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For full story please visit the original source: VIVA News
VIVAnews – The modern national retail market will be penetrated by two retail giants, UK-based Tesco and US-based Walmart. The foreign penetration in the retail sector is seen improving according to the Indonesian Association of Retailers (Aprindo) chairperson Benjamin J. Mailool.
“We cannot limit the foreign players to enter our retail sector and this trend is inevitable,” he said in Jakarta on Tuesday nught, Nov. 17.
Walmart and Tesco have listed Indonesia as one of the important destination countries for their future investments. “It is a matter of time [since] Indonesia is now seen as [an expansion destination] for them,” he said.
Mailool predicted that Walmart and Tesco will enter the Indonesian market through merger system. “If they directly set up new [outlets], it will be difficult,” he said.
For full story please visit the original source: The West Australian
While never being a fully committed card-carrying "I don't do Bali" traveller, Ray Wilson determined that his previous trip to Bali in 1992 might well have been his last.
Recently, however, he gave it one more shot - and this is what he discovered in his A-to-Z re-awakening.
Accents: Isn't it funny, the only time I get irritated with the Aussie drawl is when a foreigner tries it on. Remember Meryl Streep playing Lindy Chamberlain in Evil Angels? Terrible. Unfortunately in the back lanes of Kuta and Legian in particular, some of the local store holders bark entreaties in an accent broader than any you'd find in Meekatharra. But I'm told that to be teased in Bali is to be accepted, so maybe I've read it wrong.
…………………..
Zebra crossings: They exist in Bali and on the major roads around the Kuta strip to Seminyak, but don't bet your life on the road rules bearing any semblance to ours. The worst drivers in Bali are young Australians on scooters or motorbikes. Mad Max and Casey Stoner all rolled into one. And, it's not as if the police are there as any great deterrent. One driver told us that it was compulsory to wear seatbelts in cars - there are none in backseats of cabs - and while the fine was around $120 in a court, the "pocket" fine was only $12. Enough said.
For full story & graphics please visit the original source: Bali Discovery
-F.A.A. Offers Technical Assistance to Indonesian Government and Garuda to Help Restart Flight Service to the U.S. West Coast.
Bisnis Indonesia reports that the U.S. Government has invited Garuda Indonesia to re-open its long-abandoned direct flights between the U.S.A. and Indonesia with assistance from the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA).
Garuda terminated its flights to Los Angeles in mid-1998 that operated on a route that traveled in both directions between Jakarta - Bali - Biak - Honolulu - Los Angeles.
The Minister of Transportation for Indonesia, Freddy Numberi, told the press that the U.S. invitation was delivered by U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R. Hume after Indonesian aviation was moved from a cautionary category II rating to the more exemplary category I rating. Said Numberi, "this offer looks to be a good opportunity for Garuda and all of Indonesia."
For full story & graphics please visit the original source: Trustnet
Indonesia has proved an unlikely investment opportunity in the last ten years, or is the real winner volatility?
In the past 12 months the Indonesian index returned 107.24 per cent. Compare that with MSCI Thailand returning 53.33 per cent, MSCI Singapore 49.95 per cent, and MSCI Malaysia 46.66 per cent.
But, before betting the farm on this market rather than its neighbours or the typical portfolio core of UK equities and fixed income, it is worthwhile taking a look at what level of volatility investors were required to put up with in order to achieve such returns. Over the past three years this has clearly been the case.
Financial Express data suggests annual volatility for the MSCI Indonesia index was 42.68 per cent, set against an annual return of 22.95 per cent.
Compare that with the far lower volatility of 20.46 per cent for MSCI Malaysia against annual return of 19.85 – ie, not far off its neighbour. However, over the past decade Indonesia has still done better on this basis. Annual return averaged 14.22 per cent with volatility of 38.53 per cent, against return of 2.3 per cent and volatility of 28.27 per cent for Malaysia.
Thus, one could argue that the long term investor in the country has not necessarily had to take on much more risk in order to get superior returns against other markets nearby.
Unfortunately, it is not all that easy to buy into the country via country specific funds – beyond exposure gained through broader regionally focused ones.
Filtering out those with less than a 50 per cent weighting to the country leaves just seven to consider. One of these is Aberdeen’s US listed closed ended Indonesia fund, which came to it by way of the purchase of Credit Suisse assets earlier this year.
