Merpati serves Jayapura
JAKARTA (JP): PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, a subsidiary of the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, has opened new direct flights from Jakarta to Jayapura in Irian Jaya and resumed daily flights between Jakarta and Malang in East Java.
Merpati's spokesman Benny Achmad said the airline will fly the Jakarta-Jayapura route five times a week with en route stopovers in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, and Biak in Irian Jaya.
Merpati will also offer new twice weekly flights from Jakarta to Jayapura through Ujungpandang and Timika and vice versa, he said, adding that Merpati uses DC-9 aircraft for all the flights to Jayapura.
Merpati currently operates 14 flights a week on the Ujungpandang-Jayapura route.
Meanwhile, Merpati's president, Ridwan Fatarudin told the Antara news agency over the weekend that on Friday his airline also began flying to Malang daily, thus re-opening the service which was suspended in 1987.
"The Jakarta-Malang flights will use Fokker-28/4000 aircraft, which has 75 seats," he said.(fhp)
Asian economies discussed
JAKARTA (JP): Representatives from 63 centers for economic studies, located in 23 Asian countries, will take part in a four- day seminar beginning here on Wednesday to discuss Asian economic growth, policies and problems.
Inter-Asian cooperation will also be one of the subjects to be discussed at the seminar, to be held at Sahid Jaya Hotel here from April 6 to April 9.
The seminar, jointly organized by the International Center for Economic Growth (ICEG) of the United States and Indonesia's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Speakers at the seminar, which will be officially opened by Trade Minister Satrio Budiardjo Joedono, will include Mohammad Sadli, a senior Indonesian economist, Malcolm Purvis, the director of the Economic Policy Support Office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and a number of other economists of other noted international institutions.(hen)
KL acquires timber firm
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Lien Hoe, a Malaysian property group, has signed a pact to buy a 70 percent stake in North Sumatra Timber, a local company that has ventured aggressively into the Indonesian timber market.
Lien Hoe is to pay 30 million ringgit (US$12 million) in cash and invest a 30 million ringgit in North Sumatra Timber for working capital, Lien Hoe managing director Chan Wah Long said, after signing the purchase pact with Mega Heights, owner of North Sumatra on Friday.
"We expect North Sumatra to churn a turnover of between 150 million ringgit and 200 million ringgit (between $60 million and $80 million) a year, which will be a great boost for the (Lien Hoe's) group's profitability," Chan said.
North Sumatra Timber officials said the timber firm planned to venture further into timber processing following Indonesia's ban on the export of raw logs.
North Sumatra Timber had recently acquired a 70 percent stake in PT Budi Trisakti, which operates a moulding factory in Banda Aceh in Sumatra that produces some 10,000 cubic metres of finished products a month.
PT Budi reportedly has long-term timber supply contracts with concession holders involving a total area of 180,000 hectares (450,000 acres).
U.S. jobless rate steady
WASHINGTON (Reuter): A whopping 456,000 U.S. jobs were created in March while the unemployment rate was steady, the Labor Department said in a report that provided good news for the jobless but shocked inflation-wary financial markets.
The department said the growth in new jobs outside the farm sector last month was the most in 6-1/2 years and in part reflected a rebound from losses caused by frigid weather in January and February.
Construction, retail and services -- such as hospitals, temporary agencies and hotels -- were among the many areas posting gains, the department's survey of businesses showed.
The report provided fresh evidence Friday that the economy is moving ahead with vigor in the first quarter of 1994. It grew at a seven percent annual rate in the last three months of 1993, but that rate is not expected to be sustained in the first quarter.
The unexpectedly sharp jobs rise followed a revised increase of 198,000 in February. It fueled speculation the Federal Reserve may boost interest rates again to curb inflation pressures.
A separate Labor Department survey of households showed the unemployment rate was unchanged in March at 6.5 percent, although economists expect it will fall in coming months as companies hire workers to meet demand for goods and services.
JAL begins Bali service
TOKYO (AFP): Japan Airlines has launched a new regular passenger service between Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Bali, Indonesia, company officials said.
Japan's leading airline said the Bali leg would be added to its existing five flights a week -- Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday -- to Jakarta and the airline hoped to make this a daily flight in September.
India's private bank opens
NEW DELHI (AFP): India's first private bank opened on Saturday with Finance Minister Manmohan Singh saying he hoped the competition would help make state banks more efficient.
Singh, after throwing open the doors of the first branch of UTI Bank Ltd. in the western industrial city of Ahmedabad, said private banks were necessary to inject "greater efficiency and productivity in the banking system."
UTI Bank Ltd. is a venture of the Unit Trust of India, the country's largest mutual fund. It has promised modern, computerized, friendly and efficient service to Indians used mainly to slow-moving state banks.
UTI Bank will have an initial capital of one billion rupees (US$33 million), expected to triple within a year, when the bank will be listed on the stock exchange.
UTI Bank general manager Basudeb Sen said the bank will have near-complete flexibility in utilizing information technology and introduction of new products and services.
UTI Bank intends to open branches within the year in Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Madras and New Delhi.
EU earns much from oil tax
ABU DHABI (AFP): Energy taxes earn the European Union three times more than OPEC's income from oil exports and the gap could widen if the EU goes ahead with plans to impose new taxes, an official Arab report said.
Japan is also earning nearly twice OPEC's revenues but the increase in the oil taxes over the past five years has been slower than that in the EU, according to a study published by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).
The Cairo-based group said oil taxes in the EU had surged from US$39.33 a barrel in 1988 to $49.43 in 1990 and $57.75 in 1992.
This boosted the price of an oil barrel to the end user in the EU from $71.01 to $92.23 and $96.80 in the same period, it said.
"The increase in the EU taxes on oil imports was far higher than the increase in OPEC's oil prices," the report said.
The price of OPEC's basket of seven crudes rose from $14.24 in 1988 to $18.42 in 1992 but it remained nearly one third of the EU energy tax and one fifth of the barrel's price to the end users.
Japan-Vietnam air deal
TOKYO (AFP): Japan and Vietnam have agreed to resume regular flights between the two countries suspended since 1975, officials said Saturday.
The agreement was reached at a meeting held here late Friday by officials from the two countries, they said.
The agreement calls for regular flights between southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon -- and the Kansai international airport which is to open in September in western Japan, the officials said.
Flight schedules and other details will be decided later, they said.
Regular flight service between Japan and Vietnam was suspended after the fall of Saigon in the closing days of the Vietnam War.
Malaysia's 2nd carrier
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A top Malaysian official said the government has licensed a four-member local consortium to run the country's second national carrier, to fly charter services initially to "exotic" tourist destinations in Asia.
The new company, approved by the cabinet Wednesday, has yet to decide on its official name, but was likely to call itself Air Asia Sdn Bhd, Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik said.
"With this (license), the company is now allowed to operate," Ling said, adding that officials of the consortium were finalizing route schedules with the economic planning unit of the prime minister's department.
State-owned heavy industries firm Hicom Bhd is the controlling shareholder in the airline consortium, with a 45-percent stake, while private carrier Pelangi Air and the eastern Sarawak state government jointly hold a 40-percent stake.