Forestry companies producing eco-friendly timber pleaded at the Asia-Pacific forest conference on Thursday for incentives to help with rising operating costs while demand for sustainable wood-related products remains sluggish. The Hanoi conference is the leading regional meeting on forestry, attended by more than 600 participants including decision makers, governments, firms, foresters and activists.

Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - A group of 30 Singaporean businessmen led by President of The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), Chuan Thian Poh, visited Yogyakarta on Thursday to explore business opportunities in the region. During their visit to Yogyakarta, they were accompanied by Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Wardanao and were received by Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.

Padang (ANTARA News) - Indonesia needs to develop new alternative energy sources in anticipation of an upward trend in world oil prices, agriculture observer Asdi Agustar of Andalas University said here on Thursday. "Indonesia should develop potential alternative energy sources such as biofuel, corn oil, ethanol and oil palm," he said. Agustar said the development of this new alternative energy would help people to meet their demand for energy if fuel prices continued to increase.

Thursday, 24 April, 2008 | 16:54 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Bank Indonesia (BI) has recorded that banking loans up until the first quarter of 2008 have grown by 30 percent. This rate is higher when compared to the targeted loans of 24 percent, and total disbursed loans amounted to more than Rp1,100 trillion. Halim Alamsyah, BI Director of Banking Research and Development, said that loan disbursement during the first quarter of 2008 was dominated by investment and working capital loans.

Thursday, 24 April, 2008 | 17:02 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Indonesia is considered still being able to endure the upheavals that have occurred in the global financial market. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated that the financial sector in Indonesia is still showing good performance. Charles Collyns, Deputy Research Director at the IMF, said that the banking credit in the first quarter of 2008 still displayed fine performance.