What is noteable is investors will have to look to the offshore funds universe. Ignoring the country on that basis would, though, be missing a number of points. Indonesia is one of the world’s most populous countries; it is next door to one of the strongest growing OECD members – Australia, which raised interest rates for the second time in two months last week – and serves as a resources provider for big importers such as China. The country’s GDP is projected by the IMF to grow 4 per cent in real terms through 2009, and 4.8 per cent in 2010.
Dhananjay Phadnis, manager of the Fidelity Indonesia fund, outlined two key changes in a recent note. The currency has appreciated, helped in part by rating agency Moody's upgrade to the country's sovereign debt by one notch to Ba2. The other was the re-elected government taking office in October, with promises of employment generation and infrastructure development leading Phadnis to increase real estate exposure.
"The Indonesian stock market does not look cheap in the Asian context, however, the lowering of input prices due to a strong rupiah and a recovery in demand will likely provide scope for earnings to surprise on the upside when companies report their third quarter performance," Phadnis wrote.
Original source: Kompas.com
The value of stagnant credit or non-performing loan (NPL) for credit cards is still high. Based on the Indonesian Banking Statistics (SPI), the value of credit card NPL per September 2009 is Rp. 2.95 trillion, or 8.7 percent of the total outstanding credit that reaches Rp 33.63 trillion.
Since July 2009, the credit card NPL value has seemed reluctant to go below 8 percent. Per August, the NPL ratio was still 8.8 percent with the value of Rp. 2.89 trillion and total credit of Rp. 32.82 trillion.
Business Director of PT Bank UOB, Buana Safrullah Hadi Saleh said, the high NPL for credit cards is due to banks being more aggressive in persuading customers to use credit cards. "This is evident from the ease of the process to issue a new credit card. Sometimes without selecting the customer," he said.
According to Safrullah, the NPL ratio for credit cards that exceeds 8 percent is a warning for banks to be more careful in issuing new credit cards, "The normal NPL for credit cards should be around 7 to 8 percent," said Safrullah.
Mansyur S. Nasution, Executive Vice President for Consumer Credit of Mandiri Bank, affirmed Safrullah's opinion. "If the credit card NPL was lower, banks would be safer. The credit card business then could run better," he said.
Though the NPL value as stated by SPI is still high, our interviewed banker stated that the NPL in their establishment is low. In Mandiri Bank for instance, Mansyur said that the NPL ratio per September 2009 is only 2.74 percent.
Meanwhile, UOB Buana, having issued 170,000 Platinum credit cards, confessed that their NPL ranges from 3 to 4 percent. "Most of our customers can still fulfill their obligations," said Safrullah.
The same goes for Citibank that has issued 1.6 million credit cards in Indonesia. Citibank Country Marketing Head, Rico Frans, stated the bank had not seen any increase on NPL.
"Our NPL is still in the low single digit and still stable since last April," he stated. Strict requirements for credit cards and annual debtors' review are the keys to suppress credit card NPL
For full story please visit the original source: GlobalPost/ Sara Schonhardt
Would you buy a burger from a one-eyed pirate named Toni Jack? That's the hope of one Indonesian entrepreneur, whose roguish answer to Ronald McDonald also claims his burgers are “better than that one.”
The slogan is Bambang Rachmadi’s attempt to differentiate his new brand from the world’s largest hamburger chain – a company he held majority rights to until McDonald’s sold his stake in March.
Bambang, the self-described hamburger king of Indonesia, claims he was not notified of the sale of his $135 million in assets, which a company spokeswoman described as “personal." He is pursuing legal action against the corporate behemoth.
In the meantime, Bambang has transformed his 13 owner-operated McDonald’s into Toni Jack’s, a step he said was necessary to save the jobs of about 800 employees.
So last month, a McDonald's in central Jakarta disappeared under a black tarp with the Tony Jack’s logo: a pirate whose hat bears a burger crossed by a fork and spoon.
The 97 McDonald’s restaurants that remain in Indonesia now belong to sole franchisee PT Sinar Sosro, producers of the country’s leading bottled tea brand. Sinar Sosro says it aims to open as many as 75 new restaurants over the next five years, which helps sweeten the new partnership
Toni Jack’s has continued that approach with a menu that — despite the lack of halal labeling — is nearly identical to McDonald’s. But according to company spokeswoman Tetty Hutapea, the taste is "different."
