what's the concern with regional water companies?? just look at the appauling state of Jakarta's water supply companies! the Thames Water is bailing out of their local "joint venture", so to speak, after years of fruitless struggle against the city's bureaucrats and a community unwilling to pay true value for a water service.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Some 100 of the 254 regional drinking water companies (PDAMs) existing in the country are ailing and the government should take quick remedial action to revitalize them, a legislator said here Saturday. "The government should immediately act to restore the health of 200 ailing drinking water firms which can no longer provide people with fresh water adequately," House of Representatives (DPR) Commission V member Marwan Jakfar said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Peruvian economic thinker Hernando de Soto has expressed preparedness to be President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s consultant on economic affairs if requested. De Soto has been a consultant to more than 35 state/government leaders, including former US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "I will do it with pleasure if the Indonesian government wants me to," De Soto told ANTARA News here.

Published: November 1 2006 00:53 | Last updated: November 1 2006 00:53 Indonesia is opening to investors up to 110 infrastructure projects valued at $16.5bn (€13bn, £8.7bn) in an attempt to invigorate its sluggish economic recovery after years of crisis and poor management that triggered a collapse in investment.

After attending the three-day Infrastructure Conference and Exhibition 2006, investors say they are now eagerly waiting for the government to deliver on its promises of creating legal certainty for the hundreds of infrastructure projects it offered during the event. "Businesspeople are now very excited that the legal framework exists.