Parliament recommends head for new oil & gas body

Parliament recommends head for new oil & gas body

JAKARTA: Indonesia's parliament has recommended Tubagus Haryono as the head of the newly established body supervising the country's downstream oil and gas industry, a legislator said Monday.

Iwan Prayitno, a member of the parliament's oil and gas commission, told reporters that Tubagus had passed the so-called fit and proper test conducted by the parliament.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri will likely name Tubagus as head of the new body soon, he added.

Tubagus is currently a member of the parliament's oil and gas commission representing the Golkar party, the country's second largest political party.

Before becoming a legislator, Tubagus worked for state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina (P.PTM). The government earlier this year established the supervisory body as part of the plan to end Pertamina's monopoly over the country's downstream oil and gas industry. -- Dow Jones

Australian job growth slowing

CANBERRA: The number of employment advertisements in major Australian newspapers reversed last month's fall to rise 4.3 percent from December to January, but the figures still indicate an overall slowing of job growth, economists said Monday.

The seasonally adjusted figures compiled by Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) showed a weekly average of 20,339 job ads in January, down 6 percent from a year earlier.

The number of advertisements fell 13.7 percent in November to December.

Four non-newspaper Internet sites carried an average of 63,217 job advertisements per week in January, down 5.7 percent from December but up 5.3 percent year-on-year.

The total number of job advertisements in newspapers and on the Internet in January fell 3.5 percent from December to 83,556 but were up 2.3 percent year-on-year. -- AFP