THE COORDINATING MINISTRY FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Tel: (021) 351-1178
Fax: (021) 351-1186 Website: http://www.ekon.go.id
Trade and Investment News[1], 10 March
Highlights
National
·
South Korean, Indonesian leaders agree to boost
cooperation
Politics
·
Foreign minister says elections should not disturb
diplomatic efforts
Terrorism
·
Indonesian officials meet
Security
·
·
1.4 million personnel to safeguard elections
Law
& order
·
House of Representatives goes into recess with only
three bills passed
·
AGO calls for presidential immunity to be lifted for
election disputes
Economy
·
Government to start pushing funds for infrastructure
into economy by March 18
·
Strong investment flows continue in coal mining
sector
Business
briefs
Macroeconomy
·
Central bank trims benchmark rate half a point to
7.75%
·
Tax revenues move up 5% in January but rate of
growth slows
Investment
·
Islamic fund to give $50 million for small and
medium enterprises
·
State
concerns
·
·
ASEAN signs FTA with
SOEs
·
Garuda reports Rp683 billion unaudited operational
profit
·
PT Jasa Marga to spend Rp2.1 trillion on new toll
roads
Private
sector
·
PT Indofood to issue Rp1 trillion in bonds to repay
debt
·
February car sales up 5.5% on month but sharply down
on year
Banks
·
Bank Central Asia 2008 profit moves up 67%
Power
·
Work on power plant for coal miner PT Bukit Asam to
start
Oil
& gas
·
Six oil and gas fields to come on stream in 2010
Mining
·
NATIONAL
S.
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed several agreements after talks at the
state palace on the last stop of Lee’s three-nation tour, which included
"This meeting will make a big
contribution to bilateral and international cooperation," Lee told
reporters after the talks.
"We are facing a world economic crisis.
Both countries have had economic difficulties but we will work hand-in-hand in
the future," he added.
The two leaders signed a memorandum of
understanding to "cooperate more actively" in security and defense
issues, Lee said.
Both countries are eager to build economic
and defense ties and boost cooperation through the ASEAN+3 forum -- the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as China, Japan and South Korea.
"We are committed to maintaining
investment cooperation between both countries despite the current global
economic crisis," he said.
"Apart from trade and investment
cooperation, we also discussed cooperation in other sectors including
information technology, alternative energy, defense and security, Indonesian
workers (in
POLITICS
Elections should not affect diplomacy: Minister
The upcoming G-20 and G-8 summits in
Wirajuda said the elections should not put
“The world keeps changing and the momentum
goes our way. We should make full use of the opportunities while at the same
time we take care of our national agenda,” Wirajuda said.
This year’s G-8 host
Wirajuda said the invitations constituted the
international community’s recognition of
“G-20 has given us a respectable place. How
come we sacrifice the opportunity for the sake of our domestic agenda?” he
said. “We will lose the golden chance on offer if we only focus on domestic
matters,” Wirajuda said.
TERRORISM
Regional extremists wooing support online
As radicals in the region find it harder to
operate in the open, they are rapidly turning to the internet to win support, a
new study has found, The Straits Times
reported.
Extremists used to just celebrate terrorist
victories and spread material from the al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah (JI)
terrorist networks online but some are now using the internet to share know-how
on hacking into websites, bomb-making and use of firearms, said the study,
conducted jointly by researchers in
Sympathizers are also making use of social
networking sites like Friendster and Multiply, and posting exclusive news
reports and videos.
Regional governments and law enforcement
agencies have done little to stop the rise of online radicalization, said the
authors of the study, Countering Internet
Radicalization in
Their report noted that while websites
inciting violence are subject to criminal laws in some countries, there are
often no specific regulations covering the Internet.
“Some governments don't want to appear
un-Islamic by coming down hard on Islamist groups, and some don't want to
appear undemocratic by seeming to rein in freedom of expression in cyberspace,”
it said.
The 24-page report was written by a team of
researchers: Sulastri Osman and Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin from the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies (RSIS) and Dr. Anthony Bergin and Dr. Carl
Ungerer of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in
They found that online extremism in the
region surfaced in early 2000, on Malay- and Indonesian-language websites.
Extremist websites typically justify radical
ideology and terrorist acts as divinely-sanctioned, and draw on the
They noted that the number of sites operated
by radical and extremist groups or which are sympathetic to their beliefs had
risen from 13 in 2007 to 31 last year.
