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Indonesia to offer infrastructure projects worth $5 billion

Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 02/17/2010 1:14 PM | Business

Indonesia will host an Asia-Pacific ministerial conference from Apr. 14 to Apr.17, offering infrastructure projects worth at least US$5 billion, officials say.

The 2010 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for Infrastructure Development will be held at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, supported by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, in association with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

"We estimate $5 billion worth of projects can be marketed," Bastary Panji Indra, director of PPP development at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), said Wednesday.

The projects include the construction of a power plant in Pemalang in Central Java and a railway network in Central Kalimantan, he said.

Dedy S. Priatna, deputy of infrastructure at Bappenas, said Indonesia needs Rp 450 trillion ($48.6 billion) between 2010 and 2014 from the PPP to speed up the development of infrastructure projects.

RI to hold int'l Muslim conference on climate change

Antara , Jakarta | Tue, 01/26/2010 9:38 PM | National

Indonesia is scheduled to hold an international Muslim conference on climate change in Bogor, West Java, from March 1 to March 2, 2010.

Head of the conference's steering committee Ismid Hadad told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday that the Muslim conference would be a continuation of the declaration of the Muslim Seven-Year Action Plan for Climate Change concluded in Istanbul, Turkey, in June last year.

Ismid, who is also the chairman of the patronage council of Kehati Foundation, said there would be three items to be discussed at the conference, including climate change issue and what Muslims can do, Antara news agency reported.

The second item will be the plan to establish a Muslim Association for Climate Change Action (Macca), which is expected to become an umbrella organization for the implementation of the action plans in various Muslim countries around the world.

The third item will be the declaration of four cities in the Muslim countries as green cities or “Al Khaer City”, which will also include Bogor. The other three will be Madinah (Arab Saudi), Salleh (Morocco) and Sanaa (Yemen).

Up to 150 environmental experts, scientists and elemas have been invited to the conference from 30 Muslim countries including the United Arab Emirates, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, African countries, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and Egypt.

Indonesia the world’s largest fish producer in 2015: Minister

Andi Hajramurni , The Jakarta Post , Makassar, South Sulawesi | Wed, 12/09/2009 10:03 PM | Business

The government has increased measures to meet its target of catapulting the country to the top fish producer in the world in the coming six years.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said Wednesday, however, the achievement would require a change in the development program’s orientation from land to marine.

Fadel said Indonesia’s abundant fishery and maritime potential should be converted into huge foreign exchange reserves so the sector became the backbone of the country’s economy.

“We have projected that the country will emerge as the world’s biggest fish producer in 2015,” Fadel told a ceremony that marked the celebration of Nusantara (archipelago) Day in Makassar.

Fadel said the government expected the event to kick-start a new development strategy that relied on maritime resources.

“Fishermen and coastal-area residents have been part of the most impoverished and marginalized population despite maritime resource,” he said. “We want to change this.”

Also attending the ceremony was Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono and former fisheries minister Rokhmin Dahuri.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was scheduled to lead the celebration, but canceled due to another appointment.

Food project to attract big investment

Nani Afrida , The Jakarta Post , Nusa Dua, Bali | Thu, 12/03/2009 9:56 AM | Business

A planned large-scale commercial farming or food estate project in Merauke, Papua, is expected to trigger fresh investment of up to Rp 50 trillion (about US$5.3 billion) in the area in the next five years.

However, Agriculture Deputy Minister Bayu Krisnamurti said on Wednesday that they would have to build basic and supporting infrastructure first before it could actually attract investors.

“We have to build public infrastructure first to attract investors,” Bayu told reporters after the opening ceremony of Indonesia Palm Oil Conference (IPOC) in Nusa Dua.

According to Bayu the government has estimated that between Rp 2.5 and Rp 3 trillion is needed to build the required supporting infrastructure in Merauke.

“We have tried to find some funds for the food estate project,” he said, adding that the government was also seeking cooperation with international donors such as the ADB.

Several giant companies including Medco, Artha Graha and Sinar Mas have also expressed interest in investing in the Merauke project.

“This is a big project. We expect that after the basic infrastructure is ready, investors will come to the area and build more facilities, including ports,” Bayu said.

Commercial food estates are actually rare in Indonesia, as crops such as rice, corn and soybeans are usually grown by small scale farmers on plots of two hectares or under.

The government plans to open up an initial 27,000 hectares of plantation in Merauke.

“We start with 27,000 hectares as the first step. The land will be expanded up to 500,000 hectares out of the available 900,000 hectares of potentially usable land in the area,” Bayu said, adding that government would start the project next year.

President targets economy to grow 7 pct in 2014

Saturday, October 24, 2009 03:40 WIB | Economic & Business | | Viewed 418 time(s)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has targeted the domestic economy to grow by seven percent at the end of his second five-year term in office.

