Private airline Lion Air said it will receive a delivery of a Boeing 737-900ER aircraft by the end of this month. It will be the first of 60 units of Boeing 737-900ERs the low-cost carrier had ordered from the aircraft maker at a price of $60 million each. Delivery of the entire 60 units is expected to be completed in five years, Lion Air communications manager Hasyim Alhabsi told the Investor Daily.

Tire makers plan to increase their output by nearly 10% this year to meet demand from the domestic automotive sector, a senior industry official said on Tuesday (3/4/07). The country's tire manufacturers are expected to produce 45 million car tires this year, up from 41 million in 2006, Aziz Pane, chairman of the Indonesian Tire Producers Association, told Reuters.

The world's largest instant noodle maker, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, plans to boost its capacity to 14.5 billion packs per year from 13.5 billion to meet growing demand, a senior executive said on Tuesday (3/4/07). The company would spend Rp1.6 trillion ($175.4 million) this year, 80% of which would be for expansion, director Thomas Tjhie said, according to Reuters.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the first two months to February rose 13.59% year-on-year to 639,937, with arrivals in Bali leading the increase, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed, according to XFN-Asia. It showed that tourist arrivals via Bali's Ngurah Rai airport during the first two months, rose 47% year-on-year to 238,777. The country's tourist industry has been hurt by a number of terror attacks in recent years, natural disasters and the high incidence of avian flu.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Azis Al Saud, who is chairman of his country's holding company, has expressed interest in investing in Indonesia's hotel business. Speaking to the press after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the latter's office in Jakarta last March 30, the prince said his company would like to invest in the hotel business first before entering other investment sectors.

The government will allocate more money for infrastructure development in next year's budget in an effort to ease the distribution bottlenecks that have seriously hampered the country's economic growth. "The bottleneck problem will become worse in 2008 if nothing is done to deal with the infrastructure issue," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono said Wednesday (4/4/07), according to The Jakarta Post.

The government said Monday it would draft a new road map setting out revised economic development policies in line with the planned creation of the ASEAN single market. "The road map will be completed by November this year and it will detail the reform programs that we intend to institute," Anggito Abimanyu, the head of the Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Agency, told reporters Monday.

Indonesian consumers have become more confident about the economy, while at the same time seeing risks ahead, the latest survey by the central bank shows. Bank Indonesia's Consumer Confidence Index rose 0.9 in March to 93.3, marking the first clear-cut revival of optimism in the country's economy since November last year. The index had declined continuously from 101.6 that month to 92.4 in February.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Directorate General of Customs and Excises will revoke the licenses of around 3,000 importers. They are considered as problematic as not being active for a year. The decision will be arranged and included in the recommendation of Directorate General of Customs and Excises at the Finance Department. The recommendation is addressed to the Trade Department and will be delivered by the end of this month at the latest.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The number of tax refund arrears or those which have not been paid by the government to tax payers in the first quarter of 2007 totalled Rp7.3175 trillion. The number of tax refund arrears rose 73 percent from the same quarter in 2006, that was Rp 4.2199 trillion. According to the Tax Director General Darmin Nasution, the tax refund arrears occurred because they are the combination between the current year’s refund and that of the previous year.

Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Governor Yusuf Irwandi is to lead an Aceh government and businessmen`s delegation on a visit to Turkey soon to promote Aceh among Turkish businessmen. Irwandi disclosed the plan to visit Turkey after a special meeting with provincial councillors here on Tuesday.

 Originally Posted By: Roy's hair there go what remains of the rain forests that's what i thought. they'll be even worse than the malaysians.