They added that some 90% of visitors to 10% of
the sites they examined were from
The authors also detected and monitored 82
individual blogs and social networking accounts sympathetic to radical views
last year - up from zero in 2007.
“This shows that a growing number of
individuals, encouraged by propaganda material like the recently posted last
will of
Imam Samudra and two other militants behind
the 2002 attack on a
After years of fruitless requests, Indonesian
intelligence and counter-terrorism officers have finally met former Jemaah
Islamiah (JI) operations chief Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, in
the
A senior Indonesian counter-terrorist
official and Western police sources confirmed that the meeting took place about
two weeks ago, near the time of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first
official visit to
Sources familiar with the session say Hambali
made several admissions about his involvement in terrorist acts, which are
reported to include the 2000 Christmas bombings, the 2002 Bali bombing and the
2003 attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel.
The Indonesian team included a police colonel
from the Detachment 88 counter-terrorist unit and agents from the National
Intelligence Agency (BIN).
Regarded as the key link between JI and al Qaeda,
the 44-year-old Hambali was captured in 2003 in a US Central Intelligence
Agency operation in the Thai town of
He was flown almost immediately to the US
Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia and later to a secret location in
US counter-terrorism officials had always
denied access to Hambali, but that policy changed with President Barack Obama's
decision to close the
SECURITY
RI hosts regional security meeting
Influential delegates from 27 countries at
the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), including 10 ASEAN members, kicked off a
meeting in
Director General for Asia-Pacific and African
Affairs at the Foreign Ministry Hamzah Thayeb said although the issue had been
discussed thoroughly in the past, the rapid resurgence of piracy across the
globe demanded the ARF consider boosting security in the region.
Several sea passages in the ASEAN region,
such as the
Sea transportation through these routes has
been disturbed by piracy in the past "and the meeting is being held to
force cooperation focused on coordination and security patrol by countries in
their respective territory, especially in their own economic exclusive
zones," Thayeb said.
Thayeb said the meeting was aimed at enhancing
technical cooperation among institutions and integrating the planned education,
training and standard operational procedures used to handle security
disturbances in all waters in the region.
Maritime security along the
"The four countries can stage joint
patrols to ensure security along the strait. Such cooperation should be also
conducted in other water zones of interest to many countries."
He said
1.4M
security personnel ready for general election
The government will deploy a 1.4 million-strong
security force to safeguard democratic elections later this year, police said,
Agence
Around 246,000 police and 1.2 million members
of its civil protection force will guard polling stations during upcoming
legislative elections and presidential polls, national police spokesman
Abubakar Nataprawira said.
The security force would be responsible for
guarding more than half a million polling stations across the massive
archipelago nation, according to the official.
"Around 80,000 polling stations are
considered to be unstable, but that figure can still change," he added.
About 24,000 members of the Armed Forces will
also guard the votes, police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri was reported as
saying.
LAW
& ORDER
House
leaves many crucial bills unfinished
The House of Representatives has upheld its
poor record for legislation performance, ending its 45-day sitting period on
Tuesday with just three bills passed into law, The Jakarta Post reported.
The three laws deal with the trafficking of
women and children, taxes and the ratification of the UN convention against
transnational organized crime.
"The salaries and allowances of House
members should be cut off if they continue to perform poorly, like what we have
seen today," constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin said.
Every legislator receives between Rp90
million and Rp100 million in monthly pay after tax, which includes salary and
allowance.
"They still receive pay from the state
without properly carrying out their jobs," he added. Tuesday's plenary
session was attended by less than 100 of the 550 House members.
However, the meeting was declared as having
met a quorum because more than 300 legislators filled in their attendance
sheets before the session commenced. Most then left as the meeting got
underway.
"We have to admit that many legislators
skipped the meeting out of nothing more than laziness," legislator Ganjar
Pranowo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said.
House Speaker Agung Laksono reprimanded
legislators attending the last plenary session before the April 9 legislative
elections for leaving such a large amount of unfinished business on the House
agenda.
The session saw discussions take place on the
35 priority bills still waiting deliberation.
“We only finished deliberating three drafts
during this sitting period,” Laksono said at the meeting.
He said the House had many priority bills
waiting to be deliberated and passed including the military court bill, the
health services bill, the population bill, the narcotics bill, the immigration
bill and the public services bill.
