Novia D. Rulistia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta State-owned plantation firms have jointly set up a consortium for the construction of a biodiesel plant aimed at supporting the government program to develop alternative energy resources. The state firms involved include PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) III, PTPN IV, PTPN V and PTPN VII. PTPN III will act as the head party in the consortium.

While the country's unemployment rate remains high, there is a tendency among local companies to recruit fresh graduates over the longer-term unemployed who mainly prefer to open their own small businesses, the Central Statistic Agency (BPS) says. "Every year, there are around 2.5 million fresh graduates looking for jobs, but employers can only provide about the same number of jobs, which are mainly given to those new graduates," BPS chairman Rusman Heriawan said Monday.

The government, in a bid to boost foreign trade, has proposed the establishment of an agency to provide financing, underwriting and insurance for exporters, Asia Pulse reported Monday (28/1/08). The agency, to be called the Indonesian Exports Financing Agency (LPEI), will replace Bank Ekspor Indonesia (BEI), which was established in 1999 to bolster exports, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.

Indonesia's trade surplus surged to $4.06 billion in December from $2.27 billion the previous month on strong exports, but inflation jumped in January to its highest level for two years, the Central Statistics Agency said Friday (1/2/08). Exports rose to a record $10.86 billion from $9.81 billion in November, mainly due to a $975.3 million increase in the value of crude palm oil exports, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

The government is finalizing a 'grand design' for Indonesia’s regional subdivisions that should be completed this year, Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Saut Situmorang said on Thursday (31/1/08). The grand design, said Situmorang, would determine the ideal number of provinces and regencies for the nation, adding that the issue was being considered from a number of aspects, Kompas reported. These aspects included economic sustainability, demographic issues, governmental capacity and others.

JAKARTA (JP): The government has issued a new progressive tax regulation on crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivative products, implementing three main benchmarks based on the Rotterdam commodity market prices on CPO. The regulation, signed by the finance minister Friday, says that if CPO is priced between US$1,100 and $1,200 per ton in Rotterdam, the tax will be 15 percent per ton.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government on Monday issued a regulation on the reduction of interconnection tariffs which is expected to lower retail telecommunication rates. "Interconnection tariffs are one of the three price components in retail telecommunication rates. The two others are operational tariffs and profit margins.