The Constitutional Court will conduct a preliminary hearing today to examine a request for a judicial review of the Coastal Zone and Small Island Management law of 2007, which traditional communities claim could threaten their economic livelihoods and the sustainable management of coastal areas. The hearing will determine whether the Court should allow the application for a judicial review to be heard in full.

PT United Tractors, the country’s biggest supplier of heavy equipment, said on Tuesday that it expected sales to increase 15 percent this year thanks to rising demand from the mining sector. “We have seen a recovery in the mining business. Therefore, the company is confident about booking higher sales this year,” said Sara K Loebis, the company’s corporate secretary. Heavy machinery accounts for 40 percent of United Tractors’ revenue.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has chosen Indonesia as the company’s regional production hub for liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets and has relocated its Vietnamese factory to Indonesia. “Indonesia will be the only production base for Toshiba LCD TV in Asia and Oceania,” the president director PT Toshiba Consumer Product Indonesia (TCPI), Yuzo Tsuchiya, told reporters following a ceremony to mark the company’s 15th anniversary in Indonesia.

Property analysts expect the condominium market to benefit this year from a revision to government regulations that will allow an extension of foreign ownership from 25 years to 70 years. The expectation follows a statement from Public Housing Minister Suharso Monoarfa earlier last month, promising the revision should be completed in May. Suharso said the 1996 government regulation on foreign ownership of property was made in the past when Indonesia did not adhere to an open economic system.

The Industry Ministry plans to employ tighter regulation for the import of blank optical discs and also machines, tools and ingredients needed in the discs production, a director general said Wednesday. Benny Wachyudi, director general for agro and chemical industries at the ministry, told Antara news agency that currently there was not any regulation limiting or monitoring production of optical disc, which supports the massive reproduction and distribution of pirated CDs, DVDs and VCDs.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Sir Mulynai Indrawati said there were indications that the trade sector, particularly exports, would recover along with the general economic recovery this year. "The latest figures show indications of recovery in the export sector," the minister said at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives at the parliament building here on Tuesday.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A finance minister`s expert staff, Chatib Basri, said the implementation of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) should not cause fear as what would happen is the smuggled products from China is legalized. "We have been worried about something that has actually happened. Chinese products have already been here through smuggling.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Economic observer Farial Anwar said the government has been asked to immediately overcome the entry of Chinese products into Indonesia by issuing new policies, and the situation was one of the impacts of the China-Asean free trade cooperation agreement of January 1, 2010. "The new policy is expected to deal with the entry of Chinese products into the domestic market, so that not all such products could come into the country," he said in Jakarta Tuesday.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The government has targeted bureaucratic reforms in all ministries and state departments to be completed by 2011. Meanwhile, reforms in all provincial governments are expected to be completed by 2025. “The bureaucratic reform program began in 2008,” National Development Planning Minister Armida Alisjahbana said in Jakarta yesterday.