A trade delegation from Taiwan made up of more than 30 leading Taiwanese companies is currently in Indonesia to explore business opportunities. "The Indonesian market has great potential for our well-known mechanical and IT products. We also have electronic equipment for computers and spare parts to offer," said Wang Ching Sui, chairman of the Taipei County Importers and Exporters Chamber of Commerce (TCIECC) in Jakarta on Friday.

Despite a recent deficit in the country's agricultural sector, the Artha Graha Group, headed by politically well connected businessman Tomy Winata, has expanded its push into the hybrid seed business with its Chinese partner company. The Artha Graha group, through PT Penta Prima Pusaka, along with the Sichuan Guohao Seeds Industry (SGSI) of China have agreed to establish the Integrated Hybrid Seed Center in China, which will develop various new varieties of hybrid seeds.

Ambon (ANTARA News) - National businessman Tommy Soeharto (youngest son of former President Soeharto) is eying a oil palm potential in Maluku which has areas with bright prospect for the business, a local official has said. "When I was in Jakarta last week, Tommy`s staff member contacted me and said he (Tommy) is eying the prospect of the oil palm business in Maluku," the province`s deputy governor Memet Latuconsina said here Monday.

They forgot to mention that new Gas Wells prospects, because of the fact that they are situated in the relatively unexplored deep water areas cost much more to drill with no guarantee of a find. This costs substantially more than an onshore "oil well" exploration due to the higher technology which has to be employed to drill in this environment. Add to that the prices that the government wants to buy the gas for as against the worldwide selling price for gas, the whole deal is unnatractive.

SINGAPORE (AP): American companies in Southeast Asia say corruption is a "major impediment" to doing business in the region, except in Singapore, according to a survey of U.S. businesses released Friday. But the survey of senior executives in American companies in six Southeast Asian countries also showed U.S. businesses were confident of growth in the region, a statement from the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore said.

JAKARTA(AP): Singapore's state-owned investmentcompany, Temasek Holdings, denied Thursday it was involved in monopolistic practices in Indonesia's telecommunications industry. It also said it was "disappointed" Indonesia's competition watchdog, known as the KPPU, was intensifying an investigation into claims Temasek - a shareholder in Indonesia's two largest mobile phone operators - was violating anticompetitive laws. Temasek has long been plagued by allegations of price-fixing.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla in Beijing on Friday, calling for expanding cooperation between the two countries. Speaking positively of the China-Indonesia relations, Wen said he hopes the two sides could work out an action plan on their strategic partnership at an early date, to make a comprehensive and systematic plan for cooperation in all fields.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The annual number of natural gas exploration wells drilled in Indonesia dropped by as much as 50 percent in the past nine years, oil observer Kurtubi said here on Saturday. "The problem is that no new reserves were found in the upstream sector," he said adding that before 1998 the yearly number of exploration wells drilled was still recorded at more than 200 but it dropped to 150 in 1998. The decreasing number of new wells continued in the following years, Kurtubi said.