A bill of particular importance is the
corruption court draft law, which must be passed before December 2009. Based on
a
AGO wants lawmaker immunity on hold
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Friday
submitted a formal request asking that the Supreme Court revoke a ruling that
requires prosecutors to get presidential approval before they can summon
lawmakers or high-level officials for questioning for election offenses, The
The AGO asked that the court make an
exception for election offenses, which require a tighter deadline for
prosecutors to make an indictment, said Abdul Hakim Ritonga, deputy attorney
general for general crimes.
“The law says we need a permit from the
president or the minister of home affairs to summon high-level officials and
the process to get the approval normally takes three or four months,” Ritonga
said.
“The ruling will put investigation periods
out of synchronization because for the election offenses, we are given only 14
days to complete the investigation and just seven days to prepare the
indictment,” he said.
Election offenses include campaigning outside
the designated time period, paying for votes or civil servants’ participation
in political campaigns.
Ritonga said a lawmaker from a “major party”
had refused to comply with prosecutors’ summons regarding an alleged election
offense due to a lack of permit from the president.
“I will not meet your summons because you
don’t have the president's permit,” Ritonga quoted the lawmaker as having told
prosecutors, but he declined to name the offender or specify the accusation.
The case was ultimately dropped because the
investigation period had lapsed, he said.
According to an AGO document, prosecutors
have so far handled 46 elections offenses, with 19 cases already getting
verdicts from the court.
The AGO has formed a team of 980 prosecutors
to handle elections offenses across the country.
Senior legislator Gayus Lumbuun said he
supported the AGO’s move because, due to the massive scale of the upcoming
elections, police needed to streamline the system for dealing with offenses.
ECONOMY
First disbursement of stimulus March 18
The government will move quickly to disburse
money into the economy in an attempt to boost activity and create employment.
The first disbursement of some Rp12.2
trillion ($1.01 billion) in infrastructure funds will take place by March 18,
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said late Thursday, The Jakarta Globe reported.
“On March 11, ministries will receive their
budget allocations and must submit the necessary documentation to the Finance Ministry,
so that everything can be settled by March 18,” Indrawati said.
“The infrastructure projects should start
creating jobs within one or two months,” Indrawati said, adding that ministers will
be expected to deliver their estimates of how many jobs can be created by their
projects.
The National Development Planning Board would
monitor the progress of ministries and punish those that failed to spend the
money with budget cuts next year.
The Rp12.2 trillion is part of the Rp73.3
trillion stimulus package that the government plans to roll out.
The Public Works Ministry will receive the
biggest share of the funds at Rp6.6 trillion, which is intended for irrigation,
water supply and road schemes.
The Transportation Ministry will get Rp2.2
trillion for railway network, port and airport expansion or upgrades.
10
ministries getting the biggest infrastructure stimulus funds, according to Kompas, are:
Foreign ownership of local-currency bonds
fell 9.6% as of March 3 from December, the government said Thursday. Funds
abroad sold more Indonesian shares than they bought in the last three trading
days, according to the stock exchange, Reuters reported.
Overseas investors’ holdings of local bonds
fell to Rp79.24 trillion ($6.5 billion) from Rp87.61 trillion in December,
according to the web site of the finance ministry. Ownership reached a record
Rp106.66 trillion in August before risk aversion mounted as Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy in September.
Non-deliverable forwards contracts signal
traders are betting the rupiah will drop 2% to Rp12,358 per dollar in a month,
after indicating a rate of Rp12,325 on Wednesday.
To restore confidence, BI doubled its
currency swap agreement with
While investment elsewhere in the economy
remained dormant, and some projects were shelved, the coal sector continued to
attract interest.
Thai Banpu, the country’s fourth-largest
producer, will spend $126 million to expand its Bontang port and coal-fired
power plant, and on infrastructure at its Bharinto mine, while another Thai
company, Unique Mining Services PCL, has set aside $27.6 million to acquire a
coal mine in
Singapore-listed Straits
Eighth-largest producer PT Bayan Resources
expects to expand coal production by 56% this year following expansion last
year. From
Indicators:
|
|
December |
January |
January
09/ January
08 |
|
|
Total exports |
$8.69
billion |
$7.15
billion |
-36.08% |
|
|
Non-oil & gas
exports |
$7.45
billion |
$6.21
billion |
-30.64% |
|
|
|
January
(y-o-y) |
January
(m-o-m) |
February (y-o-y) |
February
(m-o-m) |
|
Inflation |
9.17% |
-0.07% |
8.60% |
0.21% |
|
|
Full
year 2006 |
Full
year 2007 |
Full year 2008 |
Fourth quarter 2008 |
|
GDP growth |
5.5% |
6.3% |
6.1% |
5.4% |
|
Tourist arrivals |
December |
January
|
Growth/loss
(m-o-m) |
Growth/loss (y-o-y) |
|
|
610,500 |
473,200 |
-22.49% |
8.04 |
Source:
Central Statistics Agency
BUSINESS
BRIEFS
MACROECONOMY
BI trims another half point from key interest
rate
Bank Indonesia (BI) on Wednesday reduced its
benchmark interest rate for a fourth straight month to help boost consumer
spending as exports plummet, Bloomberg reported.
