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Sofyan Wanandi, chairman of the In-donesian Employers Association (Apindo), called on the govern-ment and business

sectors to join hands for the na-tional interest.

“National businessmen must be involved in the development of Indonesia’s economy, we can’t rely fully on foreign investments,” he said.

Meanwhile, US-based financial services firm J.P. Morgan plans to team up with the government in the Indonesian Economic Ex-pansion and Acceleration Master Plan, known better as the MP3EI. "I look forward to set up a sol-id partnership with the Indone-sian government in implement-ing the program," said JP Morgan Chase & Co., Jamie Dimon, after meeting with the President in Au-gust. Jamie added that Indonesia is among the prospective emerg-ing countries as regards invest-ment on energy, infrastructures and oil.

Industry, Suryo Bambang Suli-sto, said the nation’s private sec-tor stood ready to invest $150 bil-lion in the government’s master plan for growth.

“To some extent, an economic blueprint has been on the cards since September 2009 when Pres-ident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

called for “de-bottlenecking, ac-celeration and expansion of Indo-nesia’s national development” be-tween 2010 and 2015. If executed well, the three main elements of the MP3EI — developing six eco-nomic corridors, upgrading in-frastructure and strengthening the local talent pool — will reap huge rewards for Indonesia, says Ramesh Divyanathan, president director of BMW Indonesia.

The MP3Eis designed to see the Indonesian economy grow in or-der to reach "advanced economy" status by 2025. It focuses on 22 economic activities and six eco-nomic corridors throughout the country, and outlines strategies to strengthen national and interna-tional connectivity while enhanc-ing human resource capacity. The plan is quite ambitious but re-flects the current optimism in In-donesia today.

It aims to make Indonesia, the 17th largest economy in the world last year, one of the world’s 10 big-gest economies by 2025, taking GDP to $4.5 trillion and increas-ing the per capita income from $3000 now to $15,000.

To achieve this, the master plan seeks to raise average annu-al growth to 8-9 percent between 2015 and 2025, from around 6 percent now. The MP3EI also sets

JAKARTA (TPP) – Prominent national and foreign businessmen have warmed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s (SBY) grand economic plan with great enthusiasm.

resources and Java for industry and services. In the program, 17 infrastructure projects valued at Rp 190 trillion are scheduled to start this year, with the govern-ment having earmarked Rp 135.8 trillion for capital spending.

The chairman of the Indone-sian Chamber of Commerce and

Chief of the Capital Investment Coordinating Agency (BKPM), Gita Wiryawan, said the meeting between the President and J.P. Morgan was aimed at finalizing the implementation of the MP3EI program.

In a related development, Singa-pore Venture Capital Association (SVCA) is ready to invest billions of dollars to help finance projects in the MP3EI, said Amir Sambo-do, Special Staff of Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs.

On May 27 the government re-leased an initiative known as the MP3EI, which, at a cost of Rp 4,000 trillion, aims to boost the country’s GDP to $4.5 trillion by 2025. The master plan will estab-lish six economic corridors, each with specific advantages. Suma-tra has been pegged as a center for agriculture and energy, Ka-limantan for mining and ener-gy, Sulawesi and North Maluku for agriculture and fisheries, Bali and Nusa Tenggara for tourism and food production, Papua and Maluku for natural and human

RI Economic Plan OffersInfrastructure Opportunities

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

the target of bringing inflation down from 6 percent now to 3 per-cent by the middle of the next de-cade.

At the MP3EI launch, Yud-hoyono identified 17 projects worth Rp 190 trillion ($22.26 bil-lion) in the plan that are expected to start this year, some of which had already been announced. They include hydroelectric and solar power plants; oil palm devel-opments; a steel mill in East Java; new roads including toll motor-ways; mining projects; expansion of broadband internet; and nickel, cobalt and aluminium factories.

Another major project that the government has pledged to launch this year is the long-awaited Sun-da Strait Bridge that would link Java and Sumatra, Indonesia’s most populous islands. The bridge is expected to cost Rp 150 trillion ($17.57 billion) and has been sub-ject to planning delays.

“Foreign direct investment has shown positive increases, demon-strating the level of interest from companies looking to capitalise on the growth of the region,” Mike Gundy, the president-director of BlueScope Steel Indonesia, the lo-cal wing of an Australian metals company, said.

Hatta Rajasa, the coordinat-ing minister for the economy, said that “with the MP3EI, we hope there will be more jobs available. In 2010 we absorbed 3.3 million more workers.”

According to the plan, 44 per-cent of the funding is expected to come from the private sector. As far as state commitments, the State Enterprises Ministry had pledged $100 billion, but Yud-hoyono doubled the target to $200 billion.

Hatta said the government and entrepreneurs had agreed on the need for Rp 1,993 trillion in in-vestment through 2014 in four sectors: agriculture; industry and tourism; mining and energy; and 881 regional infrastructure proj-ects.

“We are coming out with the MP3EI because we want to accel-erate and expand certain sectors of our economy, with clear orien-tation and timeline – who does what, who invests and how much and where,” Yudhoyono said.

“The MP3EI is not a law, but I hope that it becomes our commit-ment. Let us implement this even though it is not a law.

“We should make this plan binding for all, the central and re-gional governments and the busi-ness sector,” the president said.

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The global and domestic economic dynamism necessitated Indonesia to prepare itself in the face of changes. In 2010, the Indonesian per capita income was recorded at over $3000. This means that it is now time for Indonesia to shift to efficiency driven economy

OpinionThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011A2

With a view on developments in both exter-nal and inter-nal economic factors, govern-

ment officials are convinced that Indonesia will in the future be-come one of the economic leaders in Asia.

"Looking at our performance in economic development over the past several years, we believe that we will be one of the seven coun-tries predicted to become the eco-nomic leaders in Asia by 2050," Development Planning Minister Alisjahbana said. The minister said the other six other countries were China, India, Thailand, Viet-nam, Malaysia and South Korea. This is based on an Asian Devel-opment (ADB) study showing that in 2050 Asia would become the

my (MP3EI) that would serve as a guide for economic development until 2025. Among the targets In-donesia has set in the master plan is to achieve a per capita income of about $15,500 in 2025, a big in-crease from the present $3,000.

If the state has reached a per capita income of $10,000 it would

mean that the country has been included in the group of high-in-come nations, National Econom-ic Committee Chairman Chairul Tanjung said meanwhile.

Hatta said that Indonesia at present is ranked 17th on the list of the world`s biggest economies, exceeding the positions of several advanced states such as Switzer-land, Norway, Sweden and South Africa. Yet, he said that the target that would be achieved through the master plan was too low be-cause Indonesia could achieve higher than that.

