Widely diversified Bhakti Group said it will invest at least $180 million this year to expand business in the mass media and telecommunications sector, Asia Pulse reported Monday. Hary Djaja, president of holding company PT Bhakti Investama, said mass media subsidiary PT Media Nusantara Citra plans to invest $10 million and telecommunication subsidiary PT Mobile-8 will invest up to $170 million.

New investment plans totaling $376.5 million were announced last week for the plantation sector, as returns continue high for commodities such as crude palm oil. Singapore-listed Indofood Agri Resources (Indoagri) said it will soon acquire 60% of PT Laju Perdana Indah at a price of Rp375 billion ($40.5 million), Asia Pulse reported Wednesday.

The World Bank said it will stop offering soft loans to Indonesia as the country has been promoted to the category of middle income nation starting June, Asia Pulse reported Wednesday. Country director Joachim von Amsberg said the donor agency will no longer accept IDA requests from Indonesia, which already has a per capita income far exceeding $1,000 per year.

Outgoing chief economic minister Boediono said Friday that he hoped economic growth can "return to the level of 6.5% to 7%" within the next one to three years, Dow Jones reported. Boediono, who is going to take up the position of Governor of Bank Indonesia, said rate increases by the central bank can help ease currently high inflation, even though much of it is cost-related.

Publicly listed pharmaceutical company PT Pyridam Farma announced Monday it plans to spend about Rp 7 billion (US$753,900) this year to upgrade its facility in Cianjur, West Java. Corporate secretary Ryan Arvin said Monday up to Rp 5 billion would be spent on developing the factory's water system and up to Rp 2 billion improving other facilities.

The ministry of industry has revised down the country's industrial growth target for the third time in five months to between 4.5 and 5 percent in response to the government's plan to increase fuel prices. The fuel price increases, expected to happen in June by an average of 28.7 percent, would raise industrial production costs by an average of 5.69 percent, the ministry said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Two Kuwaiti companies have offered to finance a US$1.5 billion coal gasification project of state-owned fertilizer company PT Pupuk Kaltim, an Indonesian official said. State Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Abdul Djalil said Kuwait Investment Agency and Kuwait Investment House have agreed to build the project in East Kalimantan to produce gas feedstock for the fertilizer plant.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer, is now looking at its vast easternmost provinces in Papua to expand its palm oil plantations, a senior official said Wednesday.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government will raise prices of subsidised fuel products by an average 28.7 percent as it cuts subsidy spending amid the relentless surge in global crude oil prices. "Relatively, the size of the increase is already final," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was quoted by Thomson Financial as telling a media briefing late Wednesday. She said the government is still undecided when the price hike will take effect.

Singapore (ANTARA News) - Singapore state-linked investment company Temasek Holdings said it has filed an appeal to Indonesia's Supreme Court contesting a lower court's verdict that found it guilty of violating anti-monopoly regulations in the country's telecommunications industry. "Temasek has not broken any laws and will vigorously contest all allegations against us.