Twenty-two shoe manufacturers plan to invest $31.8 million in Indonesia this year, an official said, according to Asia Pulse. Twenty of the investors are foreign companies from China, South Korea and Taiwan, director of multifarious industries at the industry ministry Nugraha Sukmawijaya said. The investors have been prompted by the improved macro-economic stability, the stronger value of the rupiah and declining interest rates, he said.

PT Indofood Agri-Resources, the plantation arm of conglomerate PT Indofood, will invest up to $215 million to boost its oil palm plantations and crude palm oil (CPO) refining capacity in the next two years. The company will spend between $50 million and $55 million to increase its CPO refining output to 970,000 tons annually by 2009 by expanding the capacity at two of its refineries in Jakarta and Medan.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday (19/6/07) passed the new Taxation Arrangements and Procedures Law, an important step in a long-awaited process of revision of Indonesia’s three taxation laws. The law aims at creating a regulatory framework to make it easier for taxpayers to appeal official rulings, and to reduce incidences of arbitrary detention of taxpayers, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Shell targets more growth in Indonesian market Ika Krismantari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Since the government opened Indonesia's downstream oil and gas business two years ago, the sector has attracted numerous new players interested in entering the market. A subsidiary of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc, PT Shell Indonesia was the first foreign oil giant to enter Indonesia's retail gasoline market when it opened its first gas station in Jakarta in 2005.

Indonesia to build textiles city in West Java Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - The Indonesian government and private investors plan to make Majalengka in West Java a textiles city under a program to cost Rp1.7 trillion (US$190 million). Majalengka would be the country's first industrial estate specially for textiles and textile products, Metal, Machine, Textile and Multifarious Industries Director General Ansari Bukhari said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia needs investment of 426 bln usd between 2004 and 2009 if is to hit its poverty reduction target, according to the chairman of the government's Investment Coordinating Board, Muhammad Lutfi. Lutfi told the World Economic Forum on East Asia here that the government aimed to reduce the number of Indonesians living in poverty to about 17 mln in 2009 from close to 56 mln today. "In order to reach this, the Indonesian economy needs to grow around 6.6 pct average.