"If we make serious efforts we can achieve two folds of the target set for the 2025," Tanjung said in a seminar on the national entre-preneurship spirit at the office of the nation s largest Muslim orga-nization NU recently. Tanjung said that in the MP3EI the government set a target to achieve a per cap-ita income between $14,250 and $15,500. "The per capita income of the Indonesian people in 2010 had reached $3,000," he said.

Tanjung, who is owner of Para Group, said that the government s target of $15,500 could be achieved before 2025. "This is a

high income category, before 2025 Indonesia would already have an income per capita of $14,250 - 15,500," he added

Hatta concurred with Tanjung, saying that Indonesia should not wait for 40 years in developing an innovation drive economy. He said that the government needed to formulate steps in order to accel-erate the creation of an advanced state with a world-class competi-tiveness.

The global and domestic eco-nomic dynamism necessitated Indonesia to prepare itself in the face of changes. In 2010, the Indo-nesian per capita income was re-corded at over $3000. This means that it is now time for Indonesia to shift to efficiency driven economy, he said.

"The international communi-ties have given Indonesia a posi-tive appreciation for the econom-ic improvement it has made," the minister said. He said that Indo-nesia was able to improve the rate of its external debt position which experienced a decline at a time when others debts were increas-ing. "But what we have achieved now turned out to take us 40 years if we calculated what we have planned since the 60s," Hat-ta said.

Seeing the dynamism of the In-donesian economy, the coordi-nating minister for economic af-fairs said that Indonesia should not wait for another 40 years to achieve its economic goals. After all, external economic conditions such as the slow recovery of the global economy after crisis in the past several years, place Indone-sia as one of the countries in Asia

which would attract foreign inves-tors.

Economic Analyst of PT First Asia Capital Ifan Kurniawan said the good chance for the Indone-sian economy to attract foreign investors to place their funds in the domestic market. Indonesia is predicted to become a basis seen by investors as a good place for their business production reloca-tion, Ifan said. Moreover, foreign investors have made their invest-ments not only in the stock ex-change, money market, govern-ment bonds and instruments of the central bank (Bank Indone-sia) but also in the infrastructure sector, he added.

He further said that because foreign investment was project-ed to increase, it was also predict-ed that the country s economic growth would also increase and improve the people s income. This favorable situation is driven by the conditions in other countries in Asia such as China where pro-duction cost is increasing and In-dia which is experiencing high in-flation and high interest rates that pose difficulties for investors to make investment. Apart from that Vietnam even underwent inflation up to 11%, Ifan said. (Antara)

RI Set to Become Asia’s Economic Leader

By Andi Abdussalam

The President PostOFFICEMenara Batavia 25th Fl. Jl. K.H. Mas Mansyur Kav. 126Jakarta 10220, IndonesiaPhone : (021) 572 7337Fax : (021) 572 7338Email : ceo@thepresidentpost.comWeb : www.thepresidentpost.com

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center of growth. "Asia is dynam-ic so that 2050 will be the Asian Century where 50% of the world economy will be centered in Asia," the minister said.

In order to create the Asian cen-tury in 2050, countries in Asia should support it with integrated national policies and regional co-operation. "Indonesia already has a master plan, something that is needed to help realize the Asian Century in 2050.”

Chief Economic Minister Hat-ta Rajasa said that its presence in the global economic gravitation, namely in East Asia and South-east Asia, necessitated Indonesia to prepare itself to become a new advanced country.

In this context, the government was aware of the need to prepare a plan so that it formulated its Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia s Econo-

Looking at our performance in economic development over the past several years, we believe that we will be one of the seven countries predicted to become the economic leaders in Asia by 2050."

Armida AlisjahbanaDevelopment Planning Minister

The international communities have given Indonesia a positive appreciation for the economic improvement it has made."

Hatta RajasaChief Economic Minister

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 A3

The Region

THE CHANGING GLOBAL ECONOMY

The world is in the midst of a histor-ic transformation. There are strong in-dications that the global economy will

undergo fundamental chang-es, with a number of scenarios on how these changes will come about. It is highly important for Indonesia to monitor and antic-ipate the developments, as it will affect Asia including Southeast Asian countries and in particular such large countries as China, In-dia, and Indonesia.

In his book “The New Asian Hemisphere”, Prof Kishore Mah-bubeni of Singapore speaks about the historical shift of global pow-er: Asia is returning to the center stage it occupied for eighteen cen-turies before the rise of the West. It is expected that Asia might con-tinue with Western best practices in the area of economics but ad-justed to the Asian situation.

The World Bank recently came up with its study on the Multipo-lar World, describing the emer-gence of a number of growth poles, possible changing global corpo-rate landscape and multipolarity in international finance.

An Asian Development Bank (ADB) paper entitled “ASIA 2050: Realizing the Asian Century” re-counts the birth of the Asian Cen-tury – Asia may take up the larg-est share of world GDP, and that Asia may have to face the problem

of the “middle income trap”. It fur-ther clarifies the risks and chal-lenges Asia may encounter.

The opinions expressed in all the studies suggest that the fun-damental change concerns the shift in economic power from the West to the East. It will basical-ly involve the industrial coun-tries of the West (in Europe and North America) and the develop-ing countries in Asia.

The following data of the ADB paper explains that some 310 years ago in 1700 Asia’s share of global GDP amounted to around 60%. It went down to about 15% in 1950. Years ago world wealth was then concentrated in Asia but it went down considerably as it was shifted to the countries of the West. Most likely to Europe and it happened presumably during the colonial times lasting for some 300 years (Figure 1).

Those figures may indicate about the possibility of the Asian Century as Asia would take up such a large part of the global economy.

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ON THE RISE

It is not only the countries in Asia such as China which will rise but also countries in other parts of the world such as Brazil and Rus-sia. They are the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) which are the forerunners of the emerging countries. Most likely some countries in the Middle East and North Africa will follow.

Asia experienced big changes after the Asian Financial crisis of 1997/98. As a result, Asia’s share of global GDP is rising. Asia’s GDP has reached $17 trillion in 2010. According to estimates made by the ADB, Asia’s share can go all the way up to $174 trillion in 2050, or half of global GDP.

The impact of globalization, the historic transfer of econom-ic wealth and the development of the global economy will to a large extend transform the global eco-nomic landscape.

It is predicted that Asia will take up the largest share with

as an emerging country; among others based on their economic size and their economic growth. The BRIC countriers are rated as the top emerging countries, with Indonesia,Turkey and South Afri-ca on the “waiting list”.

According to some leading economists there are about 28-30 emerging countries. The top ten countries are: 1. China 2. India 3. Russia 4. Brazil 5. Turkey 6. Mexi-co 7. Indonesia 8. Poland 9. United Arab Emirates 10. Thailand.

