May 30, 2010 12:00 AM

JAKARTA, Indonesia — If al-Qaida-linked terrorists thought they could drive foreign investors out of Indonesia, they didn’t reckon with the likes of Jim Castle.

Seven years ago, Castle, a Michigan-born consultant for 100 multinational companies — including Citigroup, Exxon Mobil and Nestle — was having lunch at Jakarta’s JW Marriott hotel when a truck bomb detonated outside the building, killing 12 people and injuring 150. Castle walked away unhurt.

Last July, he was less lucky while hosting a breakfast meeting at the same hotel. Two suicide bombers struck in near-simultaneous blasts at the Marriott and the nearby Ritz-Carlton. Nine people died in the attacks, and Castle clambered from the rubble grazed, dazed and with temporary hearing loss.

A year after that second escape, Castle, 64, continues to do business in Jakarta and shrugs off the dangers he faces.

“More people here die from dengue fever than from terrorist attacks,” he says.

The resilience displayed by Castle, founder of CastleAsia, is paying off as the world’s fourth-most-populous nation — home to the single largest Muslim population — basks in a consumer and resources-driven boom.

Indonesia’s $514 billion economy, the biggest in Southeast Asia, will grow at 6 percent this year, up from 4.5 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund forecast in April. That would make the nation of 240 million the best-performing economy after China and India among the Group of 20 countries — outpacing both Brazil and Russia, the two other emerging giants grouped with China and India as the so-called BRIC economies.

Now, both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley say Indonesia is a contender to be included in the BRIC club. Yet analysts disagree on exactly when the acronym will get an extra I. Chetan Ahya, a Singapore-based managing director at Morgan Stanley, says Indonesia should be considered for BRIC status if gross-domestic-product growth nears 7 percent next year.

Jim O’Neill, the London-based Goldman Sachs chief global economist who came up with the emerging-nation designation, says it will take much longer because he believes a true BRIC economy should be near to 3 percent of global GDP, while Indonesia currently accounts for just 1 percent.

Investors say Indonesia — a lush archipelago of 17,500 islands that stretches like a 3,170-mile chain of stepping stones from the Southeast Asian mainland to northern Australia — is finally unlocking its full potential. The country is the world’s No. 1 exporter of coal used in power stations and contains the largest gold mine and the single largest recoverable copper reserve.

Both president Barack Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a child, and China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, scheduled June visits to Jakarta to strengthen relations. Trade between Indonesia and China more than doubled to $25.5 billion from 2005 to 2009. During the same period, U.S.-Indonesia trade rose about 20 percent to $18 billion.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired general first elected in 2004, heads a government sprinkled with Western-educated technocrats. Under Yudhoyono, 60, foreign direct investment reached $14 billion last year compared with $4.6 billion in 2004.

Yudhoyono is fighting back against Islamist terror factions. Since the attack on Jim Castle’s business breakfast, Indonesian security forces have arrested or killed scores of suspected terrorists. Among the dead: Noordin Mohammad Top, the al-Qaida-linked terror chief who the United States says masterminded both Jakarta hotel attacks and the 2002 nightclub bombings on Bali in which 202 people died.

Investors will soon have the chance to bet on arguably Indonesia’s least-likely success story: PT Garuda Indonesia, the state-owned airline with a once miserable safety record. In 2007, the EU banned the airline from Europe’s airspace on safety grounds after flights operated by Indonesian carriers suffered three fatal air crashes that killed 272 over two years.

Five years ago, Yudhoyono gave Emirsyah Satar, a Paris- educated diplomat’s son, the job of rescuing the airline. He called in foreign experts to audit Garuda’s safety practices, retrained pilots and retired old planes.

The EU flight ban was lifted in July 2009. Now, Garuda is preparing to sell as much as $300 million worth of shares in the third quarter to double the fleet to 116 planes by 2014.

The transformation of an outcast airline into an investment opportunity may be the surest sign yet that Indonesia is ready to join the emerging-market big leagues.

“Indonesia’s potential is dramatic,” says Hugh Young, who helps manage $260 billion, including Indonesian shares, at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore. “It is resource-rich, has lots of people and some of its companies are as good as any you will find in Asia.”

This article adapted from Bloomberg Markets magazine. With assistance from Greg Ahlstrand, Berni Moestafa, Yoga Rusmana, Achmad Sukarsono and Aloysius Unditu in Jakarta, Netty Ismail in Singapore and David Ellis in London.

Source :

By William Mellor

Bloomberg News

Ever since Facebook was founded in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, has pushed its users to share more information about themselves. Time and again, users have pushed back, complaining that some new feature or setting on the site violated their privacy.

