Coal exports can still exceed 150 million tons this year due to higher supply, despite fears that the government may curb exports to protect domestic demand, a senior industry figure said Tuesday (8/1/08), Reuters reported. Record high prices have prompted producers to boost output in 2008 and new coal producers to speed up construction of their mines, said Soedjoko Tirtosoekotjo, executive director of the Indonesia Coal Mining Association.

Aqua-Terra Supply is to set up a rigging and testing and certification facility on Batam, Singapore's Business Times reported Tuesday (8/1/08). The facility will be run under PT MH Global Indonesia, which is a subsidiary of Aqua-Terra unit Marinehub. It will serve the needs of the increasing number of oil-and-gas and marine companies now operating in Batam. Marinehub holds 99% of the equity while Kabil Industrial Estate owner PT Kabil Indonusa Estate takes up 1%.

Mobile phone operator PT Excelcomindo Pratama's subscribers jumped 63.2% last year, driven by lower prepaid rates and cheaper handset prices, Reuters reported. Excelcom, 67% owned by Telekom Malaysia, said in a statement on Friday (11/1/08) it ended 2007 with 15.5 million subscribers compared with 9.5 million in the previous year.

State steel firm PT Krakatau Steel plans to cut exports of hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil by 50% this year to meet rising domestic demand, a company official said on Wednesday (9/1/08) Reuters reported. Krakatau Steel plans to export 125,000 tons of hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil combined this year, compared with 250,000 tons in 2007, said Irvan Kamal Hakim, Krakatau Steel's marketing director.

The country's largest telecommunications company PT Telkom said it will set aside Rp20 trillion ($2.2 billion) for capital spending in 2008, Asia Pulse reported Tuesday (8/1/08). Around 5% of the fund will be used for business innovation and to acquire information technology, company vice president Edy Kurnia said. Kurnia said some of the funds will be borrowed but internal funds will make up the largest portion.

A number of textile companies plan to build new garment factories with a total investment of Rp1.1 trillion ($122 million) this year, the Indonesian Textile Association (API) said, Asia Pulse reported Tuesday (8/1/08). Growing demand has prompted the plan by six large companies - PT Sritex, PT Argo Pantes, PT Sari Warna Asli, PT Batik Keris Utama, PT Lucky Print Abadi and PT Apac Inti Corpora - and ten other smaller companies.

Rajawali Group said it will spend $200 million for expansion in the plantation sector, especially in oil palm plantations, Asia Pulse reported Tuesday (8/1/08). The group, which has stakes in various other sectors including hotels, tourist resorts, coal mining, cement manufacturing and transport sectors, will start planting oil palm seedlings over 50,000 hectares of plantations.

A preliminary deal between the government and India's state-run National Aluminum Co Ltd on Friday (11/1/08) for a $3.2 billion project to build an aluminum smelter and power plant in Sumatra promises the start of a strong year for growth in Indonesia. The announcement came after government data showed that foreign direct investment (FDI) rose 73% to $10.3 billion last year, Reuters reported. FDI rose from $5.97 billion in 2006.

Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The House of Representatives said Sunday the government may have to postpone its plan to introduce a tax holiday in a series of incentives proposed in the final draft of a presidential decree on industry development. House special committee on income tax chairman Melkias Markus Mekeng confirmed said the current bill on income tax would not include provisions for a tax holiday. "The bill clearly does not have any provision for a tax holiday.

This year there are less factors to cite which could reduce the price of natural rubber, with many signs pointing toward the commodity climbing up the chart. A higher demand for automotive products, intensive global campaigns for the use of environmentally friendly materials, poor climatic conditions which reduced the rubber harvest and higher oil prices all contributed to push the price up.

If booming investment in the rubber processing sector amid tight raw material supply is any indication, the country's natural rubber business is set to reach new heights in the coming year. The Indonesian Rubber Association (Gapkindo), said 10 new rubber processing plants came into operation by local and foreign firms last year, with the largest being a unit in Jambi owned by Japan's giant trading company Itochu Corporation. "Last year was marked by ...

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Actual foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia reached 10.34 billion US dollars last year, 73.2 percent more than in 2006, the National Investment Coordinating Board said Monday. The board said actual domestic investment rose 57.8 percent last year to 34.87 trillion rupiah. Actual FDI was well above the board's target of 42.6 trillion rupiah and actual domestic investment was well above its target of 25.96 trillion rupiah, the board told Thomson Financial.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia reached 10.34 billion dollars last year, 73.2 percent up on 2006, the National Investment Coordinating Board said Monday. The amount was well above the board's target of 42.6 trillion rupiah (4.5 billion dollars), it said. Domestic investment rose 57.8 percent last year to 34.87 trillion rupiah, above the target of 25.96 trillion rupiah, the board was quoted by AFP as saying. Overall, investment rose 71.7 percent.

Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Bali`s textile and garment imports in the first nine months of 2007 rose to US$5.9 million from US$5.4 million a year earlier, a report said. Textile and garment imports stood at US$1.9 million in 2004 and climbed to US$9.3 million in 2005 but declined to US$9.2 million in 2006, Bank Indonesia (the central bank)`s office in Bali said in a report on Friday.

Despite Demands of Local Legislators, Regional Governments Reluctant to Get Too Tough with Illegal Villas. Bali News: A Call to Demolish Unlicensed Commercial Villas (1/12/2008) The Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) in Tabanan is calling on the Regent and Governor to demolish illegal luxury villas built in the Tabanan Regency of Bali. Prompting the demand, according to Bali Post, are a number of villas standing along Kelecung Beach who do not posses the required building permits.

Meeting and Conference Business from Australia Expected to Return to Bali in 2008. Bali News: 2008: A Bumper Year for Meetings in Bali (1/12/2008) The hospitality industry in Bali is optimistic of more MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) business from Australia following the recent success of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Batam (ANTARA News) - Foreign investment inflows to Indonesia`s industrialized island of Batam last year jumped 56 percent to US$288.52 million from US$184.99 million a year earlier, a report said. In 2007, the government licenced 79 new foreign investment projects worth US$288.52 million and 4 foreign expansion projects worth US$10.33 million, bringing the total foreign investment on the island to US$298.86 million, the Batam Authority said in a statement on Friday.

Bangkok (ANTARA News) - Thailand plans to import 60,000 tons of palm oil this month, either from Malaysia or Indonesia, to ease a domestic shortage of the commodity, which is used both for cooking oil and as bio-fuel, news reports said Saturday. Yangyong Phuangrach, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said the imports were necessary as a short-term measure to ease a domestic shortage, The Nation newspaper reported.

Semarang, C Java (ANTARA News) - The government needs to consider its plan of importing sugar, because such decision would only benefit sugar speculators in the country. "The government`s decision to import sugar would even cause uncertainties in the life of the growers," Chairman of the Indonesian Sugar Distributors Association (ADGI), Central Java chapter, Bambang Husodo, said in Semarang on Sunday.

Indonesia’s wealthy partake of a booming spa tourism industry, joining a pan-Asian community of well-to-do consumers of the ‘non-west’ A Javanese businesswoman, Martha Tilaar, popularly known as the ‘mother of natural based cosmetics’, has recently launched her 'Dewi Sri' line of body scrubs, advertised as ‘the secret of the tropical goddess’.