BALI NEWS

02/03/11. Bali administration’s program to transform the island’s agriculture into a fully organic enterprise faces a serious obstacle as farmers are reluctant to abandon chemical fertilizers due to the belief that organically grown vegetables have inferior properties and lack demand.

02/02/12. Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika urged the people of Batur to launch real efforts to rehabilitate the area around the famed mountain and lake, which for decades has been degraded by illegal sand and stone mining as well as chemical substances from fertilizers.

02/01/12. Balinese celebrated Galungan Holiday, a holiday commemorating the victory of Dharma (virtue) on Adharma (evil). This holiday is considered the pinnacle of Balinese struggle to subdue the negative force of evil. What we call evil here is the sad ripu...

01/31/12. A dangerous fungal disease has attacked cacao plantations in Jembrana, the largest producer of cacao in Bali, threatening the island’s cacao-production levels. They found a fungus species Onchobasidium theobromae, which causes a disease called vascular streak dieback (VSD).

01/30/12. The provincial administration will take firmer action against owners of vehicles bearing license plates from outside Bali. The actions will be based on a 2000 bylaw that makes it mandatory for the owners of such vehicles to apply for a Bali license plate.

01/27/12. National carrier, Garuda Indonesia, announced that it would reduce flights to Europe due to the region’s economic downturn. The airline will from March 1st scale back its flights into the Netherlands from seven to four times a week.

01/26/12. The Bali administration has decided to raise the amount of funding allocated this year for disaster mitigation in response to the resort island’s growing vulnerability to natural calamities. It has earmarked Rp 30 billion (US$ 3.27 million), an increase by one third from...

01/25/12. The Fishery and Maritime Affairs Ministry presented assistance packages to traditional fishermen in a couple of areas in Bali as part of a national program to provide fishermen with better facilities. The cash will be disbursed to 14 fishermen’s groups called KUB...

01/23/12. The Denpasar administration said it would revitalize nine kinds of Balinese traditional dances called Baris, in an effort to preserve the art form. The nine dances, which used to be performed only for certain religious ceremonies, were displayed to the public...

01/23/12. The most common Chinese ways of saying Happy New Year are Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) and Gong Hey Fat Choy (Cantonese). Even though the pronunciations are a little different, both are written the same way. Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity...

01/20/12. With the heaviest rainfall expected to occur in January and early February this year, the rainy season may heighten risks of more disease outbreaks in Indonesia, but the seasonal impact on bird flu is unclear, according to an official at the Health Ministry.

01/19/12. The Bali administration is designing a program to accelerate poverty eradication by empowering poor villages in the province. The program called the Village Integrated Development Program (Gerbang Sadu) Bali Mandara will start this year by targeting five villages in a pilot project.

01/18/12. PT Angkasa Pura I believes it will have completed 80% of its Rp2.5 trillion development plan for Ngurah Rai airport by the end of 2012. The beginning of January the construction of the four new parts of the airport expansion project had already reached 5.76%.

01/17/12. A local planter in East Denpasar has succeeded in cultivating and propagating 400 varieties of plumeria, an important plant for Balinese Hindu rituals and the tourist industry. Commonly known as frangipani, the plant can be found in most of the island’s...

01/16/12. The central government has approved a proposal to make the under-construction Mengwi bus terminal in Badung regency the main land-based transportation terminal on the island, replacing Ubung terminal in Denpasar. This means that as soon as the new bus...

01/13/12. With Bangli’s Lake Batur facing serious environmental threats, the Bali administration has formed a special team to try to save it from further degradation. The lake is not just a tourist attraction and an important ecosystem, it is also a key source of groundwater for...

01/12/12. The increasing number of new hotels in Bali is increasing competition in the tourism market. The presence of new hotels has yet to significantly influence the occupancy rate. The occupancy rate remained stable because the island received a higher number of visitors this year.

01/11/12. Subak with Art is a collaborative art project between four Balinese artists, three Australian artists, and 210 primary school children in the Tabanan Regency in Bali. The Festival engages young children in visual arts activities, story telling, traditional okokan music and...

01/10/12. Balinese purple sweet potato product will soon become a hot product according to the findings of local researchers with healing properties and ingenuity of local entrepreneurs to transform it into syrup and wine. Starting next year, food made ​​from the purple sweet potato...

01/09/12. The provincial government of Bali has set 18 working days as local holidays due to various Hindu religious rituals in addition to the 13 national holidays and five official joint leave days off during 2012. The special local holidays are so that the Balinese...

01/06/12. Many people from Denpasar and Badung had difficulties to get refills of mineral water of 20 liters last two months. Residents had to explore around the city to find bottled water for sale, and when you find somewhere in stock, the price climbed higher than normal.

01/05/12. Stakeholders in Bali target of three million foreign tourist arrivals this year after attracting 2.7 million in 2011. There is optimism that the industry remain positive this year, after the success of the island to host the ASEAN Summit in November 2011 and the government's...

01/04/12. Bali is committed to completely convert the use of organic fertilizers by the year 2013, with efforts to achieve the objectives of Bali "clean and green". Bali's governor Made Mangku Pastika told legislators that the administration had allocated Rp 4 billion