Fuel price impact to inflation ended

Statistic Central Bureau (BPS) recorded that there are no more impact of the fuel price hike to the inflation rate following the decreasing of monthly inflation rate in July 2008. The head of BPS, Rusman Heriawan, said that the inflation rate is mostly caused by the increasing of food price following the supply shock. Month-to-month inflation in July 2008 reached 1.37% while the year-on-year inflation has reached 11.9%.

New power plants to be built in South Sumatra

A consortium of state and private companies will build two steam-powered electricity generating plants, at Banjarsari power plant (2x100 megawatts) in Lahat and at Central Bangko power plant (4x600 megawatts) in Muara Enim. These two new power plants are to provide additional electricity supply in Sumatra. Director of PT Bukit Asam, Sukrisno, explained that the Banjarsari power plant is being built by the PT Bukit Pembangkit Innovative consortium.

Nusa Tenggara Barat needs extra generator up to 60 MW

Nusa Tenggara Barat needs extra electricity generator with the capacity of 60 MW to avoid the electricity blackout and to meet the demand of new customers. Manager of PLN in Mataram, Wasito Adi, said that PLN Mataram will receive electricity generator as part of the National Programme of 12.000 MW in order to speed up the supply of geothermal electricity. (Bisnis Indonesia, July 24, p. M8)

Tanjung Perak harbor will implement NSW in December

Tanjung Perak harbor in Surabaya is scheduled to implement the National Single Window (NSW) system at the end of this year. After Tanjung Priok, NSW system is hoped to implement in Tanjung Perak at December 2008, said the head of implementation of NSW, Susiwijono Mugiharso. Prior to Tanjung Perak, the NSW system will be implemented in Tanjung Emas harbor in Semarang in August.
(Bisnis Indonesia, July 25, p. M5)

OECD urges Indonesia to lift growth

Indonesia has been urged by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to overhaul its labour laws, remove foreign investment restrictions and cut its subsidy bill by linking increases in domestic fuel prices to world energy markets. The country’s central bank was also advised to act “resolutely” and “preemptively” to raise rates and combat inflation, which hit a 21-month high of more than 11 per cent in June.
The recommendations were made in the OECD’s first comprehensive study of the Indonesian economy, which it expects to grow by more than 6 per cent this year. The report was released on Thursday.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aac90fb8-592c-11dd-a093-000077b07658.html

To have a brief look on the OECD’s survey result, ” Economic Assessment of Indonesia 2008”, please visit:
http://www.oecd.org/document/57/0,3343,en_2649_33733_410147131_1_1_1,00.html

Government’s commitment to boost up investment is still low

Up to now most of the regions in Indonesian have not shown improvement in the economic management performance. Among the obstacles are the physical infrastructure management, access to the area and licenses that still become the problems of investment climate.
This is the result of survey which was carried out by the Regional Autonomy Implementation Observer Committee (KPPOD), USAID, and The Asia Foundation in 2007 with 12.187 business people in 243 regions in 15 provinces as respondents.
http://cetak.kompas.com/read/xml/2008/07/22/0222140/komitmen.pemerintah.
dorong.investasi.minim

Business people are not ready to transfer working days

“We asked that this be delayed until the end of August as there are still many unfinished problems in the provinces¨, said Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) chairman, Mohamad S. Hidayat, yesterday (22/7). Hidayat went on to say that up to now, business people still have not received any official letter from the Manpower Minister regarding the schedule transfer. According to him, such a letter would serve as a guideline when negotiating with workers. “If there is no letter, the workers will insist even harder on making Saturdays and Sundays as holidays, thus allowing overtime¨, said Hidayat. (http://www.tempointeraktif.com/)