As more businesses adopt environmentally friendly practices, demand for wood pellets as a source of renewable fuel is on the rise, a senior government official has said. Hadi Daryanto, the director general for development of forest production at the Forestry Ministry, said recently that demand was being propped up by the increasing number of companies engaging in the profitable carbon trading business.

Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The government will make manufacturing a key sector in designing its 2010-2014 development plan to reduce poverty and unemployment, a minister said Tuesday. "The role of the manufacturing industry in development is very important," State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta said in a statement. "As of 2008, the manufacturing sector in the economy contributed only 23 percent of GDP.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Foreign investors overseas are still waiting for the composition of the new cabinet ministers in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s next government, an observer said. "Foreign investors will see first who are to be appointed ministers in the new cabinet of the SBY-Boediono`s new govornment," Fadhil Hasan of the the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), said here on Monday.

Government Enforces Strict Rules on Food Imports by Destroying Imported Food Stocks at Local Supermarkets. (7/12/2009) The Bali branch of the Agency for the Supervision of Food and Drugs (BPOM) has conducted on-site destruction of imported food items at several locations around Bali. On Friday, July 10, 2009, a total of 277 different products were crushed and burned in the parking lot of the Bali Deli.

The nation’s largest nickel producer, PT International Nickel Indonesia (Inco), plans to dismiss about 500 employees as the global slump forces the company’s biggest shareholder to pare costs back to a minimum, an Inco source said on Monday. “The company has sent a letter to the Manpower Ministry proposing the layoffs,” the source, who declined to be named, told the Jakarta Globe, adding that the plan was mainly due to the external situation faced by its main shareholder, Vale Inco.

Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta To investors engaging in the real sector, the game of wait and see does not end automatically with the grand finale of last week's presidential election. Investment, although likely to improve, still craves the long-awaited boost from government infrastructure spending and a proper implementation of the stimulus plan.

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Bowing to pressure from textile producers, the Industry Ministry has agreed to reassess the costs and benefits of the China-ASEAN free trade agreement, and may even propose a postponement. Textile producers argue the full implementation of the agreement next January, which would see an end to all import tariffs, would amplify the already unbearable pressure from the influx of Chinese goods.