AsiaThe ADB report states that

Asia’s march to prosperity in the coming decades will be led by sev-en economies: China, India, Ja-pan, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. These seven econ-omies have a combined total pop-ulation of 3.1 billion (78% of total Asia) and GDP of $14.2 trillion.

To achieve the promising out-

come Asia’s leaders are recom-mended to continue with their high growth rates and manage the multiple risks and challenges, which among others include the following:

To cope with the increasing in-•equality within countries Rising income disparities •among countriesTo cope with intense competi-•tion (incl. natural resources) Poor governance and weak in-•stitutional capacityGlobal warming and climate •change

It is known that other issues could be added to this short list, such as corruption, rule of law and others.

It is important to note that in all the analysis made about emerg-ing countries, Indonesia is con-tinuously mentioned as one of the important emerging countries. IN fact, Indonesia is rated among the top ten emerging countries.

The emerging countries, how-ever, are being warned that with their robust growth, they will face rising risks. They are suggested that they have to cope with those risks, which can undermine so-cial cohesion, political and eco-nomic stability. And disrupt eco-nomic growth in its totality.

Indonesia is already being caught with these challenges. Therefore It goes without say-ing that these recommendations should also apply to the fullest ex-tend to Indonesia.

The writer is former ambasaador to the EU

GLOBAL ECONOMY:

Asia at Center Stage

52%, followed by Europe with 18%, North America 13%, Lat-in America & Carribean 10% and Middle East & North Africa 3%. If Asia is caught in the so-called “middle income trap”, Asia’s share will be only 31%, but it still occu-pies the largest share, followed in the same order by Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa (Figure 2).

KEY ADVANCED & EMERGING COUNTRIES

The top ten economies in the global economy for the year 2010 in terms of GDP are: 1. USA 2. China 3. Japan 4. India 5. Ger-many 6. Russia 7. United King-dom 8. France 9. Brazil and 10. Italy. Six of the ten biggest econo-mies are advanced countries and four are rated as emerging coun-tries.

There are various ways to de-termine the developing countries

Indonesia is continuously mentioned as one of the important emerging countries. IN fact, Indonesia is rated

among the top ten emerging countries.

By Atmono Suryo Figure 1. Asia's share of global GDP, 1700-2050

Source: Maddison (1700-1950)(2007); Centennial Group International estimates (1951-2050)(2011). Data for 1750-1790 are PPP and data for 1991-2050 are in market prices

1700 1870 1950 1980 2010 2030 2050

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

% o

f glo

bal

GD

P

Figure 1. Asian Century vs. Middle Income Trap

Source: Centennial Group International projections, 2011. Figures use market exchange rates (MER)

Latin America &Caribbean10%

NorthAmerica13%

Europe18%

Asia52%

Rest of World2%

Middle East &North Africa3%

Sub SaharanAfrica2%

Sub SaharanAfrica4%

Middle East &North Africa5%

Rest of World2%

Asia31%

NorthAmerica21%

Latin America &Caribbean9%

Europe28%

Asia GDP: $174 trillion Asia GDP: $65 trillion

Asian Century Scenario Middle Income Trap Scenario

ASEANThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011A4

ASEAN has survived and has overcome the many challenges it faced since its establishment. It shows that ASEAN is a resilient regional grouping.

By Atmono Suryo

GLOBAL SITUATION

Gloom sets in again as many countries are caught in polit-ical-economic trou-ble, in a small or big way. Notwithstand-

ing the fact that the global econ-omy is suposed to be on the road to recovery, there is even the fear for another recession. It is for sure that 2011 will remain to be uncer-tain and volatile.

The advanced countries, which have been the pillars of the global economy for a long time, are now in decline. Europe and the United States face a number of serious fi-nancial problems..

On the other side of the globe, however, emerging countries are better off, particularly in East Asia. They have been steadily on the rise, with China and India in the lead followed by Indonesia and other Asian countries.

Against this backdrop, and with Indonesia holding the ASE-AN chair for 2011, ASEAN is back in the limelight. However, peo-ple would now like to know about ASEAN’s current position in the global economy, and also what ASEAN’s economic direction will be in the years to come. These are reasonable questions, awaiting for some credible answers and real positive actions.

ASEAN POSITION As to the question on ASE-

AN’s position in the global econ-omy one can say that not much is known in Indonesia the subject. Negative and critical observers tend to dominate public opinion. Indonesia is an important found-ing member of ASEAN some 44 years ago in 1967, together with Thailand, Malaysia and Singa-pore, but all this is now being for-gotten.

ASEAN has survived and has overcome the many challenges it faced since its establishment. It shows that ASEAN is a resilient regional grouping. It has grown in size and has expanded from an association of five to ASEAN-10. Soon it will become ASEAN-11 as Timor Leste is set to join.

Looking at its size, ASEAN has grown to become a considerable economic grouping (Figure 1).

Since 2008 the indicators have been going up. ASEAN as an eco-nomic entity has grown in such a way that it now belongs to the top largest economies in the world, right after the European Union (EU), USA, China and Japan (Fig-ure 2)

In geo-political terms ASEAN is well-placed to be an econom-ic partner for the powerful econ-omies in East Asia such as Chi-na, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia-New Zealand. Even the European Union, the Unit-ed States and Russia are keen to have closer relations with ASEAN. Various developing countries, in-cluding in Latin America and South Asia, are watching ASEAN with great interest and are keen to establish closer relations with the group.

ASEAN: THE RISING REGIONAL COMMUNITY

One must note that Asia, in-cluding ASEAN, has changed considerably during the last de-cades. Two factors have ignited this change. Firstly, it is the his-torical shift from the West to the

Current Situation and Economic Direction

East. Asia, in particular, includ-ing South East Asia, is expect-ed to become the epicenter of the global economy.

Secondly, there was the sud-den economic downturn with the onset of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 that started in Thai-land, with its contagion effect that reached all the way to Russia and East Africa. The crisis has served like a “wake-up call” for countries in Asia, in particular in Southeast Asia.

At that time ASEAN had to wake-up instantly, ready to face the economic realities on the ground. It could not continue to be a “talking-shop” only, spend-ing much time in conferences and meetings. A new spirit and a new momentum was then coming to ASEAN. With the arrival of a new momentum, new visions appear in the economic area. Internal-ly much work had to be done to strengthen its institutional struc-tures and to undertake econom-ic reforms.

Externally, considerable moves were made to foster its relations with third countries through ex-tensive dialogues, particularly through the ASEAN+3 (ASEAN 10 plus China-Japan-South Ko-rea) and the EAS (East Asia Sum-mit) mechanism, and to intensify trade through free trade agree-ments (FTAs).

