Iran offers block to Pertamina
Iran offers block to Pertamina
JAKARTA: Iran has offered an oil block to Indonesia's state- owned oil and gas company Pertamina, an Indonesian government official said on Monday.
Oil and gas director-general at Indonesia's Mines and Energy Ministry, Iin Arifin Takhyan, told reporters the government received a letter on the offer from Iran.
"We will forward the letter to Pertamina soon," he added.
He didn't name the Iranian block offered.
Pertamina has been looking to explore for oil outside the country amid falling proven oil reserves in Indonesia, the only Southeast Asian member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.
Last year, Pertamina was awarded Iraq's Western Desert block, which is estimated to contain 3 million barrels of crude oil. -- Dow Jones
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-Oil-Iran-Pertamina JP/16/Money
HK to host next WTO meet
CANCUN: Hong Kong will be the location for the next World Trade Organization ministerial talks, the organization's members announced on Sunday, the same day current talks in Cancun collapsed among differences between rich and poor nations.
The 146 members of the WTO, the organization that sets rules for international trade, confirmed that Hong Kong had been chosen for a meeting to be held at an unspecified date.
Two years ago during a meeting in Doha, Qatar, WTO officials agreed to launch negotiations aimed at creating a new treaty on international trade by Jan. 1, 2005.
However, the failure of talks in Cancun have cast doubt on whether that goal can be achieved, and some have wondered if members can agree enough to continue.
No exact date was given for the Hong Kong meeting. If Cancun had been successful, it would likely have been scheduled for late 2004.
But some believe the meeting could be called earlier to try to jump-start the stalled negotiations. -- AP
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-Oil-Iran-Pertamina JP/16/Money
China's inflation rises in August
BEIJING: China's inflation rate rose 0.9 percent in August compared with the same month a year ago as services and food became more expensive, the government said on Monday.
Food prices in August rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier, with meat and poultry prices up 3.5 percent, grain up 0.4 percent and vegetables up 4.9 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Services also cost more, jumping 2.6 percent from a year earlier.
The August figures mark the eighth consecutive rise in Chinese consumer prices, further strengthening suggestions that Asia's second largest economy could be escaping from a vicious spiral of falling prices affecting it since the late 1990s.
In July, inflation ran at 0.5 pct after 0.2 percent in June.
The Consumer Price Index for the first eight months of the year was up 0.6 pct from a year earlier. -- AFP
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-Oil-Iran-Pertamina JP/16/Money
African tourism conference starts
ADDIS ABABA: A five-day conference of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) opens in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday and plans to launch an African tourism forum, an Ethiopian tourism official said.
"Some 38 Africa member countries of WTO will attend the Addis Ababa forum to evaluate Africa's tourism market under the current political, economic and social situation of the world," tourism commission official Matewos Gebermariam told reporters.
WTO Secretary General David Devilior will attend the forum of the 140-member body, which includes 50 African states.
In the past year the number of tourists worldwide reached 715 million, of which only 28.7 million visited Africa, excluding Egypt, Ethiopian tourism commissioner Yusuf Abdullah Suker said.
Ethipoia itself earned US$77.1 million in tourism revenue in the past year, he said.
"Some 156,327 foreigners from all over the world visited Ethiopia during the same period," he told reporters. -- AFP