TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Zoning Decree that Parliament passed on March 26 regulates the zoning of modern market. As for more-detailed arrangements, they will be included in the regional zoning made by regional governments. Based on the zoning policy, for example wholesalers are allocated in suburban areas, hypermarkets in the major cities, supermarkets in satellite cities and mini-market in districts and sub districts.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa has threatened to take over the airport rail link in Jakarta if no progress were not made by the end of 2007. “We cannot wait. It is urgent,” he said on Friday (04/20) at his office, Jakarta. He went on to he hoped that at least by the end of the year the detailed engineering design, financing and land acquisition would be completed.

State gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) said it has signed an agreement with PT Telkom allowing the state telecommunications company to utilize spare capacity on PGN's optical fiber network, XFN-Asia reported on Tuesday (17/4/07). PGN has built an optical fiber network along its South Sumatra-Singapore border gas pipeline and is building another network along its South Sumatra-West Java gas pipeline. The networks are used to monitor the pipelines.

Indonesia is scheduled to host the ASEAN Tourism Investment Forum (ATIF) in Bali on September 20, the Tourism and Culture Department’s Director General for Tourist Destination Development Sambudjo Parikesit said on Tuesday (17/4/07). ATIF, to be held for the second time in Bali, aims to invite ASEAN countries to invest in the tourism sector, Sambudjo said, according to Antara.

The government licensed Rp10.5 trillion ($1.1 billion) worth of investment proposals in Bali last year, confirming investors' high interest in doing business in the island. The investment proposals consisted of domestic investment worth Rp8.5 trillion and foreign investment worth Rp2 trillion, the local office of Bank Indonesia (BI) said in its report on regional economic studies on Tuesday (17/4/07).

The government hopes to see new investment of $562 million in the country's electronics and information technology sector this year, Antara reported on Wednesday (18/4/07). The additional investment will be needed to keep pace with an estimated 10% annual increase in the domestic consumption of electronic goods, Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said. Idris said the projection was also based on plans by a number of foreign principals to make Indonesia their production base.

The government has not received any formal proposals to tighten foreign ownership limits of companies in certain sectors, an official said Wednesday (18/4/07). "There's no decision on it, and we are still far away from a decision," National Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman Muhammad Lutfi told Dow Jones Newswires. "There's nothing to worry about." Bisnis Indonesia reported Wednesday that several departments have proposed such policies.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has pledged to continue a fight against tax fraud in the world's most populous Muslim country. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Indrawati said getting more Indonesians to pay tax was a key step to reducing Indonesia's traditional reliance on oil revenues and loans from international donors. Only about three million people are registered as individual tax payers in Indonesia, a country of 220 million people.

slightly off topic here but does anybody know the latest with carrefour in Bali? They have built the mothership of all supermarkets but havent opened the doors. My guy thinks it is something to do with the policy of having to employ 20% of staff from local community. He says the community want to tell carrefour who will be working there without any sort of interview or selection criteria.

Indonesia's banking sector has shown signs of healthy growth with continued increases in lending during the first quarter of this year after a sluggish performance in 2006, the latest survey from the central bank shows. Nearly 70 percent of the country's 130 banks surveyed for Bank Indonesia's (BI) quarterly industry review reported an increase in their lending during the first quarter of 2007.

Famous for their resilience, with only two years having passed since the tragic Aceh tsunami, the people of Aceh are already anxious to move forward and make Aceh the next destination for local and foreign investment. So far, the province's economy has been chiefly supported by an inflow of foreign funds used to finance the reconstruction of infrastructure and housing facilities damaged by the deadly December 2004 tsunami.

Modern retail outlets in the country such as hypermarkets and minimarkets do not pose any threat to wet markets and traditional grocery stores despite their massive expansion during the past two years, a survey shows. The latest survey by Nielsen shows a "strong indication" that the presence of hypermarkets or other modern groceries did not affect the existence of wet markets and traditional grocery stores.