As rightly observed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in their recent reports, ASE-AN is a region of significant eco-nomic, political, social and cul-tural diversity. This has resulted in a form of ASEAN diplomacy and cooperation, which has been characterized by caution, prag-matism and consensus-based de-cision making. As is being said this “ASEAN way” can not only in-duce indecisiveness but also be a strength for building inclusive policies.

MULTI-TRACK POLICIESThis change of vision has led

among others to what could be called as “a multi-track and multi-speed” policy, covering basically four key areas, namely trade, in-vestment, finance, and regional integration as follows:

Trade:• A large number of FTA’s has been made starting in the year 2000. The FTA process started with China followed by other dialogue partners Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zea-land. Negotations are under-way on an ASEAN-EU FTA and many more will followFinance:• Finance ministers and Central Banks have been constantly in close touch. They have among others produced the Chang-Mai initiative agree-ment Investment:• Investment pro-motion is one of the key ASEAN policies, but investment flows to ASEAN has been quite slow. More work has to be done to at-tract foreign direct investments (FDI) to ASEAN countries Regional community build-•ing:ASEAN is in the process of establishing the ASEAN Com-munity 2015 supported by three pillars: political-securi-ty, economic and social culture. The ASEAN economic commu-nity (AEC) aims to establish a single-market and production-base

Economic directionWith regard to ASEAN’s eco-

nomic direction, one can note that the main economic foun-dations and policies have been laid, supported by all ten ASE-AN countries. The necessary in-frastructure is being prepared, which includes the project on Ase-an Connectivity which is of great importance to Indonesia.

Within AEC road-maps have been worked out in detail for a number of AEC “implementation items”. They are all spelled out in detail in the impressive AEC blue-prints, and ASEAN is committed to have it implemented.

One can assume that ASE-AN will basically move along the above lines (trade, finance, in-vestment and regional integra-tion) perhaps for the next 5 to 10 years. As explained before ASE-AN is a region with great diver-sity. Therefore, its moves call for typical ASEAN-way approaches (multi-speed and multi-ways), but in the end things will be done.

What is still pending concerns the development of the East Asia architecture (including the pos-sibility of an East Asia Economic Community) and the agenda on “ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations”. The im-portant meetings in Bali in Oc-tober-November this year will undoubtedly give us further indi-cations where the ASEAN econo-my will be heading. An important point to make is that the forth-coming EAS will be attended by the leaders of 18 countries, name-ly ASEAN 10 plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. It will also be at-tended by the United States and Russia.

The writer is former ambassador to the EU.

MYANMAR

THAILAND

CAMBODIA

SINGAPORE

INDONESIA

LAOS

VIETNAM

MALAYSIA

PHILIPPINES

BRUNEI

$14,256US

$5,068Japan

$4,909China

$1,499ASEAN

$1,236India

$1,114AUS &

NZ

$833ROK

$16,447EU

Figure 1. ASEAN INDICATOR, 2008

Total Population : 583.7 million

Total Land Area : 4.4 million sq. km.

Total Gross Domestic Product : US$ 1,710.4 billion

GDP Growth : 4.4 per cent

Total Trade : US$ 1,710.4 billion

Total Exports : US$ 879.14 billion

Total Imports : US$ 831.23 billion

Intra-ASEAN Exports : US$ 242.5 billion

Intra-ASEAN Imports : US$ 215.6 billion

Intra-ASEAN Trade : 26.8 per cent of ASEAN total trade

FDI Inflows : US$ 60.2 billion

Intra-ASEAN FDI Inflows : US$ 11.1 billion

Source: ASEAN Finance and Macroeconomic Surveillance Database and IMFFigure 2. ASEAN in the Global Economy 2009 (GDP US$ billion)

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 A5

Around JababekaThe New Role Model of Indonesian Health Center: Jababeka Medical City

The large number of Indonesians seek-ing medical treatment abroad should be a concern of the govern-

ment. In 2009 the amount of mon-ey for medical service that fled abroad exceeded $400 million or Rp4 trillion, and in 2010 the fig-ure increased to Rp4.5 trillion.

“Many factors cause the situa-tion to remain as such today, as it relates to the quality of team-work and hospitals’ comprehen-siveness,” said dr Tarmizi Hakim, Project Director of Association of Thoracic and Cardio Vascular Surgeons of Asia (ATCSA).

Quality of work also means quality of doctors, management, and services of hospitals. Singa-pore has opened its door to doc-tors from other countries to per-form surgery there. It aims to absorb knowledge from foreign doctors. Now, the transfer of knowledge has been done and lo-cal doctors in Singapore have be-come more excellent.

“In Indonesia, foreign doc-tors are prohibited to practice al-though it’s actually good if for-eigners are willing to work here. Actually there are two ways: in-viting foreign doctors to come here or sending our doctors abroad. But based on my own experi-ence, after several years of study and practice in Australia, when I returned to Indonesia I found it hard to apply the knowledge since it was only I who understand,” he explained.

Alan Ye, Business Development Manager Indo-nesia Movieland of Jababeka, received a visit from Nanjing, China at Jababeka Golf & Country Club, Cikarang.

The visit is follows up the MoU signed by Indo-nesia Movieland, Castle Production, and Nanjing Zhuque Animation Movie Co. Ltd. for the making of the animation movie “Adventure of Cheng-Ho”.

It was agreed that the movie will be made in two versions: Chinese and Indonesian. It is jointly fi-nanced by Gulou District Government, Nanjing Cultural Investment Holding (Group) Co., Ltd., Nanjing Broadcasting Group, Nanjing Daily Press Group and Nanjing U-Youth Net Digital Science & Technology Co., Ltd.

Nanjing Zhuque Animation Co., Ltd. is respon-sible for detailed work.

As for the Indonesian version, Indonesia Movie-land collaborates with Castle Production and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The film recounts the splendid history of over 600 years ago, when navigator Cheng-Ho sailed from Nanjing to the South Seas.

On the occasion, the delegation from Nanjing visited the animation training center of 53 stu-dents from several boarding schools at Jababe-ka ICT Korea. 10 of the students will be selected to follow animation training program at Nanjing, China, sponsored by the Ministry of Religious Af-fairs.

Nanjing Visit to Jababeka

Medical City will provide its residents with a safe, comfortable, and healthy living environment surrounded by nature.

the advisors of Medical City Ja-babeka.

“In fact, there is only one heart hospital in Indonesia. In my opin-ion we should at least have 20 heart centers. If the government is unable to provide, they should give the private sector the oppor-tunity but still retain control,” he said.

Moreover, the cost of medical schools is very expensive. During the time of their study, students are not able to earn money, so not a few students are in lack of pro-tein, thereby becoming less intelli-gent. Overseas, students are paid to get training.

The current situation must be rectified by making changes. Ap-point one institution to be a role model that can be emulated in other regions.

