State-run PT Telkom, Indonesia's largest telecommunication company, recently released this year's first quarter results that suggest a continuing tough operating environment in the telecommunication sector. Revenue was down 2.2 percent year-on-year, operating profit was down 19 percent year-on-year, and net profit of nearly Rp 2.5 trillion was down 23 percent from a year earlier. These figures are less than forecast.

JAKARTA -(Dow Jones)- The Indonesian government may by June set up a guarantee fund as part of ongoing efforts to draw more private investment into infrastructure, a senior government official said Wednesday.

The government is considering ending the controversial contract worker scheme passed in 2003, which has increasingly been used by companies to hire workers outside the boundaries of the country’s tight labor laws that make it almost impossible to fire employees. Employer associations, which have been objecting to the labor law ever since it was passed, immediately objected to the announcement, saying it was nothing but a ploy to attract votes during the presidential election season.