TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The improving Indonesian macroeconomic situation is stimulating the country’s investment climate. M. Luthfi, Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said that the growth of foreign investment this year has increased by 18.6 percent compared to last year. Domestic capital investment has also increased to 224 percent. “We will keep trying so that investment will be better in 2007,' said Luthfi.

TEMPO Interactive, Shenzhen: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., a telecommunications solution company from China, will not only sell its products at cheap prices. However, according to Fu Jun, Huawei’s global spokesperson, the company’s products are as competitive of those of other companies. This was in response to suspicion that this Chinese manufacturer has always offered cheap products of low quality. Jun explained that cheap prices were made possible by efficient product processing.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Burhanuddin Abdullah has said that the central bank would not change its foreign exchange policy in connection with the new rules of the Bank of Thailand (BoT) which restricted the flow of foreign currencies out of the country. "Concerning regulations, we will not make any change. We will be consistent with our policy of free foreign exchange, and floating exchange rate.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil denied on Tuesday that his office has appointed US software maker Microsoft as an official supplier of software to government agencies. "We have not called a tender, but only signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (with Microsoft). We have yet to make a purchasing deal.

Tokyo (ANTARA News) - Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd will join forces with trading house Sojitz Corp to launch gas production in Indonesia, using less expensive, low-grade coal, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources. The two will build refineries that can process brown coal to produce gas comparable in quality to natural gas, on the islands of Java and Sumatra, the business daily said. The total investment is estimated to exceed 100 bln yen, it said.