The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) announced Monday its opposition to the Supreme Audit Agency's (BPK) demand for greater authority in probing the state's tax revenue. The BPK is currently in court for a judicial review on the law on general rules and procedures of taxation.

Tuesday, 19 February, 2008 | 15:16 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Property brokers generally in Indonesia are ineffective as a result of the property agent’s turnover level. A professional property broker, Tonny Eddy, said that this was caused by the instability of the property broker system which is commonly used. “The current system, the traditional freelance broker, is not sustainable,” he said last week.

Jakarta (ANTARA News/Thomson Financial) - Indonesian conglomerate PT Astra International's January car sales rose 38 percent from a year before, led by sales of its mainstay Toyota models, data released Tuesday by the Indonesian Automotive Industries Association show. Astra sold 20,789 vehicles in January, against 15,016 a year before. But its market share dropped to 50 percent from 56 percent. The other makes of vehicles sold by Astra are Daihatsu, Isuzu, Nissan Diesel and Peugeot. (*)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked state oil company PT Pertamina to be ready to exploit natural gas reserves in the Block D Alpha Natuna area in Riau Islands province. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said here Tuesday Pertamina was given three weeks` time to state its readiness to the president.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is encouraging state-owned cement companies to increase their production capacities to keep up with domestic demand which is growing by seven percent per year and expected to reach 60 million tons in 2013, a minister said. "Growth in domestic demand for cement is now seven percent per year and absolute demand now stands at 39 million tons per year," Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said here Tuesday.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The growth of the country's overall industry output slowed last year to 5.15 percent from 5.27 percent in 2006, far below the government's target of 6.31 percent, the government said. Speaking to a House of Representatives commission overseeing trade and industry, Industry Minister Fahmi Idris blamed the slowdown on pressures triggered by higher crude oil prices.

Australia's Senior Trade Commissioner Rod Morehouse said Monday that Australian firms were prepared to invest more than US$4 billion in Indonesia's mining industry. "Australia has more than US$4 billion waiting to be invested," Morehouse told a press conference on the first day of the Ozmine exhibition and conference in Jakarta. Craig Senger, first secretary to the trade commissioner, said the investment would come from both "existing players" here and also from new ones.

Indonesia should nurture the growth of companies as well as entrepreneurs as they could contribute to "miracle" growth in the future, a noted economist said Monday. Speaking at a ceremony inducting him as a professor of economics at Prasetiya Mulya business school, where he is also executive director, Djisman said the decreasing number of new enterprises in the years since the economic crisis had led to a steady decline in the country's economic growth.