Balinese tourism-related businesses must improve the courtesy shown to domestic visitors and put it on a par with that afforded to overseas visitors, if the island is to remain a top leisure destination, a study says. Udayana University's Culture and Tourism Research centre says 53 percent of Indonesia's total population of 230 million people travel during school and religious vacations.

While the fast appreciation of rupiah against the US dollar will make imported products cheaper, analysts have warned that “too strong” rupiah would hurt Indonesia’s exports. The appreciation of the rupiah against the greenback may lead to danger signals for Indonesia’s exports if it stays stronger than Rp 9,000 to the dollar, analysts say.

BADUNG: Badung regency said it plans to revive its hotel and restaurant association, following a five-year absence. Perry Markus, the secretary of the Bali branch of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurant Association (PHRI), said Badung was a key tourist destination with hundreds of rated hotels, luxury restaurants and other tourist facilities. PHRI's Badung branch is important to providing a forum for the regency's tourist industry, he added.

The government is ready to submit to the House of Representatives in the second half of this year a draft law on land acquisition for public interest in a bid to provide certainty for investors in the infrastructure sector, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said on Thursday. “The academic draft has been completed, and we plan to present it to the public soon. I expect in the second semester we could submit it to the House of Representatives,” Hatta said.

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the largest telecommunications company in the country, said on Thursday that 2009 net profit rose by 6.7 percent from the previous year, driven mainly by the strong performance of its cellular phone and Internet services businesses. Rinaldi Firmansyah, president director of Telkom, as the company is known, said net profit rose to Rp 11.3 trillion ($1.2 billion) last year from Rp 10.6 trillion in 2008.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Department of Industry wants to reindustrialize all sectors, including the coconut industry, a tropical plant spread around the archipelago. “This is part of the national reindustrialization policy,” said Deputy Minister of Industry Alex Retraubun at a press conference in his office, Jakarta, Thursday (8/4). According to Alex, the reindustrialization policy from 2010 to 2014 targets a growth of the strong coconut treatment industry.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The State Electricity Company and Pertamina have signed multiple agreements with state plantation companies forestry authority as plantation firms trying to take advantage from the contentious biofuel solution to the environmental problem.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will propose a regional infrastructure fund (RFI) during the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Public & Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Development (APMC PPP 2010) here in April. "It (the RFI) will function as a pool of funds from various countries to finance infrastructure projects in Indonesia.

Jakarta, April 8, 2010 – The World Bank’s just-released Indonesia Economic Quarterly reports that Indonesia’s economy accelerated through 2009, with growth ending the year above pre-crisis averages. The previous year’s downturn appears to have had limited impact on people’s access to work and welfare, and what impact it did have appears to have waned by late 2009.