Jakarta: Malaysia's Bank Islam and Middle East investors are keen to buy a stake in Bank Muamalat, the Indonesian bank said yesterday, as they look to tap Indonesia's vast but untested Islamic banking market. The potential investors want to take a stake in Bank Muamalat, Indonesia's biggest Sharia-compliant bank, via a planned 1 trillion rupiah (Dh399 million) rights issue in June, the bank's finance director said.

The number of broadband subscribers in Indonesia will almost double this year to 14.12 million and will reach 46.1 million in 2013 as more people access the Internet on wireless handsets, mobile telecom firm PT Indosat predicted on Thursday. Indonesia had 7.36 million broadband subscribers at the end of last year. “The broadband market will continue to grow in support of wireless access technologies, content, and handsets,” Indosat marketing director Guntur S Siboro said.

PT Bakrie Telecom plans to enter the wireless broadband business in the third quarter amid growing demand from young consumers. It will use proceeds from an April bond sale to fund the expansion. “Indonesia is a young country with 50 percent of the population below 35, said Amit Bose, the telecom’s head of strategic initiatives. Young people were hungry for information and entertainment and sought them on the Internet, he said.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest palm oil producers, may seek advice from the World Trade Organization to ensure that the European Union’s biodiesel rules do not reduce exports of the commodity, ministers have said. Suswono, Indonesia’s agriculture minister, said the two countries had agreed to tackle environmental issues that threatened the development of the industry.

VIVAnews - Minister of Communications and Information Tifatul Sembiring stated that only 20 percent of total Indonesian population have the ability to access infrastructures and tech contents. "In addition, 80 percent of Indonesian people are not tech literate," said Tifatul today, May 6, in Bandung. This shows that quite a considerable gap in the IT sector is apparent in the archipelago. However, as regards cell phone usage, Indonesia is ranked sixth worldwide.

VIVAnews - PT United Tractors is targeting that the sales of heavy equipment Komatsu this year would reach 5,500 units, higher than last year's 3,400 units, with the projected income of Rp 20 trillion. According to United Tractors Director Hendrik K Hadiwinata, the estimated increase in sales aims at the transportation units generally used by mining, plantation and forestry sectors.

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Operator of a coal power plant in Central Sulawesi has threatened to cease its operation within four days if the State Electricity Company refused to respond to its demand for a higher selling price. PT Pusaka Jaya Palu Power, operator of the Mpanau plant claimed on Thursday (6/5), it has suffered up to Rp85 billion losses in the last three years and is seeking to cover the losses through price hike by Rp149 per kilowatt hour.

Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and Malaysia, the world`s two largest palm oil producers, agreed at a meeting here on Thursday to deal with negative campaigns against the two countries` palm oil industry. "The meeting was called to face negative issues impeding the development of the two countries` palm oil industry," Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono said following the fifth Indonesia-Malaysia joint committee meeting on bilateral cooperation here.