Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government should not only favor new invstors but also pay attention to old investors with good track records in Indonensia so that they will continue to expand their operations in the country, a senior Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) executive said. "The government should pay more attention to established investors in the country.

JAKARTA (Antara): PT Bank Mandiri is preparing a credit scheme worth Rp 11 trillion (US$1.2 billion) to help finance investment in the plantation sector in the 2007-2010 period, a Bank Mandiri director said on Friday. Director for Micro & Retail Banking Affairs of Bank Mandiri, Budi Gunardi, said in press statment that the funds would among others be used to develop 321,268 hectares of oil palm plantations.

Bank Indonesia will relax its lending requirements so as to encourage the extending of more loans to the real sector, particularly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), says Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah. The central bank will also allow banks to extend new loans to selected defaulting borrowers, the BI governor said after a meeting Thursday with Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Information and Communication Minister, Sofyan Djalil, said that the delay of the government’s computer census will not disturb the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PT Microsoft Indonesia. This is because, the point of the MoU is commitment to legalize software at the government’s computers.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: British entrepreneurs said they hoped that the government would solve matters on legal and capital investment obstruction in the Draft Bill on Capital Investment, now being prepared by the House of Representatives (DPR). Director of Jardine Group Lord Powell of Bayswater said that in the past, British entrepreneurs were always troubled by the changing of investment climate.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government keeps pushing investment. Yesterday (03/15), the Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has announced the granting of four facilities of Income Tax for new investors of a certain business and/or region. “This is aimed at improving the investment climate,” said Minister Sri Mulyani at the parliamentary complex, Jakarta, after attending a meeting with Special a Committee of the Draft Bill on Taxes and Regional Retribution.