“We are prepared to build a high-tech, state-of-the-art hos-pital at Medical City Jababeka,

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

with the full support of the gov-ernment. Allow foreign doctors to work in Indonesia and remove tax on medical equipment. If health care in this country is improper, the public will be harmed since they can’t get good health servic-es,” he concluded.

Medical City is built on 72 hect-ares of land. 10 hectares are ap-portioned for hospital, five hect-ares for research laboratories, and the rest for President University School of Medicine, student dor-mitories and hotel.

Medical City will also provide its residents with a safe, comfortable, and healthy living environment surrounded by nature. At the same time it will offer all the ame-nities of modern living, cutting-edge medical care within reach 24 hours a day, a work place within walking distance, and close prox-imity to spots for entertainment, fine dining, leisure, and sports.

“On hospital services, we can start by checking how long it takes for a hospital in Indonesia to pick up the phone? A hospital must be on alert 24 hours a day.”

Another example: Indonesian children usually become trau-matic of hospitals because they look scary especially if they must get an injection. In Penang, nurs-es often offer ice cream and play before the child is examined. The hospital ambience is so much more fun.

Another important thing is the completeness of hospitals. Hospi-tals in Indonesia will never have complete medical tools like other countries have as tax on medical equipment is very high.

“If the tax is removed, the rates will be cheaper, and patients won’t flee abroad. The money goes to local hospitals, and the hospi-tals will be able to buy any kind of tools since they earn a lot of mon-ey,” explained dr. Tarmizi, one of

Delegation from Nanjing and representatives of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Castle Production, and Indonesia Movieland at Jababeka Golf & Country ClubFrom Left to Right: Ms. Peng Lin Yun, Program Monitoring for Government Project; Ms. Li Zhen, The Icon of Adventure of Zheng He Animation Movie; Mr. Drs. Mohammad Zen, M.M., Kasie Ketenagaan Subdit Pesantren of Ministry of Religious Affairs of The Republic of Indonesia; Mr. Zhu Yufeng, Creative Director of Adventure of Zheng He Animation Movie; Mr. Du Gang, COO of China Central Television Dream Channel; Mr. Drs. Bambang Setyawan, Kasie Sarana Subdit Pendidikan Pesantren of Ministry of Religious Affairs of The Republic of Indonesia; Ms. Denny D., Business Consultant of Castle Production; Mr. Raymond Wong, Animation Director of Castle Production; Mr. Zhu Yichang, President Director of Nanjing Zhuque Animation Movie Co. Ltd.; Mr. Bruce Ji, Deputy Secretary General of Nanjing Culture Industry Association; Ms. Cherry Feng, Project Manager of Asset Operation Department of Nanjing Cultural Investment Holding Group; Mr. Alan Ye, B.Sc., M.B.A., Business Development Manager of Indonesia Movieland of PT Jababeka;

Mr. Alan Ye, B.Sc., M.B.A., Business Development Manager of Indonesia Movieland of PT Jababeka and Mr. Bruce Ji, Deputy Secretary General of Nanjing Culture Industry Association at Jababeka Golf & Club.

Delegates from Nanjing visited the training center of 53 students for the making of animation movie Adventure of Cheng-HoIndonesian version at Jababeka ICT Korea.

The EconomyThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011A6

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The President PostT H E S P I R I T O F I N D O N E S I A

RI Set to Produce Bird Flu Vaccine

Indonesia is ready to pro-duce H5N1 (bird flu) vac-cine following the transfer of an H5N1 seed produc-ing vaccine, "A/Indonesia/Unair/2005" from the Surabaya-based Airlangga University, the welfare affairs minister said.

Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Lak-sono made the statement

here early this month, adding that Unair is the only university in the country for avian flu research.

Minister Laksono who was accompanied among others by deputy education minister Prof Fasli Jalal and Unair rector Prof Fasich Apt, said seed vaccine production for human beings still relies on state-run phar-maceutical maker PT Bio Farma.

H5N1 vaccine is cheaper if it is produced locally, the minister said. Therefore, Laksono hoped PT Bio Farma will soon produce H5N1 vac-cine for human beings.

In addition, samples from Airlangga University`s research should not be taken abroad, because it is needed for local consumption, and the equipment, buildings, and the research resources belong to the Indo-nesian people, the minister added.

RI's Foreign Debts Safe: Central Bank

Indonesia`s debt servicing ratio in the year ended June 30 reached 21.6%, well below the dangerous threshold of 30%, a central bank (BI) spokesman said.

"The ratio suggests that the amount of government and private for-eign debts is still safe," the head of Bank Indonesia`s public relations bureau, Difi A Johansyah said here early this month.

Debt service ratio is the ratio of debt service payments (principal + interest) to export earnings. A country`s international finances are healthier when this ratio is low. The ratio is between 0 and 20 percent for most countries.

Difi said Indonesia`s debt service ratio in the second quarter of 2011 was higher than that of the first quarter which reached 18% but lower than those of the end of 2009 which reached 23.2% and the end of 2010 which reached 22.2%. The ratio would be getting lower if the country`s exports continued to increase and the amount of govern-ment and private foreign debts continued to fall, he said.

In the balance of payment until the first quarter of 2011, Indonesia`s exports reached a total value of $51.46 billion, causing a surplus in the balance of payment to increase to $11.9 billion from $7.7 billion in the previous quarter.

Indonesia`s foreign debts until the first quarter of 2011 totaled $214.5 billion, a 10% increase compared to the end of 2010. The amount consisted of government debts totaling $128.6 billion and pri-vate debts totaling $85.9 billion.

The government debts increased compared to the end of December 2010 when the figure was $118.6 billion, while the private debts as per December 2010 reached $83.8 billion. As per April 2011, the private debts consisted of $72.5 billion incurred by non-bank institutes and $13.4 billion by banks.

Exports Predicted to Grow 18%

The government has made an estimate that the country`s total exports in 2012 would in-crease 18-20%, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said.

"We are optimistic that the target will be achieved regard-less of the fact that economic development in the United States and Europe is slowing down," the minister said here recently.

The minister`s optimism was based on the country`s export trend in the first semester of 2011, which based on the data at the Central Board of Statistics (BPS) stood at $98.6 billion, up 36% from the same period a year earlier.

"The annual pattern of export development in the country shows that the exports in the second semester were always higher than those in the first semester. So we predict this year the export values will reach $200 billion, or 25%," the minister said.

She said that if exports in 2011 rose by 25%, exports in 2012 would at least be maintained at the 18-20% level. The exports would be support-ed by commodities, among others, coal, palm oil and its by-products, food goods and manufacturing products.