“The meat is not good, and there are fewer choices for burgers,” said Aouini Nabil, a security guard from Paris, while poking at the remains of the chicken burger on his tray. His fiance Rento Utami said Toni Jack’s seemed to draw fewer customers, particularly teenagers and tourists.
A Spanish Embassy worker who entered the restaurant thinking it was still McDonald’s said he was surprised by the change but decided to give Toni Jack’s a try because he was short on time. Although he finished his burger, he said the taste was "not great."
Others were more positive about the switch. Fransesko Laban, an employee with an international NGO, stayed to do some work after finishing his Chicken Jack meal. He said he prefers Toni Jack’s to McDonald’s because it is clean and smoke free.
Bambang also plans to open several new branches in the year ahead, with a goal to franchise the restaurant to other countries in 2014.
For now, spokeswoman Tetty Hutapea said it’s too early to gauge Toni Jack’s sales performance but said that business is “stable.”
The loss of 13 restaurants may not make much of a dent in the global presence of McDonald’s, which operates 31,000 around the world. But it doesn’t do much for the company’s image in a region where it has faced more than one legal tussle recently..
For full story please visit the original source: Antara News
Japanese automotive company Suzuki plans to relocate its motorcycle plant from Thailand to Indonesia in 2010, citing the huge market as one of its reasons.
"Suzuki originally wanted to develop (motorcycle industry) in Thailand but it later decided to switch to Indonesia," PT Suzuki Indomobil Motor (SIM) President Director Yoshiji Terada said.
The other reasons behind the company`s plan to relocate the plant were that Indonesia had large oil/gas, non-oil/non-gas potentials and high demand for transportation means, he said.
Previously, Terada said the company would raise its investment in Indonesia by US$50 million to increase its production capacity by 40 percent next year.
PT SIM would also launch at least seven new types of motorcycles, including those of skutic type. But most of the new products would be underbone and backbone motorcycles, he said.
Original source (click to view full story): eTN News
Garuda Indonesia will return to Europe beginning June 1, 2010 after an absence of five years. The introduction of daily services from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Dubai marks a significant step forward in the airline's global network expansion strategy. Amsterdam will be the first of a number of key European cities such as Frankfurt, Paris, and London. Garuda Indonesia has planned for its European expansion over the next few years.
The Amsterdam route will initially be serviced by the airline's fleet of technically advanced A330-200 aircraft, featuring Garuda's new exterior and interior design inspired by the energy of nature's wings. In executive class, the aircraft offers fully-reclining, flat-bed seats with 74-inch seat pitch. The A330-200s will operate in a two-class configuration carrying 222 passengers, with 36 in executive class and 186 in economy class.
Garuda Indonesia currently has 10 Boeing 777-300ERs aircraft on order for delivery commencing 2011, which will then allow the airline to operate non-stop from Jakarta into Europe.
The new A330-200 aircraft features individual touch-screen LCD screens in all classes; the state of art inflight entertainment system with Audio & Video On Demand (AVOD) delivers a choice of 25 feature films, 250 audio tracks, and 25 video games.
Effective from June 1, 2010, the planned schedule is: Garuda (GA88) departing Jakarta (CGK) at 2100 WIB (GA88) arriving Dubai (DXB) at 0209 LT, departing at 0315 LT and arriving in Amsterdam (SPL) at 0800 LT. From Amsterdam (GA 89) departs at 1000 LT, arriving in Dubai at 1830 LT, departing again at 1945 LT and arriving in Jakarta at 0710 WIB. Fares to and from Dubai and Amsterdam will be announced shortly.
For full story please visit the original Source: Los Angeles Times/John M. Glionna
Ramlan, who was working in Padang, Sumatra, when the 7.6 quake struck, knew he didn't want to die there. Now a celebrity, he says he merely 'did what I had to do to stay alive.'
Reporting from Galudra, Indonesia - The teenager lay dazed amid the settling dust and debris, his leg trapped by a fallen concrete wall. He sensed that he was going to die. So he made a decision: He would cut off his own limb to save his life. Ignoring the major blood loss, taking deep breaths as he concentrated on the terrible task at hand, the 18-year-old construction worker cut halfway through his right leg just below the kneecap.
Finally, too weak to continue, he begged for help, and a fellow worker finished the job for him in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck Sumatra in September.
