Despite a decline in the second quarter, the net take up for office space in Jakarta's central business district throughout the first semester reached 196,000 square meters, or a 280 percent jump from a year earlier, a property survey shows. It was the highest six-monthly take up since 1997, according to the survey released Thursday. The survey was conducted by consultant PT Property advisory Indonesia (Provis) in association with Cushman and Wakefield.

Indonesia must raise ownership ceilings for foreign investment and liberalize state-owned monopolies to resolve infrastructure bottlenecks, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said. The OECD on its first assessment report on the country's economy said foreign direct investment rules here are more restrictive than in most OECD countries, making Indonesia's ratio of FDI to GDP among the lowest in Southeast Asia.

Lisa Murray 25 July 2008 The OECD says Indonesia has to try harder despite 5.5 percent growth Asked about his view of the Indonesian economy, Angel Gurria, the head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, harks back to an old Avis rental car ad campaign.

Friday, 25 July, 2008 | 17:19 WIB TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The survey was conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, an international consultant company that regularly organizes a yearly survey on the living costs in 143 major cities on six continents in the world. The survey result for the 2008 period was published yesterday. The survey was based on more than 200 items in each location, including rent, transportation, food, clothes, household needs, and entertainment.