in obtaining research permits for foreigners. (awa/afr)

With more than 2 million electric vehicles on the country’s roads last year, China is spearheading the global development of new energy transportation.

While the development has been praised in many quarters, the country’s ambitious plans to promote e-vehicles, which will be implemented in a number of regions, will present environmental challenges because of the need to neutralize and dispose of large numbers of spent batteries.

Government-backed pilots to establish a system for the recycling of the fuel cells, which fall into the lithium-ion category and contain polluting heavy metals, have been put in place as authorities ratchet up preparations, and several regulations have been introduced.

Experts said the country urgently needs to upgrade its processing technologies, most of which are derived from traditional metal smelting industries, to address the challenges resulting from recycling. More-specific standards should be drafted and greater importance attached to green designs to facilitate the dismantling and possible reuse of spent batteries, they added.

According to the Traffic Management Bureau at the Ministry of Public Security, about 2.6 million new energy vehicles were registered nationwide last year, with more than 80 percent of them being powered by electricity. The bureau said the number of new energy vehicles has risen by an average of 500,000 annually in the past five years, and that trend will accelerate.

Plans have been formulated in many areas to promote new energy vehicles. For example, Hainan province has pledged to phase out sales of gasoline-powered vehicles on the island by 2030. On July 2, Shen Xiaoming, Hainan’s governor, announced that starting this year all additions and replacements to public sector vehicle fleets, including buses and government cars, will run on clean energy.

Pressing problem

However, the batteries that power the vehicles have to be replaced once their storage capacity falls below 80 percent, while their service life ranges from five to eight years, depending on the frequency of charging. This means the batteries are retired long before the vehicles they power.

While several bodies have produced different estimates of the number of spent batteries that will require disposal, they all agree on one thing – they will arrive soon.

China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co estimates that 120,000 to 200,000 metric tons of batteries will be retired from 2018 to 2020, and the number will rise to 350,000 tons by 2025.

However, a report released last year by three expert bodies, including the Institute of Process Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, estimated that the number will exceed 400,000 tons by 2022.

Spent batteries can pose both safety and environmental risks. Though no longer useful, they still contain a charge, and the heavy metals in them, such as cobalt and nickel, along with organic matter and carbon materials, can cause pollution.

Zhang Tianren, chairman of Tianneng Group, one of China’s largest battery manufacturers, said many of the spent cells could be used for power storage in the telecommunication sector if they are still in good condition.

However, they will still need to be disposed of sooner or later, and improper disposal could result in severe water and soil pollution.

“It is hard to restore soil that has been penetrated by heavy metals, even decades later,” he said.

Sun Zhi, a researcher with the CAS institute, said the methods of extracting metals from spent batteries derive from traditional metal smelting industries, and while many companies have the requisite abilities, it is still a major challenge to extract all the resources and avoid pollution at the same time.

According to the institutes’ report, many processing technologies can result in the release of pollutants that pose severe threats to people, water and soil.

One of the major challenges comes from the disposal of the electrolytic fluid that carries the electrical charge, because the present method generates wastewater or gas that contains fluorine, which can be harmful to human health.

Greener technologies

The report noted that China needs to develop greener, cleaner, more sustainable processing technologies especially for spent batteries.

Most of the systems consist of interconnected battery packs composed of multiple cells, but a lack of universal standards in the structure and packing of the cells poses a major challenge for processors, experts said.

According to Sun, it is difficult to use automated equipment to dismantle the battery packs because they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, which raises costs. Moreover, as a safety measure, manufacturers usually insert resins into the packs to lock the cells in place during use, which adds to the difficulty in dismantling them.

“The efficient extraction of valuable metals from the cells is a crucial part of processing,” he said, adding that the design of battery systems needs to be optimized to address challenges in the extraction process.

Because some spent cells or even entire packs could still be used to store power, Sun called for more attention to be paid to upgrading battery design to facilitate reuse.

Zhang, Tianneng’s chairman, noted that extraction technologies are not cost efficient. “The cost of processing some types of battery is higher than the value of the recycled materials,” he said.

There are different types of batteries, composed of different materials. The processing costs and the value of the recyclable materials they contain vary from battery to battery.

He added that China imports most of the lithium it uses, so the development of mature extraction technologies could help relieve the country’s reliance on supplies from overseas.

Subsidies

Zhang called on the government to provide stronger, preferential tax policies to boost development of the sector, and said subsidies should be offered to companies or institutes that are tackling the hard issues in battery processing.