"I didn't want to die in that place," said the teenager, who goes by one name, Ramlan. "I did what I had to do to stay alive."
Every disaster delivers its own tales of bravery and superhuman strength. Amid the news reports of his exploits, Ramlan has become a hero across Indonesia, a survivor whose sheer will to live drove him to do the unthinkable.
Indonesia, which has seen a flood of foreign investment this year, is edging closer to securing an investment-grade ratings status for the first time since the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998.
Standard & Poor's on Friday revised its outlook on Indonesia's sovereign debt rating to positive from stable, citing expected improvements in the country's debt profile following economic reforms.
A fund manager at PIMCO said in a report that Indonesia could regain its high-grade status in 3-4 years as long as government policies focus on long-term growth.
An high-grade rating would mean increased investment by funds that, according to their mandate, can only buy high-grade rated debt.
For S&P and Fitch, the lowest investment-grade credit rating before junk is BBB-minus. For Moody's it is Baa3.
History of Indonesia's sovereign debt ratings…(see the source)
SEE ALSO:
S&P ups Indonesia rating outlook to positive – Alibaba News/Reuters
Pimco Says Indonesia May Win Investment Grade Rating - Bloomberg
Source (click to view full story): MoneyWeek
Just over a decade ago, Indonesia was considered "a basket-case", says The Economist. It faced economic collapse after the Asian crisis hammered companies overexposed to foreign-currency debt and caused the banking system to implode. Meanwhile, political chaos also appeared on the cards.
But now Indonesia has become a "stable, largely peaceful" democracy. It is also widely seen as an extra 'I' in the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) group of fast-growing emerging markets. Along with rising global risk appetite, this helps explain why the Jakarta Composite index is Asia's best-performing market this year, up 123% in dollar terms.
Indonesia is helped by the fact that, unlike in most Asian countries, growth is propelled largely by domestic demand – exports comprise just 25% of GDP. This appears to be picking up again, with bank loans up 14.6% year-on-year in July. Sound management over the past few years has also put the economy on a more solid footing.
Keeping a tight lid on spending has helped lower debt quickly: public debt has fallen from 80% in 1999 to just over 30% by the end of last year. Companies have trimmed borrowings too: corporate debt is down from almost 50% of GDP to 15%. Lower debt has also reduced interest rates across the economy, cutting the cost of borrowing to invest.
That bodes well for the long term, and there are further reasons for optimism. Indonesia is resource-rich, with exports including palm oil, cocoa, coffee, coal and oil….
Source: (click to view full assessment): The Economist
Optimism abounded when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (pictured) was re-elected Indonesian president in July in a landslide. Analysts at home and abroad hoped he would use his strong mandate to appoint a more reform-minded cabinet for his second five-year term. No longer would the former general be beholden to venal political parties. Competent technocrats would take over to drive the nation on, lifting its annual growth rates from an average of 5-6% in his first term to his target of 7%. Boosting optimism, his Democratic Party had soared on his coat-tails to become the biggest party in parliament.
Mr Yudhoyono, however, has been reading a different script. Twenty out of the 37 cabinet-level appointments the president announced on October 21st are from parties that have promised support in parliament. Hardly any of these are seen as experienced managers, let alone competent ones. A conspicuous number have no background relevant to their portfolios.
As in his first five years, the president looks as if he will rely on sound, strong, technocrat-led monetary and fiscal policy and hope it will translate into higher rates of growth. But that did not really happen in the more benign global environment of his first term, so it is hard to see why it should now. Simply muddling along in areas such as infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and mines and energy might keep Indonesia’s economic growth at present, respectable levels. But it is unlikely to help South-East Asia’s largest economy catch up with faster-growing China and India. With luck, the legacy of the Yudhoyono decade may be a strengthened democracy; it seems unlikely to be a transformed economy…
SEE ALSO:
Source (click to view full report): PacNet #69 - CSIS Center for Strategic and International Studies
By Alphonse F. La Porta
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, familiarly known as SBY, will be inaugurated for a second term on Oct. 20, 2009. As the first democratically elected president and the first to be elected to a second term, SBY has opportunities that no other Indonesian leader has had. Yudhoyono can achieve greatness in domestic and international terms and lead his country into a new era of committed democracy.
