Former Indonesian Military Chief Gen. (ret.) Endriartono Sutarto could be appointed as president of Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, according to two sources in Jakarta, replacing incumbent President Ari H. Soemarno, who took over the spot in March. Sutarto, however, recently denied the speculation when the Report questioned him about it. “Who told you that?” he said, while laughing it off as only rumour.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla ordered state-owned oil company Pertamina here on Monday to immediately overcome its kerosene supply shortage to several parts of the country. The vice president summoned the head of the oil and gas upstream business management board (BPH Migas) Tubagus Hariono and Pertamina`s director for marketing and business affairs Ahmad Faizal at his office to discuss the problem.

Medan, North Sumatra (ANTARA News) - National cacao exporters are still facing problem with finding good quality cacao at home amidst increasing demand for good quality cacao in the world market, a cacao exporter said here on Monday. Chandra Widjaja, cacao exporter in North Sumatra, said the price of cacao in the world market was now on the rise. This year, cacao price has been stable at US$1,410 per ton while the price in the local market is now at Rp10,500 per kg.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Purchase of apartments in Singapore by Indonesian citizens between 2003 and 2005 continues to rise. In 2003, Indonesians bought as many as 500 apartments in Singapore and in 2004 the number rose to 600. The amount rose again in 2005 to 830 apartments, or an average19.44 percent increase in those two years.

We're very optimistic about the footwear industry here: Adidas Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Indonesia's footwear industry appears to be showing signs of recovery, after experiencing a slump since the Asian financial crisis and losing out in competition for export production from other manufacturing countries in the region.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), through its community empowerment program (CEP), is preparing a number of development projects valued at US$15 million in South Sulawesi. "The South Sulawesi administration and the Japanese government have signed an agreement to carry out development projects in the province," JICA's deputy resident representative Hanazato Nobuhiko said Friday in Jakarta.

PT Essar Indonesia, a local affiliate of India-based conglomerate Essar Group, will build a pellet factory at a cost of US$500 million on Kalimantan island to strengthen its presence in the country's steel industry, an official says. "Essar is willing to build a pellet factory with a production capacity of about two million tons per annum," director general for the metal textile machine industry at the Industry Ministry, Anshari Bukhari, said Sunday as reported by Antara.

With the interest rate's downward trend, Indonesia's major banks will have more room next year to expand their lending, which has been fairly low for the past two years. Banking analysts have estimated that the easing of inflation will allow central bank Bank Indonesia to further lower its key rate by another 50 basis points before the turn of the year, to 9.75 percent from 10.25 percent at present.

Kuala Lumpur (ANTARA News) - A merger of three Malaysian plantation conglomerates will create the world's largest listed palm oil estate, and boost the country's status as a palm oil producer amid growing regional competition, analysts said.