Wang Yi, vice-president of the CAS Institute of Science and Development, said authorities should pay special attention to minimum charging times during the batteries’ service lives.

When authorities mull standards for minimum charging times, the environmental cost of a battery’s entire life cycle, including disposal, should be calculated to ensure that new energy vehicles can play their expected role in environmental protection, rather than posing more risks, he added.

Early last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other government bodies published a guideline on management of the recycling and reuse of spent batteries.

The guideline was aimed at introducing an “extended producer responsibility” system in the industry, under which manufacturers will shoulder the responsibility of disposing of spent cells.

Meanwhile, a guideline the ministry published in July last year pledged to build a “traceability management system” that will cover every procedure related to batteries, from production to recycling and reuse.

Last year, pilot programs were launched in 17 provincial-level regions to explore a mechanism for the management of spent batteries.

Despite the challenges, Sun said he is optimistic about the future of the sector, and he expects China to play a leading global role, given that other countries have yet to see large-scale retirement of lithium-ion batteries.

“Many companies are paying attention to the sector, as are a lot of institutes. The government is also attaching great importance to it. Given this, we should be able to perform the task (of disposal) well. However, it will take time and we will need to bring the advantages offered by different sectors fully into play,” he said.

Singapore’s economy expanded a measly 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, raising fears of a recession and monetary policy easing.

“Given global trade tensions, support from external sectors is expected to fall and growth drivers are projected to shift back to domestic demand,” the IMF said, as quoted by Reuters.

“Risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside and mainly stem from external sources, including a tightening of global financial conditions, escalation of sustained trade tensions and deceleration of global growth.”

The IMF forecast Singapore’s economic growth to stabilise at around 2.5 per cent over the medium term, based on discussions with Singapore officials that ended on May 14.

“This is a step to reduce plastic waste conducted by Pasar Jaya,” the spokeswoman of city-owned market operator Pasar Jaya Amanda Dinajar said on Monday as reported by Antara.

Amanda said the Pasar Jaya has started the promotion to cut the single-use plastic bag to customers in accordance with green campaign launched by the government. The company had also urged markets under its wing to promote the plastic bag diet.

The Jakgrosir wholesale market, which sells affordable staple food, has started not to provide kresek (single-use plastic bags) to customers.

However, despite the efforts, there are still customers of Jakgrosir using plastic bags for their shop. There are vendors selling plastic bags cheaply at the market’s entrance gate.

Shopper Sukamti, 45, from Kampung Makasar in East Jakarta, said that she used the plastic bags given to her by the vendors of the staple foods. However, she said that she tried to reuse it as many times as she can to reduce her reliance on plastic. (eyc)

It became the best performing currency in Asia, though other currencies in the region had also strengthened: 0.19 percent for the Malaysian ringgit, 0.13 percent for the Chinese yuan, 0.08 percent for the Taiwanese dollar, 0.05 percent for the Philippine peso, 0.02 percent for the Singapore dollar and 0.02 percent for the Thai baht.

Meanwhile, the rupiah strengthened along with the US dollar index, which rose to 96.84 from 96.81 on Friday.

Investment company Money Investindo analyst Faisya said the rupiah’s appreciation had been triggered by domestic factors, particularly the meeting between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo with his main political rival, Prabowo Subianto, on Saturday.

“The political situation has calmed down and investors are now confident about [Indonesia’s] economic development,” Faisyal said as quoted by kontan.co.id, adding that the rupiah exchange rate could be maintained above 14,000 per US dollar on Monday.

A similar comment came from futures firm PT Garuda Berjangka president director Ibrahim, who also saw the positive impact of the meeting between Jokowi and Prabowo. He said that market players also welcomed Jokowi’s victory speech on Sunday evening.

“Jokowi’s speech was extraordinary because he promised to continue his infrastructure program. It could create a positive sentiment for the rupiah,” Ibrahim added as quoted by kontan.co.id.

Ibrahim also cited domestic economic data, namely the announcement of a trade surplus of US$200 million, which also contributed to the rupiah’s strengthening.

He added that external positive sentiments, namely the speech of United States Federal Reserve chair Jeromy Powell who said he was open to the possibility of lowering the Fed’s key rate, also contributed to the rupiah’s appreciation. (bbn)

“Thank God, we did it! Jakarta will be one of the hosts for the prestigious car race Formula E in mid-2020,” Anies said on his Instagram account on Sunday.

The governor, who was attending the World Cities Summit in Medellin, Columbia, flew to New York to negotiate with Formula E management.

He said the negotiation between the Formula E organizers and the Jakarta administration had begun long ago.

