Riyadh. Remittances from Saudi Arabia’s estimated nine million foreign workers, including up to one million Indonesians, are rising as the kingdom recruits for its massive development plan, an economist said. Saudi Arabia said this year it wanted to recruit more skilled Indonesian workers. At $18.4 billion last year and $15 billion in the first eight months of 2009, earnings sent abroad now equal 4 percent of Saudi GDP, John Sfakianakis of Banque Saudi Fransi said.

Security firm Ancora Capital owner Gita Wirjawan says he is to take care of foreign and domestic investment to help alleviate poverty and unemployment in Indonesia. "I have been given a mandate to manage matters related to capital inflows from overseas and investment in Indonesia," he said Sunday, after he was interviewed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and vice-president-elect Boediono.

The newly passed law authorizing city and regional administrations to set vehicle tax rates on a progressive basis will cause car sales to drop in 2010, representatives of Daihatsu and Isuzu, both grouped under Astra International, said over the weekend. In August, lawmakers passed a new law on regional taxes and levies setting new vehicle tax regulations, stating that car owners have to pay more tax for each additional private motor vehicle owned.