Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be the key speaker at a business forum attended by 300 leading Chinese and Indonesia businessmen in Shanghai, China next week. According to a press statement from the office of the president`s special assistant for international affairs here on Saturday, the President would address the forum during his working visit to China on October 25-26, 2010. In Shanghai, the President would also visit the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - PT Astra International said the automotive industry would remain its backbone while implementing a plan to expand into three other sectors. "We will not leave the automotive industry as it is our backbone," the company`s president director, Prijono Sugiarto, said here on Saturday. Astra plans to expand its operations by also engaging in heavy-duty mining equipment, agribusiness and infrastructure development.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is ready to rival Thailand as an automotive production base, the president director of PT Astra Internasional (ASI), Prijono Sugiarto, said here on Saturday. "This year is the year of automotive for Indonesia as a number of supporting indicators grow positively," he said. Compared to Thailand, Indonesia was now better in terms of social, political and economic conditions, he said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia hopes investment from China will increase and more of its products can be sold in that country following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s upcoming meeting with Chinese businessmen. "The meeting with the Chinese businessmen in Shanghai is expected to be able to boost Chinese investment in Indonesia and expand the country`s products` market," presidential special staff Teuku Faizasyah said in a written statement received here on Saturday.

TEMPO Interactive, Garut: Japan Invests in Cassava Cultivation Garut– A Japanese company, Nihon Yakuzen Food, through PT Java Energy will invest Rp 742,1 billion in cassava cultivation. Wahyudijaya, the Garut Investment Office chief, said the project that will be carried out on a 15.000-hectare land in Garut, West Java, is scheduled to begin next year. For the cultivation of cassava plants and production of cassava chips, a kind of toxic but superior cassava is required.