JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's Parliament Tuesday approved a new electricity law allowing private-sector investment in generation and granting authority to the government and regional administrations to issue permits for power projects, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement. Under the new law, private companies, community organizations or other private organizations will be allowed to generate, transmit, distribute and sell electricity.

Three synthetic fiber manufacturers - PT Teijin Indonesia Fiber Corp., PT Indonesia Toray Synthetic and PT Sulindafin - have invested Rp 72 billion (US$7.13 million) on new machinery to cut costs and boost competition. The new machinery, which will run on natural gas instead of costly and dated electricity, will reduce overall operational costs for the companies.

DENPASAR: Australians dominated the flow of foreign tourists to Bali during the seven-month period of January-July 2009, a tourism official said. "Their number in the period was 225,170, an increase of 36.98 percent compared to the same period last year when only 165,112 came to Bali" Antara news agency quoted Ida Komang Wisnu, the chief of Bali's Central Statistics Agency (BPS), as saying here Monday.

Pekalongan, C Java (ANTARA News) - Local sarong manufacturing company PT Pisma Putra Tekstil Pekalongan is exporting 70 percent of its production and has therefore difficulty meeting increased domestic demand, a spokesman said. Destinations of the company`s exports include the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, Anis Sungkar, PT Pisma Putra Pekalongan manager, said here Monday.

Wood processors are urging Indonesia's government to speed up the replanting of deforested land into sustainable timber plantations to help secure a more constant supply of timber.