(9/22/2007) A report in the Indonesian-language Bali Post highlights the growing level of tension in local communities resulting from the current boom in real estate development across the island of Bali. Villa developments at Seririt beach and Tangguwisia village in Bali's North have created community conflict on several level over matters relating to land use and the compensation paid by developers for use of land.

JAKARTA (Antara): Indonesia needs to apply the biosphere reserve concept, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said. The biosphere reserve concept could balance the economic and environmental conservation interests toward sustainable development, LIPI Deputy Head Dr. Endang Sukara said in a press statement here on Saturday.

A number of oil and gas giants including U.S.-based Chevron, Exxon and ConocoPhillips, France-based Total and British-based Shell and BP, are set to submit their bids in the government's next tender for oil and gas exploration projects in the country, an official says. Even though the auction will likely be opened in October, R.

JAKARTA - The botched privatization of an Indonesian water utility represents the latest cautionary tale debunking market fundamentalist dogma that private management and pricing are in the interests of the public good. The failed effort threatens to derail the country's broad privatization program, as nationalistic politicians start to second-guess what they view as a Western-donor-driven economic-reform agenda.

The administrations of Jakarta and the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia are seeking to enhance their sister state-province relationship, with NSW sending a delegation of businesspeople to Indonesia this week. "We hope our visit promotes the relationship between Jakarta and NSW, which have been sister cities since 1994," Vice Chairman of the Australia Indonesia Business Council (AIBC) John Murray told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.