But the reaction has rarely been as strong as in the past few weeks, as users, privacy advocates and government officials in many countries lobbed increasingly vociferous complaints against the company. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg unveiled a set of controls he said would help people better understand what they were sharing online, and with whom.

The back and forth between Facebook and its users over privacy is gaining importance as the company’s growth continues unabated. It now has nearly 500 million users around the world, and its policies, more than those of any other company, are helping to define standards for privacy in the Internet age.

The new settings will simplify a system that required users to sort through about 150 options.

“Facebook is trying to change privacy on the Internet, and users are pushing back,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which recently filed a complaint about Facebook’s privacy practices with the US Federal Trade Commission. “This is about who controls the disclosure of data. Facebook cannot make that decision for users.”

Rotenberg and other privacy advocates said the changes that Facebook announced on Wednesday were generally positive, but they said they hoped for further changes and for more oversight from the US Congress and regulators.

Zuckerberg announced the changes during a press conference at Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California. He appeared contrite and conceded mistakes, but did not apologize to users.

The latest crisis for Facebook began to build shortly after its conference for software developers in late April, where it unveiled new features and a plan to extend Facebook functions across the Web.

The company argued, as it has for some time, that more and broader sharing made the site better for everyone. While getting more information about users also helps Facebook customize the advertising it displays, Zuckerberg said none of the changes affecting privacy were financially motivated.

Some critics say the company was slow to respond to the resulting criticisms. But internally a debate was brewing, with some executives arguing that Facebook might be able to get away with making no changes to the site, said employees who asked not to be named.

Earlier user rebellions had eventually died down, and despite some defections publicized by technology weblogs, Facebook users were not canceling their accounts any more than at any other time.

But eventually the amount of bad publicity became impossible to ignore.

“No one likes to see the amount of feedback that we are getting,” Zuckerberg said. “A lot of the blogs and feedback were really negative.”

Zuckerberg said Facebook’s biggest mistake was failing to notice that as it added new features and its privacy controls grew increasingly complicated, those controls in effect became unusable for many people. “We probably should have been more sensitive to this issue beforehand,” he said.

Zuckerberg, 26, said the crisis was challenging, but not as stressful as fending off billion-dollar acquisition offers from the likes of Yahoo and Viacom when he was 22. “That was definitely the most stressful situation I had at the company.”

During the news conference, Zuckerberg said this would be the last overhaul to privacy controls for a while. He said the preferences that a user expressed with the new settings would apply to all future products and site changes.

“The big takeaway is, don’t mess with the privacy stuff for a long time.”

The New York Times

Serena Williams overcame a second-set slump and an apparent illness to beat 18-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 on Saturday and reach the fourth round of the French Open.
 
Williams lost five games in a row in the second set and then needed a trainer to come out during a changeover to check her temperature and give her pills before a third-set surge.

There was no prescription to help Andy Roddick, who lost to qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Roddick threw rackets and argued with the umpire, but the fits of temper failed to produce a turnaround against an opponent ranked 114th.

The top-ranked Williams appeared in danger when she fell behind 5-love in the second set and summoned the trainer. Soon Williams’ court movement improved, her strokes steadied and she advanced to the fourth round.

“Doesn’t matter the score, especially against her,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “She’s a good fighter. She’s really confident and she is Serena.”

The seesaw victory assured Williams of retaining the No. 1 ranking after the tournament.

Other winners included Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and wild card Jarmila Groth of Australia, with both advancing to the fourth round at a major tournament for the first time. No. 18-seeded Shahar Peer and No. 23 Daniela Hantuchova also won.

In the completion of suspended matches, Russians Mikhail Youzhny and Nadia Petrova won. Youzhny, seeded 11th, defeated Viktor Troicki 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-3. Petrova, seeded 19th, edged No. 15 Aravane Rezai of France, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 10-8.

Petrova plays Venus Williams next.

Associated Press, Paris | Sat, 05/29/2010 9:46 PM | Sports

Diehard fans mobbed Apple stores in Asia and Europe as the iPad tablet computer went on sale outside the United States for the first time on Friday.

The device, a little smaller than a letter-size sheet and with a color touchscreen, is designed for surfing the Web, watching movies and reading. It has been hailed by the publishing industry as a potential life-saver.

Apple has sold a million iPads in the United States since its April 3 debut, exceeding the most bullish pre-launch estimates. Demand was so heavy the company delayed the international launch by a month.

RBC Capital Markets estimated the iPad’s total shipments would reach 8.13 million units worldwide by the end of the year.

“I wanted to touch it as soon as possible. I felt real excitement when it was finally in my hands,” said Takechiyo Yamanaka, 19, who had camped out in front of Tokyo’s flagship Apple store on Wednesday evening to be the first in line.

In Indonesia, no date has been set for the launch of the iPad, but gadget buffs are already able to buy it on the gray market. Dwi S, a store manager at EMAX, Apple’s official retailer, said she was expecting delivery of the iPad some time around September.

