Friday, November 6
First foreigner dies of Covid since March + Number & size of mask enforcement actions rising + National & island economies continue drastic slumps in Q3, but green shoots can be seen + more!
Good morning! Welcome to The Bali Beat for Friday, November 6. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here to get this update delivered directly to your Inbox every Monday-Saturday morning, along with each evening’s Covid-19 update. If you are already a subscriber, thank you! Please be sure to share it with others in the foreigner community on the island by clicking the button below.
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Weather & Waves
Today’s Weather for Southern Bali
Today’s Tides
Surf Outlook
*NOTE: BMKG Balai Besar Region III Denpasar has issued a High Wave Warning for today. Waves as high as 3 meters are likely to occur in the Southern Waters of Bali, the Bali Strait and the Lombok Strait.
Weather forecast from Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology & Geophysics Council (Link)
Tide table from Tide-forecast.com.
Surf outlook via Windy.com.
Local Covid Numbers
*NOTE: Yesterday saw the first death of a foreigner from Covid since March when a diabetic 73 year-old Dutch national, who’d been living in Seminyak and had been admitted to Udayana State University Hospital on October 26, passed away. In addition, national daily infections numbers have surpassed 4,000 again after declining during the long holiday. Click here to see the national numbers infographic, trend charts, and a Regency-by-Regency breakdown of yesterday’s local numbers in our evening update.
The Big News
HEALTH PROTOCOL ENFORCEMENT UPDATE: Regency Police Departments continue to announce the results of their programs to enforce the mask mandate that was rolled out at the beginning of September. On Wednesday, Denpasar and Klungkung released their figures, and Tabanan held a massive, all-day enforcement action that involved over 250 police & soldiers spread out across 246 locations and sanctioned 175 people in a single day. Yesterday, Gianyar said that it has collected Rp. 2.4 million in fines after sanctioning 26 violators since September 7, while Badung Police said that they has caught 173 “offenders,” including locals and foreigners, between November 1-3 alone. The number of media reports of these actions - even at the village level, and especially in Denpasar - have increased over the last week.
"Economy of Bali in Q3 Minus 12.28%" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Bali Province announced that Bali's GDP in the third quarter of 2020 contracted or grew negatively by 12.28% compared to the same period. the previous year (year-on-year / y-on-y). This negative growth is the third contraction in Bali in 2020, after Q1 Bali's economic output grew negatively by 1.14% and in Q2 by 10.98% y-on-y. When compared to the national level, the contraction in Bali which relies on the tourism sector is indeed much lower... [Quarter-to-quarter numbers were better.] "The economy of Bali in the third quarter of 2020 grew by 1.66% compared to the previous quarter. This achievement reflects the Balinese economy which is slowly pulsing again amidst the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic," said the official Statistic News for Bali Province in a statement.
(Ed. Note: In addition to the overall GDP figures, BPS also announced that unemployment in August showed big losses across most sectors, with well over 100,000 people having lost their jobs when compared to the same period in 2019, driving the “formal employment” rate down 7.23%. You can see a full breakdown of the employment situation here. You can also read a report of the situation with results form surrounding provinces for context here.)
"Indonesia Enters First Recession Since 1998 On 3.49% Q3 Contraction" from The Jakarta Post: Southeast Asia’s largest economy shrank 3.49% on an annual basis in the third quarter, as almost all gross domestic product (GDP) components fell amid the persistent rise in COVID-19 cases, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced on Thursday. The figure is worse than the 3% contraction forecast by a Reuters poll of analysts, as well as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s expectation, but is still narrower than the second-quarter contraction of 5.32%.
(Ed. Note: In light of the reduced rate of contraction seen in Q3, President Widodo’s chief economic adviser, Arif Budimanta, said that the recovery was “on the right track.” At the same time, the only private sector of the economy to record any growth at all was the agricultural sector, which grew at a rate of 2.19% on the strength of a second rice harvest and a jump in demand for staple & plantation commodities such as cocoa, rubber, cloves, and tobacco (the rise in exports to China undoubtedly drove this). As every other sector declined, government consumption grew at a brisk clip of 9.76%, taking the form of direct assistance and other kinds of stimulus, representing the bulk of the slowdown in the country’s GDP decline.)
