Tabot Festival, City of Bengkulu

Tabot Festival is the first program to start Visit Indonesia Year 2008, it will be held on January 9-19 2008 (Muharram 1-10 in moslem calendar) in City of Bengkulu.

The main events in this program are ritual activity such as praying by Tabot Imam and Tabot Bangsal continued with the event in Gerga Nala and Gerga Benteng, "Upacara Duduk Penja" & "Pencucian Jari-jari", "Upacara Menjuru", "Malam Arak Jari-jari", "Upacara Arak Sorban", "Hari GAM", "Tabot naik pangkek", "Arak Gedang", "Tabot Bersanding" and it will be ended by the Tabot Tebuang parade to Padang Karbala for the Tabot hand over at Syech Burhanudin Syabedan Abdullah tomb.

And also there will be culture performances, traditional games, carnaval, exhibition, bazaar and Mr & Ms Tabot election.

Source: Official Website of Ministry of Culture and Tourism

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Posted in: Bengkulu,Event,Visit Indonesia Year 2008 the program

International visitors on January to March increased 15.68%

Number of international visitors to Indonesia through all gates in March 2008 amounted to 502.041 visitors or increased 13.30 %, if it is compared to the same period of the year 2007 amounted to 443.099 visitors.

International visitor who came through certain gates increased such as Soekarno-Hatta, 123,981 visitors or equal to 26.90%, Ngurah Rai, 159,886 visitors or equal to 28%, Sam Ratulangi 1,686 visitors or equal to 6.04%, Batam, 92,174 visitors or equal to 1.93%, Juanda, 11,485 visitors or equal to 0,05%, Minangkabau, 3,313 visitors or equal to 53.52%, Mataram, 1,435 visitor or equal to 47.63%, Adi Sumarmo, 2,130 visitors or equal to 54.57%, Sepinggan 951 visitors or equal to 16.83%, Tanjung Pinang, 10,415 or equal to 4.38%, and at other gates, 76,517 visitors or equal to 5.93%.

On January to March 2008, international visitors who came through all gates to Indonesia increased cumulatively amounted to 1,405,456 visitors or equal to 15.68% compared to the same period in 2007 amounted to 1,214,986 visitors.

Source: Ministry of Culture & Tourism

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Posted in: Airports in Indonesia,Visit Indonesia Year 2008 the program

What is IMT-GT...?

After I posted an article about the new flight routes from three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, I'm wondering what is IMT-GT...?

Searching into the internet and found an (old) article from Asian Development Bank website:It's interesting to know that North Sumatra & NAD provinces involved on this project.

The Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) consists of the two Indonesian provinces of North Sumatra and Daerah Istimewa (DI) Aceh; the four northern Malaysian states of Kedah, Penang, Perak, and Perlis; and five provinces of southern Thailand--Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Songkhla, and Yala.

Following the request for assistance from the governments of the three countries in 1993, ADB undertook a study and prepared a development strategy for IMT-GT to promote regional economic cooperation in this growth area. The overall goal is to accelerate private sector-led economic growth and development in the IMT-GT.

The initiatives identified seek to

• promote foreign direct investment and facilitate economic development of the subregions by exploiting underlying economic complementarities and investment opportunities
• enhance international competitiveness for direct investment and export production
• lower transport and transaction costs
• reduce production and distribution costs through economies of scale.

In December 2001, ADB approved the project Strengthening the Subregional Cooperation in the Transport Sector of the EAGA and the IMT-GT Regions [ PDF ] to review the key issues affecting the transport sector, since the countries concerned require such information, and its analysis, to discuss and agree on the necessary collective actions.

I'm sure, in theory, this project should give benefits for these two provinces. The pdf link, consist of the background & rationale, the technical assistance, the President decision, the technical assistance framework and also cost estimation and financing plan.

Source: Asian Development Bank

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Posted in: Indonesia,Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam,North Sumatra,Visit Indonesia Year 2008 the program