Indonesia will create disincen-tives for goods consumed on a large scale but not produced in the country, Capital Investment Coor-dinating Board (BKPM) chief Gita Wirjawan said here last month.

"We will take stock of those products," he said following a co-ordination meeting at the office of the coordinating minister for eco-

of $300 per unit while sales in Malaysia reached no more than 400,000 units. "We must take a stand with regard to this issue. It can be in the form of non-tariff, tariff or other barriers," he said.

He also referred to Bosch of Germany as another example. He said the German company

RI to Create Disincentives for Foreign Goods: BKPM

ECONOMIC UPDATES

Agung Laksono

was also planning to build a solar panel plant in Malaysia while its target market was obviously In-donesia. "This is what I explained at the coordination meeting just now and my explanation was wel-comed by coordinating minister Hatta Rajasa, the finance minis-ter, the industry minister and oth-ers," he said.

Gita said to attract investment and increase national production capacity the government had pro-vided various incentives includ-ing a tax allowance and a tax hol-iday. "We need to think of creating disincentives for those who do not produce goods in Indonesia," he said. He said the government was still formulating the details of the proposed disincentive and hoped it would be ready for discussion

Mari Elka Pangestu

Government capital spending in the year to early September reached 26.7% of Rp140.95 tril-lion set under the revised 2011 state budget, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said.

"It is true that we must make every effort to increase budget absorption particularly capital spending," he said here early this month.

He said the capital spending in the first eight months of 2011 was also lower than the same period last year when the figure reached 27.9% The lower-than-expect-ed capital spending had become the center of the government s at-tention because it was related to the development of infrastructure projects, he added.

Moreover, the construction of development projects financed under a government-private coop-eration scheme did not run as ex-pected, he said. He made it clear

that the low capital spending was because many contractors who had completed development projects had not applied for pay-ments for the projects while the government had no problem with the process of disbursing budget funds.

The contractors used their own funds to finance the projects, he said. "We will always try to main-tain our good payment system. So we have no problem with our financial capacity to pay for the projects," he said.

He said a total of 22 ministries and government agencies were still discussing terms of reference with the House of Representatives (DPR) to use budget funds while in fact the revised 2011 state bud-get had been approved. The 22 ministries and government agen-cies included those receiving a great chunk of budget allocations this year, he said.

Capital Spending Reaches 26.9% of Allocations: Minister

The government is opti-mistic that the domes-tic economy will per-form better in 2012 and will always be re-

alistic in setting macro economic targets, a minister said.

The government had always taken into account latest devel-opments in the indicators of glob-al and domestic economic perfor-mances as well as challenges to the domestic economy in 2012, Finance Minister Agus Martowar-dojo said in his address to a House of Representatives (DPR) plenary meeting here early this month.

While delivering the government s reply to House fac-tions general views on the bill on 2012 state budget and its finan-cial notes, the finance minister said the risks of global econom-ic developments in 2012 would among others come from the fis-cal and debt crisis affecting the United States and a number of European countries.

The fiscal and debt crisis could threaten the global economic re-covery, he said. In addition, the increase in the global prices of crude oil and food commodities

Govt Upbeat on Economy in 2012

and a sudden reversal of short-term funds would also pose a challenge to the domestic econo-my, he said.

Economic growth target of 7.6% for 2012 quite realistic

Minister Martowardojo said the economic growth rate target of 6.7% for 2012 is quite realistic in view of external and internal challenges to the domestic econ-

again next week or in the next two weeks.

Industry Minister MS Hidayat also expressed the need to pro-duce regulations on consumer products which are not produced in the country such as Black-Berry cellphones made in Malay-sia. "There must be an additional tax or an additional tariff for such products," he said.

He said the policy would not only apply to Blackberry cell-phones but also to others so that more investors would choose to invest in the country. "There will be a kind of incentives and dis-incentives for such products. We must have a regulation or a bar-rier with the aim of attracting in-vestors to make goods in Indone-sia," he said.

STEEL PRICE RISE: Marketing Director of Krakatau Steel, Irvan Kamal Hakim predicts the increasing price for steel products in the national market after Lebaran. It is because people’s tendency to continue the construction after long holiday. Besides, there are numbers of APBN budget to be absorbed in this second semester.The President Post/Nandi Nanti

omy that may lie ahead."The government is of the view

that the target is higher than what many international agencies have predicted at 6.5%," he said.

"The economic growth forecast of 6.7 percent is quite realistic. Not only do we hope the economy to continue to pick up but also try to improve the quality of econom-ic growth to create more jobs," he said.

The government was also plan-ning to take advantage of capital spending in 2012 more effectively to support the development of ba-sic facilities and infrastructures which had greater economic func-tion to spur economic growth, he said. He said budget allocations for capital spending next tear would among others focus on de-

veloping basic facilities and infra-structures for the benefit of the people s living standard.

"In addition, the budget alloca-tions for capital spending will be used to improve agricultural in-frastructures in support of food security as well as to develop en-ergy and communication infra-structures," he said.

Under the draft 2012 state bud-get, budget allocations for infra-structure development is expect-ed to reach Rp156.5 trillion. Of the total, Rp30.5 trillion will be used to build roads, Rp12.4 trillion to develop resettlement, Rp16.3 tril-lion to finance water resource management programs, Rp6.9 trillion to promote sea transporta-tion and Rp8.8 trillion to develop railway system.

nomic affairs, Hatta Rajasa. He said Indonesia needed to address the practice of consuming foreign-made goods in large volumes in the country.

"In the spirit of the Masterplan for Indonesian Economic Develop-ment Expansion and Acceleration (MP3EI) we will conduct down-streaming of production and in-crease national production capac-ity," he said.

Gita referred to the case of BlackBerry cellphones which are widely used in the country but have been made in Malaysia where the manufacturer had in-vested in the relevant production facilities. The BlackBerry manu-facturers was targeting the pro-duction of four million units next year and market them at the price

The government was planning to take advantage of capital spending in 2012 more effectively to support the development of basic facilities and infrastructures to spur economic growth.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo

To attract investment and increase national production capacity the government had provided various incentives including a tax allowance and a tax holiday.

BKPM chief Gita Wirjawan

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 A7

The Economy

The government raised Rp830 billion from two of the five series of state sharia bonds (sukuk) put to an auction early this month.

The five series of state sha-ria bonds offered in the auc-tion were series IFR0005, IFR0007, IFR0006, IFR0010, and SPNS24022012, Director Gener-al of Debt Management at the Fi-nance Ministry Rahmat Waluy-anto said in a statement on Tuesday.

The total bids for the five series of state sharia bonds were Rp3.10 trillion. However, only Rp830 bil-lion of it was accepted. The amount

consisted of Rp500 billion from series IFR0010 and Rp330 billion from series SPNS24022012.