She expected the price to be about Rp 7 million ($756) for the Wi-Fi model to Rp 10 million for the top-of-the-line 3G version.

Hoesin, who owns a small electronics store in Plaza Semanggi shopping mall, said he had sold two “black market” iPads brought in by friends from the United States over the past month. He said he sold the devices, which did not come with official warranties, for about Rp 7.5 million each.

Another small vendor, Andi, said he had two gray-market iPads in stock. “The demand is not high compared with other products. But we try to have it available if someone wants to buy it,” Andi said, adding that he had sold three iPads in the past month.

Meanwhile in Munich, Anna Kistner said as she emerged from an Apple store with two iPads: “It’s a bit of a gut decision, an emotional decision, because it’s not really rationally justifiable. It’s a lot of money.”

The iPad is now on sale in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Britain, Japan and Australia, and went on sale in Canada late on Friday. Prices for the cheapest version range from $499 in the United States to the equivalent of $617 in Britain.

The buzz around the iPad helped propel Apple past Microsoft this week to become the world’s most valuable technology stock, a remarkable turnaround of a company that nearly went out of business in the 1990s. Inter­national sales are increasingly important to Apple, which now gets almost three-fifths of its revenue outside the United States.

It is counting on its pre-existing base of fans as rivals line up with their own tablet offerings.

Dell’s Streak tablet computer will go on sale next month in Britain. Sony and Hewlett-Packard also have tablets in the works.

In London, the circus-like atmosphere that has become traditional at Apple product launches prevailed.

“Jake! Jake! Jake!” Apple store staff chanted as Jake Lee, a 17-year-old student who had waited 20 hours entered the store.

“This is ridiculous, amazing. I can’t believe it,” he said, adding that the first thing he wanted to do when he got home was sleep — and then play with the iPad.

Apple has yet to announce a launch date for mainland China, where bootleg versions are being snapped up.

Faisal Maliki Baskoro & Reuters | The Jakarta Post

Red Bull maintained its perfect qualifying record on Saturday as Mark Webber edged Lewis Hamilton of McLaren to start the Turkish Grand Prix from pole position.

It is Webber’s third straight pole as the overall Formula One leader goes for a third consecutive race victory. Red Bull has taken pole in all seven races this season.

Webber set a new qualifying record with a lap of 1 minute, 26.295 seconds around the Istanbul Park Circuit to lead Hamilton by less than two-tenths of a second.

Sebastian Vettel starts third after locking up his Red Bull during his final flying lap. Defending champion Jenson Button of McLaren completes the second row.

Fernando Alonso, Red Bull’s closest competitor in the drivers’ standings, starts 12th for Ferrari.

Associated Press, Istanbul | Sat, 05/29/2010 8:02 PM | Sports

Source: Channel News Asia

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, dropped 1.46 dollars to close at 68.75 dollars a barrel, off an intraday low of 67.15 dollars.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for July shed 1.62 dollars to settle at 69.55 dollars.

Earlier Brent tumbled to 68.15 dollars, the futures contract’s lowest level since early February.

Prestige Economics analyst Jason Schenker said the sell-off was driven by “continued market concerns about sovereign debt.”

Financial markets, rocked by fresh turmoil in the Spanish banking sector, were grappling with the prospect of severe austerity measures in the eurozone that could slam the brakes on the fragile global economic recovery.

Fears that contagion from Greece’s sovereign debt crisis could spread to other vulnerable eurozone members were heightened by the Spanish government’s bailout of a regional savings bank, Cajasur, over the weekend.

Adding to market tensions was a growing face-off on the divided Korean Peninsula. North Korea said on Tuesday it was severing all ties with South Korea and cutting communications links in protest at Seoul’s claims that it had torpedoed one of its warships.

Investors sought shelter from the uncertainty, seeking the relative safe haven of the dollar and US government bonds. The strengthening dollar made dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers using weakening currencies, curbing demand.

The European single currency sank as low as 1.2178 dollars as the US unit attracted investors searching for a safe haven. That was not far from the four-year low of 1.2144 dollars that was struck last week.

“Concerns about the pace and recovery of the global economy remain one of the critical factors behind the pressure” on oil prices, said analysts at JBC Energy consultancy in Vienna.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is “not yet” concerned by the decline of oil prices below 70 dollars a barrel, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said on Tuesday.

“Not yet,” Sheikh Ahmad told reporters when asked if OPEC was worried. “So what?” he added.

The Kuwaiti minister, whose country is OPEC’s fifth-largest producer, said that at present the cartel does not need to hold an emergency meeting to discuss prices.

