The government is planning to scrap permits for the import of secondhand machinery in a move aimed at supporting locally made machinery and to help save energy, an Industry Ministry senior official says. Industry Ministry director general for metal, textile, machinery and miscellaneous industries Ansari Bukhari said Tuesday he would draft a revision to the 2007 Trade Ministry regulation on secondhand machinery imports.

The credit squeeze will reduce heavy equipment sales by 40 percent next year, a business player says. The sales of heavy equipment will decrease to around 6,000 units in 2009 from 10,000 units this year, Gidion Hasan, director of finance at the heavy equipment company PT United Tractors told reporters Tuesday. "Lower sales will be triggered by financing difficulties due to the current global crisis," Gidion said.

Tuesday, 25 November, 2008 | 18:39 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Surakarta:Domestic investments up to September 2008 has declined by 54 percent compared to last year. The government is urging public agencies providing services to investors to improve their performance. Investments Coordination Board deputy chief, Yus'an, said the total domestic investment up to September only reached Rp 14,98 trillion. The total human resources absorbed were 5.342 people.

Wednesday, 26 November, 2008 | 01:06 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Bandung: Several of investors from Japan are committed to increase their investments in West Java. West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan said that Japan was asking for confirmation about the setting up of a special economy zone in the province. At the present, several industrial estates areas are in the process of becoming a special zone as well as seven industrial estates in Bekasi.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation with the world's second-longest shoreline, has consistently underachieved in the tourism sector and 2008 is proving no exception. "The global economic crisis has started to have an impact," said Sapta Nirwandar, director-general for marketing at the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Originally Posted By: Polisi Cepek After Bakrie, she must be the most embarrassing serving minister. Not content with excluding foreign doctors because they're too good and hence create unfair competition with clueless local specimens, she now wants to deny Indonesians decent drugs. So rich folks will go overseas for drugs, and everyone else will go without. Just what the doctor ordered.

As my recent traipsing about to several of the biggest palm oil expansion provinces has convinced me, this article is spot on. Except for the bit about NGOs just now spotting the RSPO as bullshit, they've been saying that for a couple of years. See today's Kompas for a great map with statistics of extent of sawit plantations.