The series IFR0010 due on Feb-ruary 15, 2036 was issued at a weighted average yield of 8.35% and a yield rate of 10.00%. The bonds were issued on August 25.

The series SPNS24022012 due on February 24, 2012 car-ries a weighted average yield rate of 4.15% with discount yield pay-ments. The bonds were issued also on August 25. The bids to-taling Rp3.10 trillion consisted of Rp501 billion for series IFR0005 with the lowest yield of 6.66% and the highest yield of 7.50%.

Govt Raises Rp830 b Through Sukuk AuctionBids for series IFR0007 reached

Rp2 billion with the lowest yield of 7.88% and the highest yield of 8.50%. Bids for series IFR0007 were Rp2 billion with the lowest yield of 7.88% and the lowest yield of 8.50%.

Bids for series IFR0006 were Rp171 billion billion with the low-est yield of 8.38% and the high-est yield of 9.00%. Bids for series IFR0010 reached Rp1.13 trillion with the lowest yield of 8.25% and the highest yield of 8.84%. Meanwhile the total bids for series SPNS 24022012 was Rp1.30 tril-lion with the lowest yield of 4.03% and the highest yield of 5.50%.

Indonesia is seeking to in-crease its oil lifting volume to one million barrels per day in 2013 due to price uncertainty and the ten-

dency of the oil price stabilize at a high level.

The country s chief economic minister, Hatta Rajasa, said at a press conference at the presiden-tial office here recently the deci-sion was made following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono s directives at a cabinet meeting that with regard to anticipating a number of problems in relation to achieving the government s tar-gets from 2012 to 2014. He said the target of increasing the oil lift-ing volume from around 900,000 barrels per day at present to one

million barrels was set based on a number of calculations and mea-sures to be taken in the field.

"The target is to be achieved among others by reducing the rate of scientific explorations from 12 percent to three percent so that production in the existing fields at the rate of 900,000 barrels a day can be maintained," he said. He further said another step to be taken was opening new fields which have already been available and making them ready for explo-ration.

"We will accelerate the opening of new fields. In technical terms it is how to shift from probabili-ty reserves to recovering reserves. We have Cepu Block, Banyu Urip and others. The road map is al-

RI to Increase Oil Lifting VolumeThe government would strive to reduce imports of oil and gas by maximizing construction of oil and petrochemical refineries in the country.

The government can soon write off farmers debts in the form of Farmers Credit Scheme (KUT) worth Rp5.7 trillion early in 2012, a finance ministry official said.

"We are now at the end of Au-gust and in the coming one or two months the team is expected to be working and finish its work this year. We hope that all would have been settled (early) in 2012," Fi-nance Ministry Secretary Gener-al Mulia P Nasution said.

He said that not all farmers would have their credits written

off because all must pass through a verification process, after all the credits had been held for a long time by the debtors.

"We have to verify it because it has been there for a long time.We have see to it in the banks books and audit and verify it one by one before it could be proposed to be written off," the finance ministry secretary general said.

Mulia said that it had been Bank Indonesia and the government s commitment to assisting farmers,

Govt to Write off Rp5.7 t In Farmers' Credits

particularly those in Yogyakarta, so that they would be bankable again and bank would channel KUT credits without the burden of bad credits. However, he said, not all farmers would get such a priv-ilege to avoid moral hazard, espe-cially debtors who were still able to pay their debts.

"It is a problem that has been accumulated. While one problem is not yet settled than an earth-quake happens again. There should be no moral hazard. Those

ready made. This third step if op-timalizing production in the exist-ing fields now at 44,000 barrels a day by an additional production of 12,000," he added.

Hatta said other decisions made during the cabinet meeting was completing the 10,000 mega-watt power project including the second phase of 10,000 mega-watt project and preparing the third phase of the 10,000 mega-watt project.

The meeting also decided mea-sure to meet national rice stock surplus, he said. "To secure 10 million tons surplus in 2014 the President has ordered the creation of a roadmap with its financing plan. The President also asked for increasing employment through increasing economic growth from 6.0 to 6.5%. In February 2011 the economic growth reached 6.1% and it could provide employment

to a total of 3.8 million people. So with the economic growth of 6.6% 4.1 million people should get em-ployment," he said.

Hatta said President Yudhoyono at the meeting also called for con-trol of inflation so that in the long term it could be controlled below four percent. "In August the rate of inflation was 0.93%. We hope by the end of the year we could manage it at below 5%," he said.

RI to maximize oil, petrochemical refinery construction

Hatta also said the government would strive to reduce imports of oil and gas by maximizing con-struction of oil and petrochemical refineries in the country.

"Our fuel oil imports are very high. Therefore development of petrochemical refineries is an ur-gent need. This is because we do not want our fuel oil imports to in-crease all the time," he said.

He said the oil or organic basic chemical refining industry would be one of the sectors that would receive a tax holiday facility. "That is why petrochemical and oil re-fineries will be one of the sectors to be given a tax holiday. We do not want imports to become big-ger and bigger including imports of additives containing a large amount of fossil fuel-based lubri-cants," he said.

With regard to controlling the rate of exports and reliance on imports Hatta said the govern-ment would also improve domes-tic trade system, expand domes-tic market share, put domestic industries in order and maintain people s buying power by control-ling inflation.

"Improving domestic trade is key to reducing burden. Do not let illegal levies on inter-island trade that cause inefficiency and load," he said.

CHIEF ECONOMIC MINISTER HATTA RAJASA: With regard to controlling the rate of exports and reliance on imports, the government would improve domestic trade system, expand domestic market share, put domestic industries in order and maintain people's buying power by controlling inflation.

who so far are able to pay will not get the incentive," he said.

In the meantime, Chairman of the House s Budgetary Body Melchias Markus Mekeng said the writing off of the KUT loans could be done by the govern-ment it the credits had passed the auditing process of the State Audit Board (BPK). "So, writing off could not be carried out in such away without the passing through the auditing of the BPK," he said.

EducationThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011A8

Guangxi Economic Management Cadres College Visit President University

The visit from Guangxi Economic Management Cadres College, China, has proven once again

that foreign universities all over the world have

taken interests in getting to know one of the best

private universities in Indonesia.

sities to all participants. Guangxi Economic Management Cadres College opened in 1951 and expe-rienced a historical transforma-tion from Guanxi People’s Rev-olutionary University, Guangxi Provincial Administrative Cad-res School, Guangxi Zhuang Au-tonomous Region and Nanning City “May-Seven” Cadres School, to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Economic Cadres School. With the approval of the Autono-mous Regional People’s Govern-ment and the National Minis-

try of Education, it was given the current name (GEMCC) in July of 1983.