BI Governor Boediono and his seven colleagues
on the bank's board lowered the key rate to 7.75% from 8.25%, the central bank
said in a statement.
The central bank forecast a slowdown in
economic growth to 4% in 2009, from an estimated 6.1% in 2008, "with
considerable downside risk if global economic growth worsens even more than
expected."
"Indications of the economic slowdown
are also borne out in slowing household consumption brought on by falling
public purchasing power," BI said.
“At the same time, Indonesia's banking system
-- which collapsed just over a decade ago in the Asian financial crisis -- was
in stable condition," the bank said, The Associated Press reported..
BI deputy governor Hartadi Sarwono said on
Thursday that the central bank still has room for more interest rate cuts,
Reuters reported.
"I think 7-8% for the BI rate will be OK
to maintain our inflation target," Sarwono said.
"If you cut it too much it will, but up
to now the weakening of the rupiah is not because of the interest rate cuts,”
Sarwono said when asked if cutting rates would hurt the rupiah, which has
fallen close to 9% against the dollar so far this year.
Sarwono said BI had been in the market to
reduce volatility in the rupiah, which reached a three-month low against the
dollar this week.
January tax revenues up 5%
Net
state tax revenues, not including income tax from the oil and gas sector, rose
4.96% year-on-year to Rp34.28 trillion ($2.8 billion) in January 2009, Asia
Pulse reported.
The
growth rate, however, was much lower than the usual 18 to 20%, Taxation Director
General Darmin Nasution said.
Including
income taxes from the oil sector the state tax revenues totaled Rp39.53 trillion
in January, Nasution said.
Indef
economic think tank executive director Ahmad Erani Yustika predicted tax
revenues in 2009 would decline as a result of the global financial woes.
Govt. gets $5.5B in standby loans
The government on Wednesday secured a $5.5
billion standby loan from multilateral and bilateral lenders, to be used if the
country fails to raise funds from the offshore and local debt markets, Dow
Jones reported.
“The loan facility is an important
precautionary measure, which we have designed to maintain the confidence of the
international and domestic market, and allow the country to continue raising
the necessary funds for its development," said Finance Minister Sri
Mulyani Indrawati.
The finance ministry said the World Bank will
contribute $2 billion,
Govt. aims for Rp2T March 10 debt sale
The Finance Ministry said on Thursday it aims
to raise Rp2 trillion ($167 million) from its debt auctions on March 10, to
help finance a ballooning budget deficit, Reuters reported.
The ministry said in a statement it plans to sell
treasury bills maturing in 2010 and fixed-rate bonds maturing in 2019.
The stimulus package has pushed up the forecast
budget deficit to Rp139.5 trillion for 2009, equivalent to 2.5% of GDP.
Last month, the ministry raised $3 billion
from a global bond issue and Rp5.556 trillion ($463 million) from a retail
sukuk issue.
It also raised a total of Rp6.15 trillion at
its last government debt auction, on February 24, or more than double its target
for that sale.
Bank
Boediono also said Indonesian assets should
remain attractive, despite recent interest rate cuts by the central bank, but
did not elaborate.
BI deputy governor Hartadi Sarwono said on
Thursday that the government may sell as much as $500 million in its first sale
of global Islamic bond, Bloomberg reported.
According to director of Islamic financing
policy at the Finance Ministry, Dahlan Siamat, the government plans to sell the
bonds this year.
“We are monitoring the market,” Rahmat
Waluyanto, Director General of the government’s debt management office, said in
an interview. “The market is still volatile right now. The government will sell
the global sukuk this year as planned.”
On Tuesday, the government bought back
Rp8.518 trillion ($710.4 million) of government bonds in an auction on Tuesday,
Reuters reported.