"In the next five years we certainly want to increase our economic growth. For example, we want to achieve an economic growth of 7 percent or more in 2014 on assumption that the current global votality will not recur," he said at a cabinet meeting here on Friday.

If the global financial crisis which started in 2007 did not occur the domestic economy might grow 7 percent, he said.

But because of the global economic meltdown the government had revised downward its economic growth target, he said.

"Because of the global economic crisis we have suffered a setback. In the next five years we want our economy to return to its right track, to grow 7 percent or more to promote the people`s living standards," he said.

The president went on to say that in the next five years he also would encourage the creation of good governance by continuing bureaucratic reforms.

He also paid attention to evenly distribution of development gains by emphasizing that all parties and regions had equal rights to development programs.

He underscored the need for regional governments, particularly governors, regents and mayors to cooperate with the central government in implementing development programs.

To that end, the home affairs minister should intensify communication between the central government and regional administrations, he said.

Exports continue to rise: BPS

Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 09/01/2009 4:41 PM | Business

Exports reached US$9.65 billion in July, a 2.85 percent increase from the previous month, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced Tuesday.

"Exports have shown a positive trend and have continued to rise in the past four months," BPS head Rusman Heriawan said at a press conference.

He added imports also rose to $8.69 billion in July, a 9.48 percent increase from the previous month.

Scientists to discuss renewable energy

Erwida Maulia , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 06/02/2009 1:59 PM | Business

About 180 scientists from over 20 countries will gather in Jakarta next week to present their latest inventions on renewable energy.

They will attend the International Workshop on Advanced Material for New and Renewable Energy (AMNRE) from June 9 to 11, organized jointly by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the ASEAN Sub Committee on Material Science and Technology and the Sub Committee on Non-Conventional Energy Research.

Scientists having confirmed their attendance include those from 10 ASEAN countries, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Egypt, the Netherlands, France and the UK.

Chairman of the AMNRE workshop steering committee, Masbah Rotuante Tagore Siregar of LIPI, said on Monday that the event was aimed at exchanging ideas on advanced materials for renewable energy among country participants.

"This will be a crucial contribution to the finding of solutions for energy problems as well as for climate change and global warming issues," said Masbah, also Indonesian representative to the ASEAN Sub Committee on Material Science and Technology.

"Research and development are global activities requiring networking among countries across the globe. The AMNRE workshop is I think the right event to gather *the results* of research in ASEAN and to obtain information from developed nations like the Netherlands, France and Japan," he added.

Masbah said the development of new and renewable energy would not merely focus on producing energy itself, but also on producing "zero-pollution" new energy.

He said LIPI had been tasked with developing alternative energy as well as advanced materials by the State Ministry for National Development Planning.

Another LIPI scientist, Bambang Prihandoko, said LIPI was currently developing - among other technologies - solar cells, fuel cells, dry lithium batteries, and hydrogen as alternative energies.

He said Indonesia had great potential to slowly convert its use of fossil-based energy to solar energy, yet has only made use a very small proportion of this potential due to its inability to produce its own silicon wafers; components for solar cells that are very pricey and available only through imports.

Trying to catch up with industrialized countries such as Japan, Germany and the Netherlands, LIPI is also developing fuel cells, electrochemical conversion devices producing electricity from fuel.

"Our goal is to reduce the price of fuel cells. Now it is one-tenth of the price in the early 2000s, but we're targeting to make it as low as one-hundredth the 2000s price."

He said LIPI was trying to develop fuel cells using local materials to reduce production costs, including replacing the use of platinum for the wires of electrodes with cheaper materials like aluminum.

Bambang said LIPI was set to launch a fuel cell vehicle prototype this year.

Tourist arrival up by 1.35 percent

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 06/13/2009 6:26 PM | Business

While the tourism industry slumps in the rest of Asia, Indonesia recorded a 1.35 percent increase in the number of foreign tourist arrivals between January and April of this year, an official said Saturday.

According to data from the Tourism and Culture Ministry, 1.89 million foreign tourists visited the country during the first four months of the year, up by 28,570 from the same period last year.

“The global financial crisis does not affect the tourism industry in the country,” the ministry’s director general of marketing, Sapta Nirwandar, told state news agency Antara.

He added the positive trend had given the government renewed optimism it could meet the 'Visit Indonesia Year 2009' target of attracting 6.5 million tourists.

Sapta said that in order to meet the target ministry had intensified sales though print and electronic media promotions, sales of budget tourism packages, family tourism packages and other promotional activities.

Domestic tourists also contribute significantly to the industry, Sapta said. The ministry recorded 117 million domestic tourists who made an average 1.92 trips last year, spending a total of Rp 123.1 trillion (US$12 billion)

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