Source (click to view full story): Xinhua News
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in for his second term of 2009-2014 in a respect inauguration ceremony attended by several friendly heads of states and foreign country special envoys.
Vice President Boediono was also sworn in the ceremony, which was chaired by the Upper House's chairman Taufik Kiemas and attended by 647 members of the institution.
Following the opening speech, an official from the General Elections Commission read the agency's ruling related to the result of the elections.
"We decided that the pair of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono achieved 73,874,562 votes or 60.80 percent of total 121,504,581 votes," said the official.
As part of the inauguration ceremony, Yudhoyono and Boediono took oaths as president and vice president.
"For God's sake, I swear that I will do my jobs as best and fair as possible. I will strongly conduct mandate from the 1945 Constitution and other rules and I will be loyal to the nation and the country," said Yudhoyono.
The oath was followed by Vice President Boediono with the same sentences.
After signing the official report of the inauguration, Yudhoyono gave his speech as the president for his second term of 2009-2014…
Source (click to view): Xinhua News
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono confirmed that his rival party in the presidential election, the Golkar Party, has joined coalition of political parties that support him in his second term ending in 2014, local media reported here Thursday.
Speaking in a press conference held in his private residence in Cikeas, West Java, on Wednesday night, the president said he has received the pledge of Golkar Party's newly-elected Chairman Aburizal Bakrie to stay in the cabinet and coalesce with Susilo's Democratic Party in the parliament.
"As of tonight our coalition has consisted of six parties," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
The parties he mentioned include the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
The president said he was yet to receive coalition commitment from the other rivaling political parties in the July 8 presidential election.
"I respect the PDIP (Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle), Gerindra (Great Indonesia Movement Party) and Hanura (People's Conscience Party), who have chosen not to coalesce with us, though I heard not all of them will become an opposition," he said.
With the support of six political parties, the president camp in the parliament would occupy 422 of the 560 seats in the parliament.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to be sworn in as Indonesia president for the period of 2009 - 2014 on Oct. 20. He will announce his cabinet members on Oct. 21.
SEE ALSO:
Indonesia's Democratic Party secures 3 chairmanships of 11 commissions in parliament – People’s Daily
Source (click to view): Xinhua News
Of 66 countries across the world, Indonesia's Information Technology (IT) competitiveness rating downed to 59 this year from 58 last year, according to the result of a survey released here on Wednesday (Oct 14).
The result of the survey, that was carried out by Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) and Business Software Alliance (BSA), also disclosed that Indonesia only obtained an index score of 22.8 in the survey, made it ranked at number 15 in the Asia Pacific region.
"The index score of most Asia Pacific countries were apparently down if compared to the scores they obtained last year," Claro Parlede, BSA Software Policy Director for Asia Pacific region was quoted by the Detik.com as saying.
Australia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea were regarded the most IT competitive in the Asia Pacific region, the survey result said.
With index score of 68.7, the United States still tops the rank in the survey that has been conducted in the last three years.
Source: (click to view): eTravel Balckboard, and www.Wotif.com
Wotif Group, operator of leading online travel brands in the Asia Pacific region, last Friday (9 October 2009) held their inaugural Indonesia Hotel Awards in popular island destination, Bali.
Set to be held annually, the Wotif Group Indonesia Hotel Awards aim to recognise top hotel partners who have attracted the most travellers through the Group's accommodation sites - Wotif.com, AsiaWebDirect.com and LateStays.com - in the past twelve months. The Awards ceremony was a resounding success, with over 60 hoteliers and hotel executives gathered at a champagne breakfast event at the Oceans 27 boutique lounge on Kuta's beachfront to celebrate the successes of their peers.
Sii Eawsakul, Wotif Group's Executive General Manager for Asia, said, "Despite turbulent events in recent months, Indonesia, with Bali in particular, is a highly resilient market with great growth potential. We are thrilled at this opportunity to demonstrate our confidence in the country's travel industry, and our appreciation for our hotel partners."
"Indonesia remains a key growth market for Wotif Group, and we are set to ramp up our presence in the country with the opening of a new office in Bali very soon. We continue to support our hoteliers' marketing efforts by promoting Indonesia as a tourism and travel destination, and by working closely with them to offer ever more attractive deals to the more than 7.5 million consumers who visit our sites every month," she added.
