i'll audit you and you can audit me and we'll all audit each other. Everything's gonna be fine

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono affirmed that corruption is still haunting Indonesia despite his evaluation that there has been improvement during the last two years. “Quite a high index of corruption perception in 2006 has signaled that corruption is still haunting our country,” he said when opening the National Working Meeting of Government Internal Supervision Monday evening (12/11) in Jakarta.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - George Soros, a global financier and philanthropist, is currently in Jakarta and met with Indonesian House Speaker Agung Laksono at the Parliament Building here on Tuesday. Soros also held a meeting with members of the Indonesian Parliament`s Caucus for Myanmar when visiting the Parliament. Agung Laksono said Soros met him to introduce his newly set-up non-governmental organization (NGO) engaged in people`s empowerment and democracy. "There was no special talk.

Who's to blame?

Originally posted by: KuKuKaChu “When will Indonesia awaken? Indeed, that my friends, is the trillion dollar question...

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Billioner George Soros said that the strong corruption practices and the weak law enforcement in Indonesia have been the main cause of low economic growth. “East and South Asia have grown rapidly, but Indonesia does not participate in it,” Soros told Tempo in a special interview yesterday (12/11) in Jakarta. Soros is visiting Jakarta to follow a series of public discussions on Indonesia’s Economic and Political Perspective 2007 that Tempo is holding.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) is still tracing allegations of insider trading over shares transactions of PT Bumi Resources . The incident occurred prior to cancellation of divestment to three of its subsidiaries: PT Kaltim Prima Coal, PT Arutmin Indonesia, and PT Indocoal Resources Limited. “We are still collecting data.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Foreign banks are more eager to buy banks in Indonesia. Currently Bank Indonesia (BI) has received plans from theCommonwealth Bank (Australia) which will acquire PT Bank Artha Niaga Kentjana and the Bank of India to take over PT Bank Swadesi. “They will take 50 percent of the shares, not 100 percent considering that local shareholders are still necessary,” said Siti Ch. Fadjrijah, BI Deputy Governor, yesterday (11/12).

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The composite stock price index at the Jakarta Stock Exchange during the year has shown a remarkable achievement. From January up until closing trade last week, the index has recorded an increase of 52.69 percent from the level of 1,162.635 on 2 January to 1,775.285 on 8 December. This achievement is the highest increase in the world's main markets after the stock price index at the China Stock Exchange with 80.32 percent rise.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government will issue licenses for providing new fixed telephone lines in the first quarter of 2007. Gatot S. Dewa Broto, spokesperson of the Post and Telecommunication Directorate General at the Information and Communication Department, said the new licenses are aimed at creating competition among bandwidth rental services with competitive and affordable tariffs.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said Indonesia was expected to serve as a base for the production of export-quality cars to increase the country`s car exports in an effort to offset the gloomy market at home. "Indonesia will export completely built-up (CBU) cars to Japan in the near future. This is quite meaningful to Indonesia because Japan is willing to receive cars with Japanese trade-marks produced in Indonesia," the minister said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government will quickly complete an opportunity to empower telecommunication sector by reopening business opportunity in telecommunication industry following a reform in thetelecommunication sector, an official said. The reform in telecommunication sector carried out in 2000-2005 had not met people`s high demand for telecommunication service, Post and Telecommunication Directorate General`s spokesperson Gatot S. Dewa Broto said here Monday.

Padang (ANTARA News) - Some Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil businessmen were reported to have reached an agreement to overcome problems which may hamper palm oil development in the world. "The objective of the cooperation is to minimize and if possible, to eliminate all kind of obstacles that may hinder the two countries` efforts to make palm oil as the foundation of their main export," Chairman of the Combined Indonesian Palm oil Producers (Gapki) Deron Bangun said as contacted from Padang.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Bank Indonesia deputy governor Siti Fajriah said the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has expressed interest in acquiring Bank Arta Niaga Kencana (Bank ANK). "Commonwealth Bank is planning to acquire 65-70 pct of Bank ANK," Fajriah told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here. Bank ANK is a middle-sized bank with an asset base of 1.19 trln rupiah as of end-2005. (*)

The penetration of the major financial products in Indonesia today is still very low. We know that only one in five people above the age of 14 have a bank account, any kind of transaction account. Some have more than one account, some have several, in more than one bank.

Supporting the government's program of promoting alternative energy, state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina launched its first Biopertamax product Monday. "This is a continuation of Pertamina's program to promote green energy after the launching of Biodiesel in April and Biopremium in August," marketing and trade deputy director Hanung Budya (see picture) said during the launch.

Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Responding to the complaints from the electronics industry about the mushrooming of potentially hazardous, low-quality goods, the government is currently preparing the launch of a quality standard to prevent such poor quality goods being sold. "Indonesia has become a junkyard for electronics goods.