Exports tumble in January
January exports fell a worse-than-expected
36%, the biggest annual decline in more than 22 years, as global demand for key
commodities such as palm oil and rubber slumped, according to data released on
Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
"The fall in exports is actually in line
with regional plunges. Exports in the regional economies in the likes of
"Considering that
The drop in exports to $7.15 billion in
January, from $11.19 billion a year ago, was worse than the 30% decline
forecast by analysts, and followed a drop of 20.6% in December.
Annual inflation in February was in line with
expectations, falling to 8.60%, the lowest since March 2008, from 9.17% in
January.
INVESTMENT
ICD offers $50M to develop small enterprises
The Islamic Corporation for Development of
the Private Sector (ICD) has offered $50 million to
ICD general manager Al-Aboodi said
"
State-owned telecommunications company PT
Telkom has signed a $200 million contract with
Under the contract signed on Monday, ISS
Reshetnev will build a satellite, provide satellite control equipment and
training and internship for Telkom technicians.
The satellite, which will have 42
transponders, is expected to be ready for launch in August 2011, Telkom
president director Rinaldi Firmansyah, said.
Around 45% of the transponders will be leased
out commercially and the rest will be used by the Telkom Group, Firmansyah said,
Investor Daily reported.
Singapore-based Mother Earth Plantations Pte.
Ltd., through its Indonesian subsidiary PT Buana Ibunda, will invest $100
million to develop jatropha plantations and a refinery in
Speaking on Tuesday on the sidelines of the
5th World Islamic Economic Forum in
Jansen said the company would eventually be
able to produce some three million tons of jatropha curcas seeds on marginal
land in Kupang that is to be planted as part of the project.
STATE
CONCERNS
President Lee Myung-bak and Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed Friday to expand substantial
cooperation between the two countries in the fields of energy and resources, The
Korea Times reported.
The agreement includes the extension of a contract to develop oil fields in
West Madura, East Java and securing an additional 200,000 hectares of forested
areas for South Korean businesses in
Wood pellet stoves have recently gained some
attention as alternative heating sources. Burning pellets is considered more
environmentally friendly than using fossil fuels or wood logs.
In a summit in
Lee asked Dr. Yudhoyono to help South Korean
businesses participate in the construction of infrastructure, and electricity
and resources development, they said.
The two leaders agreed on the need for policy coordination between Asian
countries to tide over the global economic turmoil.
They also agreed to increase cooperation in developing clean, renewable energy
for ``green growth'' and fighting corruption and terrorism in the international
community, the officials said.
ASEAN
urges world to keep trade open
Leaders
of Southeast Asia's economies met on March 1 in
ASEAN
members earlier signed a free-trade agreement with
Thai
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who hosted the summit, urged ASEAN to take
the lead in resisting protectionist policies. "If we start going down the
route of protectionism, everybody will go down. It doesn't help anybody at the
end," he said.
Indonesian
Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said in an interview on the sidelines of the
summit that the world's biggest trading powers need to re-engage in the stalled
She noted that none of ASEAN's member nations had
adopted tougher trade barriers in response to the onset of the global crisis.
Referring to negotiations on a proposed ASEAN-EU free-trade agreement,
Pangestu said ASEAN wants to negotiate as a group, not as individual countries.
“We still maintain
that if there's going to be an Asean-EU FTA then it has to be region to region.
Asean has not changed on that position,” Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told The
Straits Times.
"If
some countries are going to be approached for bilaterals, that's another
issue... that is their right to do it," she said. "But I don't think
we want to have a situation where they negotiate bilaterally with only a few
and then try to add it up for that becoming an ASEAN-EU (pact)."
Workers in three sectors receive tax
incentives
The tax office said Wednesday that workers
with a maximum monthly salary of Rp5 million working in the agriculture,
fishery and manufacturing sectors are now eligible for a waiver of income tax
following a government ruling, The
Jakarta Post reported.
The measures will cost the government Rp6.5
trillion, Darmin Nasution, the Finance Ministry's Director General for Taxation
said.
The agricultural sector includes the
sub-sectors of food-crop plantations, hunting and animal breeding while the
fishery sector includes sea-fishing and sea-plant cultivations, states a report
by the taxation office.
"We chose those sectors because they are
export-focused industries. Those industries also suffered the most during the
crisis," Nasution said.