“We only ask for more compliance” with production quotas, he said, adding that he hoped oil prices would stabilise in a range between 75 and 85 dollars. – AFP/de

May 25, 2010

US companies were interested in clean-energy partnerships with their Indonesian counterparts, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said on Tuesday.

Visiting Indonesia on an Asian tour aimed at promoting clean-energy opportunities, Locke said he envisioned Indonesia would play a leading role in the world’s sustainable-energy sector.

“The future of the global economy, including Indonesia, depends on how it can fulfill the demand for clean energy as we progress into the 21st century,” he said.

Locke was accompanied by executives from 10 US energy companies, including Caterpillar, General Electric, Oshkosh and Peabody Energy.

He met with senior Indonesian officials, including the trade minister and the coordinating minister for the economy.

“The closed meeting between the minister and the US commerce secretary focused on the energy sector, and each minister outlined their policies related to climate change,” Development Planning Minister Armida Alisjahbana said.

Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu added that several US companies were interested in investing in clean energy in Indonesia. However, she declined to name to firms.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said US investors had shown interest in investing in small-scale power generation plants and geothermal energy.

Mari said that Indonesia needed to make the transition to using mostly clean energy, such as geothermal, biofuels, solar and wind power, to achieve the national target of reducing green-house emissions by 20 percent by 2020.

“However there needs to be solid foreign investment in promoting clean energy use here, because without it, the transition would be hard financially, and could result in job losses,” Mari said.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

Camelia Pasandaran & Ismira Lutfia

President Barack Obama’s long-awaited return to Indonesia is scheduled for June 14, the US State Department announced on its Web site, but officials in Jakarta couldn’t confirm the date.

Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said on Tuesday that the palace did not yet know when Obama would arrive. “So I can’t comment on others’ statement about it,” he said, adding that the comprehensive partnership agreement Obama and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were due to sign during the visit was still being drafted. “It’s not final yet so I can’t tell you the details. We will announce it ahead of the visit.”

US Embassy spokesman Paul Belmont said “no exact dates have been announced, just mid-June.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said it was unclear whether Indonesia or Australia would be Obama’s first stop on his trip to the region.

He added that he was unsure whether migrant workers issues would be part of the partnership agreement. “But it is an important issue for our country and we share common concerns on human trafficking,” he said.

Visiting last week, US Under Secretary of State Maria Otero met with officials and representatives of international nonprofit organizations working to combat trafficking here.

Obama’s visit to Indonesia, where he spent a few years of his childhood, had initially been set for March but was postponed so he could focus on pushing a landmark health reform bill through US Congress.

It was not known whether first lady Michele Obama and their two daughters would also come.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

24 May 2010

Australia and Indonesia have further cemented cooperation on scholarships and climate change with the signing today of two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU).

Both governments will support up to 20 Fiscal Policy Office officials from the Ministry of Finance to undertake post-graduate study in Australia and Indonesia.  The scholarship program will see the selected officials earn joint masters degrees in applied economics from Gadjah Mada University and an Australian university.

Signing the MoU with Indonesia’s Fiscal Policy Office, Australia’s Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Robilliard, said he’s confident the new scholarships will help accelerate Indonesian economic development.

“Australia is proud to support Indonesia’s investment in human resources, particularly in the field of economics and public policy,” said Mr Robilliard. “It will help improve their decision-making and policy advice abilities.”

The two countries have also signed an MoU to implement the Climate Change Green Paper strategy developed by the Fiscal Policy Office with Australian support.  It outlines a long term strategic framework and concrete strategies for economic and fiscal policies on climate change.

The Australian Government and the Fiscal Policy Office have agreed to work together to:

• strengthen Fiscal Policy Office capacity to provide advice on climate change policy
• assist with the implementation of geothermal policies to promote the development of this sector
• and develop appropriate financing mechanisms designed to deliver tangible climate change outcomes and link to global initiatives promoting climate change mitigation.

Australia’s support is part of the five year, A$2.5 billion, Australia Indonesia Partnership.

VIVAnews – European leader in hotels, Accor, will built 16 new hotels in Indonesia spreading across archipelago in Padang, Surabaya, Manado, Balikpapan, Kuta, Denpasar, Jakarta, and Bangka.

Accor Asia Pacific Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, Michael Issenberg, said the new hotels will be ready before 2012.

“The growth in Indonesian economy will add to the volume of domestic tourists,” he said today, May 25.

Today, Accor runs 39 hotels in Indonesia, which will grow to 40 by the end of the year. “Later in 2012, Accor will have 55 hotels in Indonesia,” he said.

The additional 16 hotels (4,400 rooms) will cause Accor to have 9,500 rooms.

Ibis was the first brand established in Indonesia before Accor finally developed other brands like All Seasons, Mercure, Novotel, and Pullman.

Source: Viva news.com