A consortium of Indonesia's Medco Energi, Itochu of Japan and US contractor Ormat is finalizing details with state-owned companies Pertamina and PLN for the $800 million Sarulla geothermal project in North Sumatra, Upstream reported on Friday (31/8/07).

Bank Arta Niaga Kencana will be merged into the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) once a planned takeover is completed, the banks said Friday (31/8/07), according to Agence France-Presse.CBA has already purchased ANK stocks held by private shareholders, amounting to 57% of the bank.

Cellular phone operator PT Excelcomindo Pratama expects to maintain its annual revenue growth rate at more than 20% through to 2010, driven by a consistent increase in subscribers, despite an increasingly competitive market, its president director said.

China's ZTE Corp, a provider of telecommunications equipment, said in a statement that it has signed an agreement to help expand PT Telkom's CDMA2000 network capacity, XFN-Asia reported. Under the contract, the network expansion will cover the four main cities in the eastern part of Sulawesi.

The number of foreign tourists who visited Indonesia in the first half of the year was up 12.2% compared to the same period last year, a Tourism Department official said.Some 2,143,000 foreign tourists visited the country from January to June, compared to 1,909,600 in the same time last year, the...

Lippo Group is set to invest $650 million in its multimedia business PT First Media over a period of four years to develop its cable network, a First Media executive said on Thursday (30/8/07), according to Reuters.

Altimo, a subsidiary of Russia's Alfa Group, remains keen on its investment plans for Indonesia, a company official said."We will never give up on our plan, including the possibility of buying a mobile telecommunications operator here," Altimo local chief representative Suharto told The Jakarta...

The House of Representatives on Tuesday (28/8/07) approved the midyear revisions to the 2007 budget, which see a downsizing in anticipated government revenue and spending, a wider deficit, additional funds for bureaucracy reform and a new cooking oil subsidy, reported The Jakarta Post.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia's annual inflation rose nearly half a percentage point in August to 6.51 percent from a month earlier, driven by higher prices for education, food and housing, official data showed Monday.

Semarang, C Java (ANTARA News) - The government`s policy of imposing progressive export taxes on crude palm oil (CPO) in an effort to keep cooking oil prices under control is not effective because CPO prices in the world market are high due to external factors, an economic observer said here on...

Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - Jatropha curcas linn trees raised in East Nusatenggara have a big potential causing an Israeli investor Merhavv Group to decide to invest US$700 million in the province, an Indonesian entrepreneur said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The North Sulawesi administration and South Korean firm IR WindPower Co. Ltd signed a US$9 million agreement to develop wind energy into electric energy in Sangihe and Talaud islands, an official has said.