Banda Aceh, (ANTARA News) - The port of Sabang in the Sumatran province of Aceh is being prepared to be able to accommodate super tankers and super cargo ships to pass the Strait of Malacca, governor Irwandi Yusuf said. "We are convinced several years to come or in 2012 at the earliest the port could accommodate super tankers and super cargo ships which cannot pass the Malacca Strait," he said at the handing over of the assets of PT Pelindo to the Aceh administration.

Pontianak (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is in need of around 35,000 tourist guides in light of the country`s target of attracting 7 million foreign tourists in 2010. "The Indonesian Tourist Guides Association (HPI) at present has 12,000 members, and for just 2 million tourists, we need around 10,000 guides," I Nyoman Kandia, chairman of the HPI`s central executive board, said here on Friday. Of the existing 12,000 tourist guides, he said, only about 30 percent were categorized as professional ones.

The country’s biggest toll-road operator said on Friday that it wanted to participate in the development of the massive Sunda Strait Bridge project, but urged the government to play a bigger role in financing the project, saying it was not currently attractive to international investors.

Anew government regulation intended to speed up the acquisition of land for infrastructure projects is set to be finalized by January, a minister said this week. The new regulation would reduce the amount of time spent negotiating for land and end disruptive land speculation, Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto reportedly said. It would replace the country’s complicated and often conflicting regulations.