Award categories included Top Achievers - hotels who produced the most room nights for the three Wotif Group brands - and Top Producers - hotels who generated the most revenue from the Wotif Group brands*. The winners were:
Top Achievers FY 08/09 (room nights)
1. The Bali Dream Villa
2. Aston Bali Resort & Spa
3. Febri's Hotel & Spa
Top Producers FY 08/09 (revenue)
1. The Bali Dream Villa
2. Aston Bali Resort & Spa
3. The Sanyas Suite
Awards were also presented to Best Newcomers for each brand - signifying hotels that had signed up on a Wotif Group brand during the year and generated the most room night sales per month since listing. Indonesia's Best Newcomers were:
Wotif.com Best Newcomer FY 08/09
Padma Resort Bali at Legian
LateStays.com Best Newcomer FY 08/09
The Bali Dream Suite Villa
Asia Web Direct Best Newcomer FY 08/09
Melia Benoa
Compiled from various sources (click to view): Japan Today, and Times Online. Photo: detik.com
A Japanese porn star has canceled a trip to predominantly Muslim Indonesia to act in a no-nudity comedy after sparking outrage from religious groups, producers said Wednesday.
Maxima Pictures pulled plans to film “Kidnapping Miyabi” in Indonesia and is scouting for an alternative location, said executive producer Yoen K.
Maria Ozawa, popularly known as Miyabi, was scheduled to arrive Wednesday (Oct 14) to begin production. The 23-year-old was “sad and disappointed to hear so many people opposed her visit,” he said.
Over the years various foreigners have been banned from entering Indonesia, but Maria Ozawa does not look like an obvious candidate for the blacklist.
A shapely 23-year old of mixed Japanese and Canadian parentage, she is not a terrorist, journalist, or a convicted criminal. But Ozawa has been forced to cancel her arrival in Jakarta today in a row that has drawn in Islamic fundamentalists, feminists and plenty of people in between.
Better known by her acting name Miyabi, Ozawa is one of Asia’s most successful pornographic film actresses. Although little known in the West, she has surpassed even acting legends such as Pamela Anderson as the most searched for celebrity on Indonesia’s internet version of Google. But news of her plans to work in Indonesia have stirred up angry protests from conservative Islamic organisations in the latest round in an ongoing debate about sexual morality.
Ironically the film project which was to have brought Ozawa to Indonesia was one that required her to keep on all her clothes. She had been invited by the producers of Kidnapping Miyabi, a comedy about a group of teenagers obsessed with Ozawa’s work who “accidentally kidnap” her as she is attempting to escape from a mob of fans. The screenplay ends happily with the adult star settling down in Jakarta, where she opens a lingerie shop.
Yoen said discussions were ongoing with religious organizations, but added it was wrong to prevent someone from acting in film, rather than judging the final product.
One of the most vocal opponents has been the influential Indonesian Ullema Council, a board of Muslim clerics, which has consistently opposed Ozawa’s visit over fears it will damage the country’s image.
“Come or not, we continue to reject her,” said Ma’ruf Amin, a prominent member of the council, known by its Indonesian acronym MUI. “We will continue to reject her even if she will not be nude.”
The cancellation comes weeks after Indonesia’s parliament passed a law ordering filmmakers to uphold “religious, ethical, moral, and national cultural values.” Movie makers are concerned a new censorship body outlined in the law will bring back the days of extreme censorship under the Suharto dictatorship, which was toppled more than a decade ago.
Indonesia’s population of 235 million is largely socially conservative, but not everyone agreed with the clerics that keeping out porn stars is a good thing.
Around a dozen Muslim students staged a rally in the capital of South Sulawesi, Makassar, on Wednesday, saying Ozawa’s human rights were being violated.
“As long as she will not appear in any porn action, there is no reason to ban her visit to Indonesia,” said Ubaidi, a protester at the Indonesian Muslim University campus.
“Everyone has the right to come and earn a living in Indonesia,” he said. “Just take care of your own morals, don’t intervene in Miyabi’s business.”
The resulting brouhaha may have the opposite effect to that intended, however. According to the Japanese Kyodo news agency, sales of pirated Miyabi DVDs have surged in Jakarta’s Glodok market .