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Other Headlines
"Prepare Face-to-face, Implementation of Prokes Starting from School" from Bali Express (Indonesian): Head of the Buleleng Youth and Sports Education (Disdikpora), Made Astika, said that currently Disdikpora is preparing a study to open schools. The study will then be submitted to the Regent of Buleleng, Putu Agus Suradnyana, and the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling Covid-19. The results of the study will be one of the considerations for the task force and the government to open schools... If later it is approved and the school is opened, Astika emphasized that not all students will enter school at the same time. "According to instructions from the center, it is only 25% of students maximum. Even then, the health protocol in schools is even more stringent. It could be that in one week the student only enters school 2 to 3 times. It depends on the number of students and the capacity of the rooms in the school," said Astika.
(Ed. Note: Buleleng’s Regional Secretary, Gede Suyasa, has said that the Regency Government will not reopen schools until the Provincial Government approves the move- though he did say that he would forward Disdikpora’s plans along to them once they are completed.)
"Bali Gets Priority Trial of Electric Buses" from Republika (Indonesian): Bali Province has received priority from the central government to test the use of electric buses as an environmentally friendly public transportation. This electric bus will start to be tested on November 6, 2020. The trial launch of this electric bus will be carried out in conjunction with the launch of the National Tourism Strategic Area (KSPN) tourist transportation in Bali. 12 fleets are prepared to serve five routes. KSPN buses in Bali will use the color Tridatu (red, white, black) as a form of local wisdom and the drivers are prioritized for local people.
"Monkey Forest is Opened; It is Expected that the Economy is Growing" from Bali Express (Indonesian): The Monkey Forest tourism object in the Traditional Village of Padangtegal, Ubud District, Gianyar Regency, opened on Thursday. The opening of tourism objects whose visits were dominated by foreign tourists prior to this pandemic, is expected to have an impact on the economic turnaround. With the opening of the Monkey Forest tourism object, together with the opening of stalls around the object, it eliminates the impression of Ubud as a dead city... The Deputy Governor, Cok Ace, invited tourism actors to get ready. According to him, Bali currently has two options. Do you wait for Covid-19 to end and then open tourism or get ready even though Covid-19 is not over yet. "I think it's better to prepare first, open a tourist attraction first. So that the art shop can also open. This is also for our brothers in Bali," he said.
"AP I Records 16.9% Air Passenger Surge in October Following Stimulus" from The Jakarta Post: State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura (AP) I recorded 2.16 million passengers in October, a 16.9% increase from the month before, after the Transportation Ministry rolled out a stimulus program for the aviation industry. In addition to the passenger increase, AP I recorded a 10.9 percent month-on-month (mom) increase in air traffic in October to 29,975 flights and a 2.4% increase in cargo traffic to 37,988 tons. AP I president director Faik Fahmi said on Tuesday that the passenger surge was chiefly caused by increasing traveler confidence in air travel, the ministry’s stimulus program, which had allowed ticket prices to be cut, and a long public holiday that started on Oct. 28.
"Indonesia Serious About Hosting 2032 Olympics: Widodo to Tell IOC" from Antara: He plans to personally convince the Olympic International Committee (OIC ) to choose Indonesia as the host of the world’s foremost and largest sporting event. "We have successfully organized the Asian Games and Asian Para Games in 2018. This raises confidence and improves the world’s perception that Indonesia is capable of being a good host for international events," he emphasized. Indonesia's bid to host the 2032 Olympics is not meant for showing off, but rather aimed at raising the nation's image and dignity, Jokowi said. "This is because we have to make this candidacy a momentum to organize ourselves and to improve various aspects that have been lacking so far," he added.
How You Can Help
In response to the collapse of the tourism sector in Bali and the resulting economic crisis, dozens of individuals and organizations have sprung into action, raising funds and distributing badly needed food and everyday essentials to the innumerable families who have suddenly found themselves without any source of income. We've been making an effort to document and raise awareness of these efforts. We will add information on projects in this space as we are able to confirm them. If you'd like to see a list of the efforts that we've featured so far and contribute to them with either time or money, visit our complete list here. You can also see a list of projects that have registered themselves at BaliSolidarity.org. If you know of an effort and would like to have them listed, please send their information to newsletter@migrationmedia.net.
About This Newsletter
This newsletter is a product of Migration Media, the hub for stories from and about the international migrant experience.
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