Among the three sectors, the manufacturing
sector will receive the most incentives, with the sub-sectors of food and
beverage, milk, shoes and print such as newspapers.
"There are some export-oriented
industries that were not selected for the waiver, such as mining, because most
of the workers there already earn high salaries."
2009 unhusked rice predicted at 60.93M tons
The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) on
Monday said unhusked rice production will reach 60.93 million tons this year, Antara
reported.
BPS head Rusman Heriawan said production
would increase by 1.13% or 0.68 million tons compared to last year. Heriawan
said increases would take place in several provinces, including West Java, West
Sumatra, South Sumatra, Central Java,
BPS also put the provisional figure for the
country’s rice production in 2008 at 60.25 million tons or an increase of about
5.41% from the previous year.
The increase in rice production was made
possible due to an increase in the total area of rice fields harvested by 1.33%
to 161,520 hectares. This increased production by about 4.04%.
The increase in rice production in 2008,
Heriawan said, took place in East Java, Central Java, South Sulawesi, West Nusa
Tenggara, South Sumatra, West Java and
SOEs
Garuda reports profit of Rp683B
National flag carrier PT Garuda
Garuda president director Emirsyah Satar said
on Tuesday that the company also recorded an improvement in its on-time
performance to 84.11% in 2008 from 76.73% in 2007.
The company said passenger occupancy for 2008
reached 76.53%, lower than 2007's 77.46%.
Satar said operational income in 2007 reached
Rp13.1 trillion while in 2008 it was recorded at Rp18.1 trillion.
Jasa Marga to spend $2.1B on toll road projects
State-owned
toll road construction company PT Jasa Marga said it will spend Rp24 trillion
($2.1 billion) on eight toll road projects in Java this year, Asia Pulse
reported.
The
company and its partners involved in the projects will put up the remaining
Rp7.5 trillion, with Jasa Marga to contribute 60% and the partners 40%, finance
director Reynaldi Hermansyah said.
Jasa
Marga has secured loan commitments of Rp16.5 trillion ($1.369 billion) from a
number of banks to finance the investment, Hermansyah said.
"There
is no more financial problem in the implementation of the eight toll road
projects including the
PRIVATE
SECTOR
Indofood plans to issue Rp1T worth of bonds
Food giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur plans to
issue bonds worth Rp1 trillion to repay maturing bonds worth Rp976 billion, Antara
reported.
The plan to issue the bonds is still under
consideration, Indofood corporate secretary Werianty Setiawan said on Tuesday.
The value of the bonds will be a minimum of
Rp1 trillion, depending on the market conditions, she said.
Part of the proceeds from the bonds issuance
will be used to repay short-term debts and strengthen working capital, she
said.
To issue the bonds, the company will appoint
PT DBS Vickers Securities Indonesia, PT Danareksa Sekuritas, PT ING Securities
Indonesia, PT Kim Eng Securities, PT Mandiri Sekuritas and PT OSK Nusadana
Securities Indonesia as joint lead underwriters, Setiawan said.
February car sales up 5.5% on month
Sales
of new cars in
But,
on an annual basis, car sales last month fell 30%, car assembler association
Gaikindo chairman Bambang Trisulo said.
Meanwhile motorcycle sales are expected to
drop 20-28% this year, an official at market leader Astra Honda Motor said on
Tuesday, reflecting weaker consumer spending amid a global economic slowdown,
Reuters reported.
Astra Honda Motor, a unit of PT Astra
International, expects total motorcycle sales of between 4.5-5 million units in
2009, down from 6.215 million in 2008.
The company has started to cut shifts and
overtime in order to prevent large stocks from building up, marketing director
Johannes Loman said.
Humpuss seeks $105M in external funds
Publicly traded sea transport company PT
Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi said it is seeking external loans of $105
million to help finance its investments this year.
The company plans to spend $150 million in
capital expenditure this year including for the purchases of a number of new
barges, company president Antonius W Sumarlin said.
The company will use external funds to cover
70% of the investment and will put up the remaining 30% from its internal cash,
Sumarlin said.
Negotiations are in progress with a number of
financers, he was quoted as saying by the newspaper Investor Daily.
BANKS
Danamon gets pledges for 90% of rights issue:
Sources
PT Bank Danamon
Subscriptions to the rights offer began on April
7 and end April 14.
One person said a number of parties that
don't have any holdings in the bank have expressed interest in purchasing the
new shares by sub-underwriting the deal.
