Poor infrastructure and lack of planning mean Indonesia’s capital will likely be under water again this week It was the ultimate traffic-jam solution. Tidal floods early this year had blocked the road to Jakarta’s airport, turning an hour-long journey into the day trip from hell. But one Australian businessman was offered a ride in the helicopter of local tycoon James Riady and found himself flying over the chaos below. His elation was short-lived, however.

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Despite a trend of investment growth in the oil and gas sector helped by rising prices of the commodities, Indonesia is still in danger of a sudden capital outflow, a survey says.

Total exports in April dropped by 7.78 percent from the previous month, due to a combination of declining crude oil and gas exports and lower crude palm oil prices, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said Monday. Ali Rosidi, BPS deputy chairman for distribution and services statistics, said exports in April fell to US$10.97 billion from $11.89 billion in March. Oil and gas exports fell by 10.11 percent, from $2.76 billion in March to $2.48 billion in April.

Achmad Zen Umar Purba, Jakarta This is certainly not a joke -- unless data provided by the World Bank (WB) in Doing Business 2008 is incorrect. In the book, the WB ranked Indonesia 123 of 178 countries in terms of doing business. We are far behind Singapore, which ranked number 1. But this isn't news. Or that we are left behind Thailand, which ranked 15; what else we can do? Or even Malaysia, which ranked number 24, never mind!

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Minister for Cooperatives and Small-and-Medium Scale Enterprises Suryadharma Ali said that all parties should try to prevent Indonesia from being flooded by smuggled goods as it would harm the interest of small-and medium-sized businesses. "A very important thing for Indonesia is that its markets should not flooded by smuggled goods which would affect small and medium businesses in the country," the minister said here on Wednesday.

Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - Domestic demand for textiles and garments fell 27 percent in the first quarter of 2008 due to high inflation resulting in a decline in the people`s purchasing power, an executive said. "Domestic sales particularly garment sales fell due to low consumption," Indotextile Executive Director Redma Gita Wiraswasta said on Tuesday.