Exports of edible oil and fat products, consisting almost entirely of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives, dropped by 34.85 percent to US$1 billion in February, down from $1.6 billion in January. The BPS provided no explanation for the sharp decrease, but the drop was expected because the government imposed a progressive export tax of up to 25 percent on CPO. Total national exports in February fell by 4.98 percent to $10.53 billion from $11.08 billion in January.

Publicly listed state pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma plans to build a US$100 million plant this year to help reduce its dependency on imported raw materials. President director Sjamsul Arifin said Wednesday that 98 percent of the company's raw materials were still imported. "We only have several small-sized plants to produce raw materials for our medicine. We want to add capacity by setting up a new plant outside Java because of the abundant resource availability," he said.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The government has set a record textile exports target for 2009 of $US11.8 billion, achievable because of industry restructuring, industry minister says. Minister of Industry Faahmi Idris said Wednesday the textile industry was one of the government's priorities, which could be seen by government efforts to help finance the restructuring. "Over the last 10 years, the industry has consistently added an average $5 billion surplus to our export earnings.

Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The Asian Development Bank has warned Indonesia a large part of its population is still vulnerable to shocks from staple foods inflation, as nearly half its citizens still live on less than US$2 a day.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday lowered its forecast for 2008 economic growth in Indonesia to 6.0 percent from 6.4 percent due to slowing exports amid a global economic slowdown.

Palu, C Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - A Singaporean company is interested in investing in Central Sulawesi by building a cacao processing plant in Palu, a local official said. The investor from the city-state would come to Palu on Thursday (April 3) to further discuss his interest in setting up a cacao processing plant in the North Palu industrial zone, Arifin H Lolo, secretary of the Palu city administration, said here on Wednesday.

Beijing (ANTARA News) - A number of Indonesian businesspeople are to set up an "Indonesia Street" in Shanghai, China, as a means to promote and increase sales of furniture and handicraft products from the archipelagic country, a diplomat said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed hope that the people and all concerned parties in the country would remain calm in the face of the current world economic turbulences that were affecting the national economy. "I have to tell the people and all parties in the country that we and the House of Representatives (DPR) are still able to control the situation. We are also still formulating a credible and sustainable a revised 2008 state budget.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Senior Bank Indonesia (BI) Deputy Governor Miranda S Goeltom said the Indonesian economy would grow at a rate of less than six percent in the first quarter of this year. "Initially, we projected that the economy in the first semester of this year would grow at 6.05 percent. But now we must revise the figure to below six percent," she told a press conference here on Thursday.