He declined to comment on the identity of the
parties, but said they include other banks, brokers and hedge funds.
Sub-underwriters underwrite the risk taken on by underwriters.
Bank Danamon said when it launched the rights
issue last month that Asia Financial had undertaken to fully subscribe to its
entitlement.
The roadshow for the deal ended Wednesday,
after touring
Danamon said last month it will issue
shareholders with 68 preemptive rights for every 100 shares held at Rp1,200
each, or a discount of 47% to the stock's price of Rp2,250 before the
announcement.
Proceeds from the rights issue will
strengthen the bank's capital position and support growth. It will boost the
lender's Tier 1 ratio - a measure of a bank's financial strength - to 19.4%
from 14.1%.
BCA 2008 unaudited net profit up 67%
BCA's unaudited net profit stood at Rp7.5
trillion ($625.5 million) on a net interest income of Rp19.28 trillion.
On January 7, the bank's vice president Jahja
Setiaatmadja told Reuters that the bank's lending grew by around 36.5% in 2008
but warned that loan growth was likely to slow to around 15% this year.
Bank Muamalat to hold $60M rights issue
PT Bank Muamalat,
Muamalat expects its assets to grow around
30% this year and its customer base to grow by at least 30%, around one million
new customers, as it expands its operations, Muamalat's president director
Riawan Amin said.
The cost of the bank's planned expansion may
mean net profit will not grow at all from last year's figure. “We are focusing
now on spreading the network rather than turning a profit this year,” Amin
said.
"It looks like we should do a rights
issue by the end of the year," he said. "We would have to raise about
$60 million."
Bank Muamalat aims to increase its capital
adequacy ratio to about 12% in 2009 from around 10.8% last year.
Bank Muamalat's total assets last year rose
20% to Rp12.67 trillion.
CIMB Niaga credit growth projected at Rp3T
Bank CIMB Niaga credits will expand to Rp3
trillion in 2009, corporate director Chaterinawati Hadiman said on Tuesday,
Antara reported.
"While the total portfolio in 2008 of
the bank’s credits reached more than Rp20 trillion, this year we have projected
the growth at Rp3 trillion," she said.
The bank would be more selective in disbursing
its credits this year in view of the global economic crisis.
"This year, as many people have
predicted, the corporate sector may face heavier pressure, while the number of
non-performing loans may increase," she said.
POWER
PLN resolves problems with Chinese banks
State power company PT PLN says it has resolved
the dispute on loan interest with Chinese banks, the investors in the first
10,000 MW expansion program, with both sides sticking to the terms of the
initial contract, The Jakarta Post
reported.
"In February, there was an issue about
the revision of the terms and conditions of the signed and agreed loans. We
(PLN and Chinese banks) have recently sat together to discuss this matter,
resulting in agreement to stick to the initial commitment," PLN's vice
president Rudiantara told reporters Thursday.
Three Chinese banks have committed to
providing loans amounting to about $1.4 billion for the projects.
Bank of China has agreed to provide $600
million for a power plant in Indramayu, West Java, while China Development Bank
(CDB) will provide a $270 million loan for a power plant in Rembang,
The 10,000 MW program covers the construction
of 35 power plants, 10 of them in Java and
Work on Bukit Asam power plant to start in April
PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam will start
building a $41 million power plant at its concession in
The coal-fired power plant, with a capacity
of 30 MW, will be completed in April 2011, Milawarma, operational director at
Bukit Asam, said on Friday.
The company may save as much as $3.3 million
a year with the new plant, compared with the charges it’s currently paying state
power company PT PLN, Milawarma said.
The company will use internal cash to fund
the project, he said.
Bukit Asam is seeking cheaper electricity
after benchmark coal prices in
OIL
& GAS
Six oil, gas fields expected on stream in 2010
Indonesia expects six oil and gas fields to
start operations in 2010 and these will likely produce a total of 249 million
cubic feet of natural gas a day and 3,785 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil,
Dow Jones reported.
Raden Priyono, chairman of upstream oil and
gas regulator BP Migas, said Thursday the fields include ConocoPhillips’s Bukit
Tua field in Sumatra, Pearl Oil's Ruby field in Kalimantan and the South
Sembakung field in
The other three are the Gajah
Baru-Iguana-Naga field in the
The government and House of Representatives
have set a target of 960,000 bpd of oil for 2009 as output from aging fields
declines, and additional production is only expected to be around 5,336 bpd.
