Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - PT Gozco Plantations has said it will sell 1.5 billion shares or 30 per cent of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) to be held next month. The company said it hoped to secure approval from the capital market and financial agency watchdog Bapepam in the first week of next month. The company has named CLSA and Semesta Indovest as lead underwriters.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The country's messy labor regulations and bureaucracies have not only discouraged foreign investors from setting up much needed labor-intensive businesses here but have also undermined efforts to send more local workers overseas. The Jakarta Post's Rendi Akhmad Witular and Novia D. Rulistia recently interviewed Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno to discuss the government's efforts to untangle protracted problems.

A giant U.S.-based paper and pulp company, International Paper, plans to invest more than US$4 billion in a pulp factory and industrial forest. Director general for forest product management at the Forestry Ministry, Hadi S. Pasaribu, said the pulp factory would have the capacity to produce 1.5 million tons of pulp per year. "They are planning to establish a 500,000-hectare plantation forest to support the pulp factory," he said, as quoted by Antara.