Agustina Wayansari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta With the retail banking potential still relatively untapped here, HSBC Indonesia says it will stay focused on developing its retail division. "We target to disburse around US$250 million in personal loans this year, more than triple last year's total of US$80 million," the head of consumer banking at the HSBC Indonesia, Vivek Agarwal, said Friday.

PT Lippo Cikarang, a publicly listed property developer that manages 3,000 hectares of land in Cikarang, West Java, plans to gradually construct and sell around 800 new houses and several industrial clusters this year to boost its revenue. President director Loh Meow Chong said Friday the company expects sales of new houses and offices to boost revenue this year to around Rp 400 billion, from Rp 280 billion booked last year.

CDMA-based cellular network operator PT Mobile-8 Telecom announced Friday its customer base had increased by 65 percent in 2007, almost doubling its revenue. By the end of last year, the company's subscribers numbered slightly more than 3 million, up from about 1.8 million a year earlier, said Merza Fachys, the company's director and chief of corporate affairs. "The company's gross revenue in 2007 was promising, with a year-on-year increase of 50 percent.

People in Jakarta and other big cities have been, for some time, very familiar with news reports of street vendors being "kicked-out" (often literally) from places where they run micro-scale businesses such as selling foods, soft drinks, snacks and so on. But I have my own experiences with the city's informal sector. Living 25 kilometers away from my office in the central business district of Jakarta, I often choose to take the air-conditioned express train to the office or to return home.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - PT Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) controlled 33.2 percent of car sales in Indonesia in January 2008 with a sale volume of 13,751 units, while two of its products -- Innova and Avanza -- were granted the top brand award. President of TAM Johnny Darmawan said in Jakarta on Friday that TAM`s January 2008 sales increased by 44 pct compared to that in last year`s same period, along with an increase in the national car sales in Indonesia reaching 41,380 units.

See what I told you - Malang will become the new seat of power, Jakarte a throbbing intellectual hub my arse, JATIM is where its at, and not only that, JATIM bules are much more refined and sophisticated unlike some of the rough hair arsed bin scrappers found frequenting expat haunts like EP.

Friday, 22 February, 2008 | 17:49 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Malang Municipal Government once again is cooperating with NTT Advance Technology Corporation, a telecommunication company in the information technology sector of Japan. The cooperation form is training and installing the Wireless Internet Protocol Access System (WIPAS) information technology network.