PT Microsoft Indonesia will sell a Windows software version called Education Innovation Suite at US$3 to Indonesian students, as part of its program to help close the digital gap in the country. President director of Microsoft Indonesia Tony Chen said Wednesday his company would cooperate with the Education Ministry by allowing it to buy the licenses for distribution to students.

JAKARTA (JP): A joint ministerial level meeting between Indonesia and Singapore in Bali on Wednesday highlighted significant progress in the development of the Batam, Bintan and Karimun free trade zones (FTZs). Indonesian Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono together with Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang expressed their satisfaction with the progress made on the establishment of the FTZs and agreed to continue to work together in developing the region.

Solo, C Java (ANTARA News) - Publicly-listed telecommunications operator PT Bakrie Telekom Tbk is planning to open new networks in the country`s 17 major cities at a total cost of Rp2 trillion this year. It was expected the new networks wold raise the company`s total number of subscribers to 3.6 million this year, Charles Sitorus, the company`s sales manager, said here Wednesday. "In the first semester of 2007 the number of our subscribers reached 2.246 million.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is set to impose a progressive tax in the range of 0-10 percent on crude palm oil (CPO) exports starting September 1, an Agriculture Ministry official said. "Until now, we have been adopting a new policy (on CPO exports) once every three months. In the future, there will only be a single policy. Tonight (Wednesday night) we will finalize the policy which will take effect September 1," Director General of Plantations Ahmad Manggabarani said here Wednesday.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked national banks to boost economic growth with their equity by providing credits to productive sectors and micro, small and medium businesses (UMKM). "All financial and capital resources like bank credits should take advantage of the construction of power plants, trasportation and infrastructure. Without these three elements, the economy will not run well, and reduce competitiveness and investment," he said here on Wednesday.

Beijing (ANTARA News) - China's ZTE Corporation, a provider of telecommunications equipment, said in a statement that it has signed an agreement to help expand Telkom Indonesia's CDMA2000 network capacity. Under the contract, the network expansion will cover the four main cities in the eastern part of Sulawesi in Indonesia, the company was quoted by XFN-Asia as saying. Financial details of the agreement were not provided.