The natural gas output target is 7.53 billion cubic feet a day for 2009.
Around 10 to 15 new oil and gas blocks are
planned to be offered for tender this year.
Three state plantations to build biodiesel plant
Three Indonesian state plantation firms plan
to build a biodiesel factory with a capacity to produce up to 400,000 tons of
palm-based biodiesel a year, a senior government official said on Friday,
Reuters reported.
"The biodiesel industry is new for state
plantation firms. The plantation firms also plan to venture into
bioethanol," said Agus Pakpahan, deputy for agriculture in the State Enterprises
Ministry, adding that certain state enterprises will co-operate to build a
bioethanol facility to produce 800,000 tons of bioethanol.
State plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara
(PTPN) III and its sister companies -- PTPN IV and PTPN V -- plan to set up the
biodiesel plant in northern Sumatra, with construction expected to start this
year or next, said Pakpahan.
This year, 11 state plantation firms are
expected to produce a total of 3 million tons of crude palm oil, or 15% of
Pertamina to upgrade
State-owned oil company Pertamina has renewed
a plan to upgrade its
Pertamina has previously said it wanted to
boost capacity of its 260,000 barrels-per-day (bpd)
"By signing the memorandum of
commitment, Pertamina and those companies will hold further talks on upgrading
Last year, the cost of the project was
estimated at $1.7 billion and Pertamina had previously said it hoped the
upgrade would be complete by 2011.
"Improving the productivity and
flexibility of existing refining capacity and investing in the new capacity is
one of (Pertamina chief) Karen Agustiawan's strategic priorities,"
Pertamina said on its website.
Pertamina has nine refineries in the country
with a combined capacity of around one million barrels per day (bpd) but it
only supplies 70% of domestic oil product consumption.
MINING
Straits
Singapore-listed Straits Asia Resources said
on Friday it may acquire two Indonesian coal mines to achieve its target to
more than double its annual coal production to 20 million tons by 2012, Reuters
reported.
Straits
Ong said the company will start by boosting
its production to 9.5 million tons this year from 8.6 million last year.
"We are not stopping to look into
acquisitions, we may want to select one or two," Ong said, adding that
those acquisitions will be of Indonesian assets.
Straits Asia, with a market cap of $548.6
million, has two coal mines in East Kalimantan and exports most of its output
to power plants in
Thai Unique sets aside $27.6M to acquire coal
mine
Unique Mining Services PCL, a Thai coal
importer and distributor, has set aside $27.6 million to acquire a coal mine in
Indonesia, managing director Chaiwat Cruecha-em said Monday, Dow Jones reported.
The company is negotiating with three to four
miners in Kalimantan and
If a deal is sealed, the company expects to
start operating the acquired mine either in the middle of next year or late
next year, Cruecha-em said.
The company's coal sales in 2009 are
projected to be close to over 1 million tons, a similar level to that in 2008,
but net profit is likely to be lower than the previous year, Cruecha-em said.
Indo Tambangraya profit up four-fold
Coal miner PT Indo Tambangraya Megah reported
a more than four-fold jump in its 2008 net profit driven by higher coal prices,
the company said on Friday, Reuters reported.
The company, which is a unit of
Its revenue rose 71% to $1.32 billion from
$771.82 million in 2007.
Indo Tambangraya owns shares in several
Indonesian coal miners including PT Trubaindo Coal Mining, PT Indominco
Mandiri, PT Kitadin, PT Jorong Barutama Greston and PT Bharinto Ekatama.
Banpu said it sold 18.5 million tons of coal
in 2008 with about 95%, or 17.7 million tons, of coal sales from its Indonesian
mines.
Indo Tambangraya previously said it planned
to spend $200 million this year to finance development projects.
Bayan sees 2009 coal output up 56%
Coal miner PT Bayan Resources expects its
coal production to increase by 56% this year on expansion of its coal mines,
the company said in a statement, Reuters reported.
The increased production would come from its
Firman Ketaun Perkasa mine in
With higher coal production, the company
expects revenue to reach Rp6-6.5 trillion ($500.2 million) this year, up from
Rp4.5-5 trillion in 2008.
The
firm expects to sell 10 million tons of coal this year, up from 6.7 million
tons in 2008. It said demand remained strong and that all coal sales volumes
were fully committed.
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[1] This Trade and Investment News is a publication of the
Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the