Source (click to view): CNN Business Blogs/ Pauline Chiou
Five years ago, Garuda Indonesia was an airline that seemed to be on a path of constant turbulence. It was losing money year after year, battling allegations of corruption within the state-owned enterprise and stained with a questionable safety record. Today, Garuda is a symbol of what’s possible in the difficult airline industry. You need a leader with focus.
Emirsyah Satar, 50, is the CEO of Garuda. Now in his fifth year as the head of the national airline, he has turned Garuda from problematic to profitable through staged planning. “In the first two years, just surviving was good enough. And then the next two years was the turnaround stage,” he said. Now the airline is embarking on the growth stage.
The son of an Indonesian diplomat who grew up in Mexico City and Prague, Satar went on to become a banker and then the CEO of Bank Danamon, Indonesia’s fifth largest bank. In 2005, he was brought to Garuda as President and CEO and he made drastic changes from the start.
“What happened in 2005, the business model was just not working,” Satar said. It increased accountability at all levels in the organization. And in the short term, Satar decided less was more: “We got out of routes where we were losing money … it was ok if we reduced our market so we could become profitable again.”
He positioned Garuda as a “premium airline” and told his staff not to worry about local competition. With a domestic population of 240 million people, he bet focus on the cream of the crop would keep Garuda afloat while it restructured. His bet paid off, in part because Indonesia sidestepped the brunt of the global downturn thanks to the strength of its domestic market: Indonesia’s economy is still growing at around 4 percent.
While Garuda is still juggling $700 million in debt, the state-owned enterprise has been able to turn a profit the past two years. Satar has plans to make what he calls a “quantum leap.” By 2014, he wants to bring the fleet from the current 66 to 116 aircraft.
The big challenge now is getting a stalled IPO back on track. Satar had wanted to bring Garuda public this year, but the global downturn put a halt to that. Now he’s shooting for an IPO for June 2010. The airline is also in the process of restructuring its debt, which Satar hopes to have completed by the end of this month.
Then there was the issue of safety. In the past decade, a string of crashes involving various Indonesian airlines eroded the public trust in Indonesian air safety. In March 2007, a Garuda plane overshot a runway in Yogyakarta and crashed, killing 21 people. In June 2007, the European Union banned all Indonesian airlines in European airspace. Satar hired an American consultant and and cracked down on safety issues. In July of this year, the EU lifted the ban on certain airlines included Garuda.
The airline now plans to get into the long-haul market, starting with an Indonesia-Amsterdam route by June 2010. That will be followed by routes to Frankfurt, London, Paris, Rome and eventually in 2012, Los Angeles.
“We (Garuda) travel to Australia, Japan, Korea, China and these people still travel. And Bali is still a good attraction,” Satar said.
Source (click to view): Channel NewsAsia/Tan Yew Guan
A recent survey by the University of Indonesia has shown that most of the buildings that collapsed in Padang in the recent earthquake were poorly constructed.
Experts said that if the buildings were built according to construction codes, many lives would have been saved.
Driving through central Padang, it is not hard to spot buildings, still standing, right next to those brought down by the quake.
For example, the Ambacang Hotel, a Dutch colonial-era building, has become a symbol of the disaster in more ways than one. Its two-storey facade has been left standing, but the extension has collapsed.
Four floors were added to the two-storey structure when it was converted to an hotel. But while the facade stood the test, it is believed the additional load from the extension brought down the rest of the building during the tremblor.
Some 200 people lost their lives at this site alone. That accounts for nearly a quarter of the official death toll, which some said could have been avoided.
Professor Kerry Sieh, earthquake expert, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, said: "There are very specific things that communities can do on a local level, on the national level - to make it so we survive these events, so we do not see a whole classroom of students crushed under a building in Padang.
"None of that has to happen if people have enough foresight and vision, and if people have enough scientific information and engineering information. And if they have the economic wherewithal to do something about it."
Something was done seven years ago to prevent this when rules dictating quake-proof buildings were passed. Under those regulations, buildings in Padang are supposed to withstand three times the shock felt on September 30.
The Governor of West Sumatra Gumawan Fauzi admitted that enforcement has been lacking.
He said: "In the future, the government hopes to be more vigilant in handling the reconstruction of these damaged houses. The government would make sure that these houses meet the "Construction Code" guidelines and are strong enough to meet the impact of future earthquakes."
Experts have warned that a tremor far bigger than the last one is in the pipeline. They said that for West Sumatra, it is not a question of "if", but "when".
