The investment company Rajawali Group is planning to expand its palm oil plantations to 250,000 hectares from 40,000 hectares in the next 5 years and will list its plantation firm on the Indonesia stock exchange (IDX) in 2011. "Now we have planted 40,000 hectares of palm oil while 100,000 hectares are ready to be cultivated. We target to expand our plantations to 250,000 hectares in the next 5 years," Rajawali Managing Director Dardjoto Setyawan told reporters recently in Jakarta.

Indonesia may have to wait for a potential massive inflow of new investment into the mining sector due to delays in preparing the implementing regulations needed to make the revised mining law effective. “The formulation of the implementing regulations involve various departments.

The wave of migration from propriety software to open-source applications is gaining momentum as big companies are jumping on the bandwagon to make cost efficiencies and avoid legal charges for piracy. The enthusiasm for "going open-source" was summed up at the 2009 Global Conference on Open Source held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta on Monday which was attended by hundreds of open-source users from across the globe.

There are several endangered islands, which include Bangka and Belitung islands. VIVAnews – Climate change is threatening small islands across the world, including the Nusa Penida island in Indonesia, which will be drowned if the climate change mitigation scenario is not prepared any soon.

JAKARTA, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia's new presidential delivery unit will tackle stalled toll road, power plant, and mining projects in order to eliminate bottlenecks and speed up economic growth. Southeast Asia's biggest economy needs to spend billions of dollars on upgrading and expanding dilapidated infrastructure, ranging from roads and railways to ports and power plants, but it has failed to attract much-needed investment because of problems over land acquisition and cost recovery.

JAKARTA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The Saudi Binladin Group's $4.3 billion planned investment in Papua, east Indonesia, to develop rice fields has stalled because of problems acquiring land from local people, an agriculture ministry official said on Monday. Saudi Arabia and other countries, including China, are acquiring farm land abroad as part of their strategy of achieving greater food security, following sharp increases in food prices in 2008.

JAKARTA -(Dow Jones)- The Indonesian government is determined to cut the time needed to start a business in the country, a minister said Tuesday. "Indonesia recognizes the importance of implementing administrative reforms to support private-sector development," said Minister of Justice and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar at a seminar. Akbar, however, didn't elaborate on the specific measures to achieve the aim. Currently, it takes around 60 days to launch a business.

Investment in the mining sector could suffer as the implementing regulations for the Mining Law passed in December are now likely to be delayed until March due to “technical problems,” a legislator said on Monday. “The government has confirmed that the new regulations on mineral and coal resources will be completed by the end of March,” said Teukeu Riefky Harsya, chairman of the House of Representatives’ energy commission.

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu confirmed the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) free trade area (FTA) would start up on time with planned tariff cuts by January 2010. Speaking on the sidelines of the 15th ASEAN Summit here over the weekend, Mari said that the tariff reduction targets due for 2010 would be completed on time.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Public Works Department announced plans build public waste treatment facilities in five cities in indonesia worth around Rp1 trillion each, which will be supported by the Australian government.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Energy and Mineral Resources Departement revealed that the government is raising the portion of geothermal energy in the second phase of 10,000 megawatt power plant projects following instruction by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week, to reduce reliance on coal in power generation. “Some of the coal power plant projects will be switched to geothermal plant projects,” Director General of Electricity and Energy Use Jacobus Purwono said on Monday.

Faisal Basri (ANTARA/Prasetyo Utomo/*) Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Banks need to be involved in the revitalization of industries because financing from the state budget alone is not enough, an economist said. "In essence, revitalization funds from the state budget amounting to Rp350 billion are too small, only enough for the construction of several kilometers of toll roads," Faisal Basri of the University of Indonesia (UI) said here on Monday.

Serang, Oct 25 (ANTARA) - The Banten provincial mining and energy agency is currently focusing on the exploitation of geothermal energy in Serang, Pandeglang, and Lebak regency. According to the result of a survey by the regional administration, the three regencies have the capacity to produce at least 800 megawatts (MW) of electricity.