Demand for apartments and condominiums in the second semester in Jakarta are likely to remain weak despite an improvement in the economy, global property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said. "Continuing negative sentiment among foreign investors impeded demand for apartments, while the still-high interest rates triggered a fall in the demand for condominiums," head of research Anton Sitorus said on Wednesday evening in a phone interview, after the launch of the company's report.

Consumer confidence in Indonesia continued to be strong in the second quarter, growing by 8.5 percent from the previous three-month period, a survey reveals. The consumer confidence index in Indonesia reached 112.1 points in the second quarter, 8.5 percent higher than the previous quarter, the Nielsen Company Indonesia said Thursday in its latest survey.

TEMPO Interactive, Mataram: Entrepreneurs have asked the provincial government of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) to open shipping route between Lombok and Surabaya. A journey by the current route of Sumbawa-Lombok-East Java through Bali takes between 14 to 24 hours. According to a survey by Bank Indonesia, 62 percent of respondents have agreed to this idea of sea transportation facility from NTB to Tanjung Perak harbour in Surabaya.

With sugar prices skyrocketing over the past few months, the country’s antimonopoly watchdog said it was on the cusp of launching a formal investigation.

The Indonesian Soybean Board is calling on the government to slap a 20 percent duty on soybean imports to protect domestic soy, which is usually more expensive than its imported counterpart. The board, known as DKI, said the tariff would encourage farmers to grow more soybeans and ultimately reduce the country’s dependency on imported soy.

Padang (ANTARA News) - Public works minister Djoko Kirmanto called on building contractors here on Thursday to improve their performance so that their market share would not be taken over by foreign companies. Tight competition will happen following the opening of the market for foreign companies, he said in his written address read out by his staff Bambang Guritno at "International Conference on Construction Industry (ICCI) 2009" held by Bung Hatta University and University Teknology Malaysia.