PT Hino Motors Manufacturing Indonesia (HMMI), the local subsidiary of a Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturer, has completed the expansion of its factory in Purwakarta, West Java, through a US$33 million investment. President of Hino Motors Ltd. in Japan, Yoshio Shirai, said during an inauguration ceremony held on Thursday that the expanded factory would have a production capacity of 35,000 units per annum up from an initial capacity of 10,000 units per year.

Regional governments are becoming pro-active in supporting the mining industry by issuing more business licenses under the new law, ending a long period of stagnation since the last significant progress in the industry. Regardless that new implementing regulations are not yet in place, regional governments are issuing new mining business licenses (IUPs) to companies already holding mining area concessions.

ADenpasar court has found the sales manager of PT Billabong Indonesia guilty of the embezzlement of promotional materials in a bitter, long-running dispute that pits the Australian surfwear giant against its one-time local partner. The Denpasar District Court on Thursday sentenced Billabong Indonesia sales and marketing manager I Wayan Suanda to two-and-a-half years in prison, minus time already served. Wayan was charged with embezzling company materials in May and then taken into custody.

Precarious financing, poor planning endanger a major environmental energy program In the face of widespread power cuts hitting Jakarta and the provinces,Indonesia's state power utility PLN is planning a second 10,000 MW crash program, 48 percent of it based on geothermal energy. But the program is suffering from a multitude of shortcomings. With about 1,189 MW of geothermal energy installed, the country wants another 4,733 MW to deliver electricity by 2014.

DENPASAR - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's political gamble to widen his coalition and govern by broad consensus is backfiring just months after his re-election, posing serious questions about the future efficiency and cohesion of his already scandal-tainted government, including simmering controversy over his previous administration's rescue last year of a mid-sized bank. Soon after his landslide victory in July, Yudhoyono worked hard to broaden his coalition in parliament.

Jakarta: Indonesia has cleared obstacles to foreign investment in a private coal railway in East Kalimantan province, part of a $5bn infrastructure project, an official said yesterday. Dubai-based Trimex Group’s MEC Holdings and the Gulf emirate of Ras Al Khaimah are joining forces to build the 130-km (80.77-mile) railway at a cost of a billion dollars, MEC said in a statement.