Anies said he had met with Alexandro Agag and Alberto Longo, the leaders of Formula E, before they agreed to make Jakarta a host city of the event.

The Formula E team had come to Jakarta for a field inspection from July 8 to 9, he said, adding that such an event would help Jakarta’s economy.

“A preliminary study shows this race event in Jakarta could contribute up to 78 million euros (US$87.96 million) to the city economy,” Anies said.

Formula E was initiated by Alejandro Agag in 2012. The first race series commenced in Beijing on Sept. 13, 2014.

Since then, the electric car race is conducted on the main roads of a host city in every season. (bbn)

The government and BI accounted for $189.3 billion of the debt, while the private sectors and state-owned companies (SOE) were responsible for $196.9 billion, the central bank announced on Monday.

“The external debt increase in May was mainly triggered by the need for debt payments and the rupiah’s depreciation against the US dollar,” BI said in a statement as reported by Antara.

Meanwhile, the government’s external debt up to the end of May was at $186.3 billion or a 3.9 percent yoy increase, compared to 3.4 percent yoy in the previous month, particularly triggered by the issuance of the government’s global bonds.

However, government debt in May was lower than in April, which was recorded at $186.7 billion, thanks to debt payments worth S$500 million ($368.57 million) and the release of sovereign bond papers (SBN) by foreign residents valued at $1.5 billion.

The drop of foreign investor ownership in SBNs was affected by rising uncertainty in the global financial market amid escalating tensions in international trade.

BI said the government prioritized foreign debt management, most of which was used in the productive sector to help the economy grow and for people’s welfare, such as health care and social services.

According to the central bank, BI and government’s foreign debts remain at a healthy level or at 36.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), far from the limit of 60 percent stated in the state budget.

Most of the debts, or 87.3 percent, are long term. (asp/bbn)

Leading the chorus were 39 pro-establishment legislators. In a joint statement issued on Monday, they strongly deplored the “organized” acts of violence by radical protesters.

The protesters were well organized and their actions were elaborately planned, the lawmakers noted. As in past incidents, there was always a group of radicals setting up barricades and inciting the other protesters by hurling insults at the police before leading the charge against the police cordons.

The lawmakers condemned the conducts of the protesters as “extremely irresponsible”. They praised the police for their selfless devotion to duty in defending the rule of law. For that reason, “no one should smear or slander the police and hurt its morale,” they said.

Such organized acts of violence must be stopped immediately to prevent further damage to public security and social stability, the statement said.

On Sunday night, masked radical protesters threw bricks, umbrellas and bottles at police officers inside a shopping center in Sha Tin when the police tried to disperse them. About 40 offenders were arrested for illegal assembly and assaulting the police. One of those apprehended allegedly bit part of a finger off an officer, according to the police. At least 28 people were sent to hospital for treatments including more than 10 police officers.

Earlier, similar protests with violent clashes broke out in some other districts including Tsim Sha Tsui, Sheung Shui, Tuen Mun and Yau Tong in Kowloon and the New Territory in the past two weeks.

The business sector echoed the lawmakers in condemning the violent protests. In a statement issued on Monday, the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) said the violent acts had seriously disrupted public order and threatened the city’s law and order, as well as public safety.

The Sha Tin clashes had crossed all boundaries of acceptable conduct in a civilized society, and challenged the spirit of the rule of law and the freedom of expression, CGCC Chairman Jonathan Choi Koon-shum said.

Choi urged Hong Kong people to remain peaceful and rational while expressing their views and expressed hope that the city’s core values defined by its rule of law would be preserved.

The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the city’s largest labor union, also voiced their objections to violent protests.

In a statement, the union urged the government to rigorously enforce the law and arrest the “rioters” as soon as possible. It also called for better equipment and assistance to protect police officers from attacks by rioters.

Stanley Ng Chau-pei, chairman of the HKFTU, slammed lawmakers of the opposition camp for conniving with violent protesters.

He urged the Hong Kong community to cooperate with the police to avoid unnecessary clashes in future.

Aim should be to increase the well-being of farmers

As indispensable everyday facilities, clean and hygienic toilets are necessary not only for people to lead a healthy life, but also for China to build a comprehensively well-off society and revitalize the countryside. Since many toilets in rural areas are stinky and fly-infested dry squat facilities with tanks underneath which are a health hazard to villagers and pose a threat to the rural ecology and environment, intensive efforts and a huge amount of capital are needed to modernize them.

