With a surge in sales during November and likely this month, electronics traders are hopeful a 15 percent sales target for television, DVD players and other audio devices can be achieved. Electronics Marketer Club (EMC) spokesman Handojo Soetanto also said the sales of televisions had increased significantly in November. He said the trend would likely continue in December because many electronics shops offered attractive discounts during the year-end shopping season.

The mining bill cannot be endorsed as scheduled as the government and legislators are still at loggerheads over the transitional arrangements, a source close to the negotiations says. The transition period is a period granted to the holders of existing contracts of work (CoW) in order to allow them to switch to the new permit system stipulated under the bill.

The telecommunications regulatory body is preparing a number of policies in order to gradually lower Internet charges, currently among the highest in the world, by 50 percent within four years. "Compared to other countries, our Internet connection charges are too high. We have studied what causes this, and have also responded through various policies and initiatives," Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Board (BRTI) spokesperson Heru Sutadi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The government needs to place more focus on the development of labor-intensive manufacturing industries, and the agricultural and mining sectors in order to maintain sustainable growth and reduce the country's high unemployment, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says. Speaking at the chamber's year-end economic review last week, Kadin chairman Muhammad S.