To make the toilet revolution a total success, local governments should adjust their measures to suit local conditions and avoid blindly copying standard models. For instance, they should take the condition of the local sewage system into consideration before remodeling the dry toilets into flushing ones, because a lack of proper sewage pipelines could lead to water contamination.

Given farmers’ financial condition and their level of socioeconomic development, economic and practical facilities and technologies should be adopted while modernizing the toilets in the countryside. Also, local governments should refrain from chasing fancy and high-end facilities and technologies which could put a strain on local financing and farmers.

Most importantly, farmers, as the beneficiaries of the toilet revolution, should be encouraged to actively participate in the program and freely voice their concerns. As the toilet revolution is aimed at increasing farmers’ well-being, their opinions about the program, especially after it is completed, should be given due importance by the local governments.

Besides, the toilet modernization program should be sustainable in nature. And for that, the officials need to take measures to ensure the toilets’ design and structure can withstand the test of time and the facilities can be sustainably maintained. Since the aim of the toilet revolution is not just to accomplish a task assigned by the higher authorities, but to revitalize the countryside, local officials should not embellish their performance by presenting results that appear impressive but lack substance. Instead, they should attempt to fundamentally improve farmers’ living conditions so they can lead a better life.

Jiang Wenlai, a professor at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

There is a need to pay more attention to sustainability

The toilet revolution has not only improved farmers’ quality of life, but also brought them some unexpected benefits. For instance, thanks to the significant improvement in the living conditions in rural areas, partly due to the toilet revolution, young people living in the city tend to spend more time with their parents or grandparents in the countryside. As such, farmers will gradually recognize the program’s many benefits and their enthusiasm for the toilet revolution will likely increase.

Also, certain villages’ experiences of the nationwide toilet modernization campaign could be applied elsewhere. For instance, the model of integrating toilet renovation with domestic wastewater treatment adopted by Laiwu, Shandong province, not only turns waste into productive commodity, but also significantly lowers the cost of the toilet renovation. This model could be applied to areas with similar conditions and socioeconomic development level.

Moreover, there is a need to pay more attention to the effects and sustainability of the toilet revolution. To this end, a third-party monitoring and evaluation system should be established to assess the results and ensure the program is properly operated in the long run.

Yu Fawen, a research fellow at the Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The views don’t necessarily represent those of China Daily.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the draft last week, which among other things stipulates the new energy vehicle quota carmakers in the country should achieve in the following years.

According to the draft, they will earn credits by producing new energy vehicles accounting for 14 percent of their passenger car sales in 2021.

The proposed figure for 2022 is 16 percent and 18 percent in 2023.

This is a continuation of the current plan released in late 2017, which demands the quota for 2019 is 10 percent and 12 percent in 2020.

To cut fuel consumption and promote the popularity of new energy vehicles, China has imposed tough regulations on passenger carmakers and importers, who will be given two separate scores for traditional vehicle energy efficiency and new energy vehicle production.

If they fail to amass enough credits for either traditional vehicles or new energy vehicles, they may face penalties and their vehicles may not even be allowed on the road.

The new draft also changes the amount of credits that a carmaker can earn by manufacturing new energy vehicles.

For instance, an electric car that can run 350 kilometers on one charge would earn 5 credits for its maker according to previous equations, and in the draft proposal the credits will be reduced to 2.5, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association.

He added that the proposed policy encourages better technology as more efficient power consumption will earn more credits.

Analysts said the plan’s release will help carmakers to coordinate their production plans, especially international ones, which have been slower than Chinese ones to respond to policy changes.

Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG, called for a stable policy environment at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress held in early July in Hainan province.

The German carmaker said almost half of its new energy vehicles produced in 2028 will be made in China. China has been the largest market for new energy vehicles since it overtook the United States in 2015.

So far there are around 3.5 million such vehicles on its roads.

The country’s new energy vehicle sales surged 65.9 percent year-on-year to 577,000 units during the January-June period, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed.

The draft proposal is expected to help boost hybrids as well, to which Japanese carmakers have devoted much time and money.

They would still be considered fossil-fueled but re-classified as “low fuel consumption passenger vehicles” and thus will incur less negative points than traditional vehicles.

Under the current system, automakers in China are obliged to make up for a portion of the negative points they incur when they produce internal combustion engine vehicles with points won for producing new energy vehicles.

Analysts said the revision could see more traditional vehicles replaced with hybrids, because when automakers produce hybrids. The proposed change came as a surprise, some experts and industry officials said, because the government has never before given any preferential treatment for hybrid technology.

“The new proposed policy is a roundabout way to promote hybrid cars,” said Cui in a social media post.