The meeting discussed many areas, ranging from lecturers ex-change program, students ex-change program, joint seminar and scholarships to twinning de-gree program. The most feasi-ble program to be explored fur-ther among others was lectures exchange program as President University needed knowledge-able lecturers to teach Manda-

By Jhanghiz Syahrivar

Last August, Presi-dent University had the honor of welcom-ing Prof. Rao Weig-uo, the Vice President

of Guangxi Economic Manage-ment Cadres College, and his col-leagues to visit the University and discuss future possible collabora-tion between the two institutions.

President University was cho-sen by Prof. Weiguo for catering international students in which some of them were coming from China. Apart from that, President University is located in a very stra-tegic area: Jababeka Industrial Estate where 1,500 local leading and multinationals operate their businesses.

As soon as Prof. Rao Weig-uo and his colleagues arrived at President University’s main cam-pus in Cikarang, a semi-formal meeting was held in the Work-shop Room, 2nd Floor. The friend-ly meeting was chaired by Mr. Jhanghiz Syahrivar, the Head of Public Relations of President Uni-versity, who welcomed all delega-tions of Guangxi Economic Man-agement Cadres College. During the meeting, Mr. Syahrivar was accompanied by two Chinese stu-dents of President University who acted as interpreters between both parties.

The meeting began by deliver-ing brief histories of both univer-

www.president.ac.id

The 7th promotion of TTI in Nanjing was conducted on July 22-24 and focused on in-troducing opportunities for cooperation in ed-ucation, health and services sectors between RI and China. More than 300 people attended various events in the form of seminars, discus-sions, forums of investment consultations, tour-ism promotion meetings, one-on-one meet-ings, exhibition of products and services, as well as a gala evening of Indonesian culture.

It is important to note that there are now 7,500 Indonesians currently studying in Chi-na. Meanwhile, 400 Chinese are now studying in Indone-sia, 300 of whom are at President Univer-sity.

President Universi-ty has been one of the most favorite study-ing places in Indo-nesia for overseas students, especially those from China, for several reasons: First, the University offers its curriculum in English to cater not only to overseas students but also local ones who want to take advantage of the English-speaking en-vironment that the University offers. Second, the University’s curriculum is customized to suit company needs as part of the University’s commitment in aligning its academic program with global business industries. Third, the Uni-versity is best known for its multicultural and

international environment in a sense that it ca-ters to students from 22 cities in Indonesia and many countries. Lastly, the University has an internship program which allows the Universi-ty’s local and overseas students to work in no less than 1,500 local leading and multination-al companies in Indonesia and abroad.

According to a survey conducted by Intern-ship Career Center (ICC) of President Uni-versity, the University’s Chinese fresh grad-uates who decided to work in Indonesia were

paid between $750 to $3,000/month. In-deed, working in Indo-nesia is a very lucra-tive option after they graduate from Pres-ident University. Not to mention that more and more companies from China are open-ing their business-es in Indonesia, such as PT China Harbour Engineering Compa-ny (CHEC) Indonesia, which recently donat-

ed billions of rupiah to President University’s bright students through its CSR program.

During the TTI Conference in Nanjing, Pres-ident University was represented by Mr. Sendy Widjaja MBA, the University’s Vice Rector 3 of Student Affairs, and Mr. T. Manivasugen MBA, the University’s Director of Marketing and Communications Department.

Indonesian Embassy in China Invites President University

To boost TTI (Trade, Tourism, and Investment) developments between Indonesia and China, the Indonesian Embassy in China invited six Indonesian universities to attend a TTI conference in Nanjing, China. The six universities are President University (PresUniv), Parahyangan University (UNPAR), Sanatadarma University, Sriwijaya University,

Diponegoro University and Ahmad Dahlan University.

It is important to note that there are now 7,500

Indonesians currently studying in China. Meanwhile, 400

Chinese are now studying in Indonesia, 300 of whom are at

President University.

In August the Triputra Group granted a scholarship to President University’s stu-dents as a follow-up to the Memorandum of Understand-ing (MoU) signed between the university and the business group in March.

The Triputra scholarships are part of the company’s Cor-porate Social Responsibility (CSR) program and is is given to students who can demon-strate intellectual and leader-ship potentials. The main pur-pose of the scholarships is to create future generations that have superior competence not only in academic terms but also in personality, attitude and the potential to be great leaders

The awarded scholarship covers tuition fee for four tri-mesters, thesis registration fee and allowance of about Rp. 5.000.000/trimester. The scholarship will be presented as of the seventh semester in September of the 2011/2012 academic year.

After going through a rig-orous selection process at the university, 15 students were chosen from 50 who applied for the scholarships. Those students were then re-selected by Triputra Group which de-cided that three were eligible,

namely Antonius majoring in Industrial Engineering, Mar-vella majoring in Management and Maria Indri Purnamasari majoring in Accounting.

The awardees were selected on the basis of their high qual-ity of leadership, will power and dedication to achieve pro-fessional and personal goals and academic skills.

The Triputra Group (also known as PT Triputra In-vestindo Raya) is one of the largest companies in Indone-sia. Although relatively new, the company’s businesses have grown rapidly. Since its inception in 1998, the Tripur-ta Group has more than 10 business units, including agribusiness, financial ser-vices, manufacturing, min-ing and transportation. Globe Asia ranked it as one of 10 Top Business Groups in 2009. The Triputra Group believes in the importance of human resourc-es development, and the schol-arship program aims to devel-op brilliant talents and future leaders in Indonesia.

President University is a higher education institution that was established to train future leaders in the era of global competition, both na-tional and international.

Triputra GroupGrants Scholarships

rin courses in the Universi-ty while the GEMCC needed some knowledgeable lectur-ers to teach English cours-es for their approximately 10,000 students.

The visit from Guangxi Economic Management Cad-res College, China, has prov-en once again that foreign universities all over the world have taken interests in get-ting to know one of the best private universities in Indo-nesia.

The Triputra scholarships are part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program and is is given to students who can demonstrate intellectual and leadership potentials.

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com

Display until October 12, 2011 /// N0. 27Business BThree Bidders Fail

to Acquire Bank MutiaraCement Producers ReviseUpward 2011 Sales Target

Domestic cement producers have revised upward their domestic sale target for this year following high consumption in July.

“True, we have revised upward our target to 10 percent,” Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Producers Association (ASI) Urip Timuryono said here on Tuesday.

Data from the association show domestic cement sales rose 6% to 40 million tons last year. The association predicts the figure will increase to 44 million tons this year. Domestic cement sales in the seven months through July climbed 15% to 26.8 million tons. However, cement exports plummeted 54% to 677 thousand tons from a year earlier. In total, cement sales rose 11% to 27.5 million tons.

Most populated Java island remained the biggest cement market in the January-July 2011 period with consumption estimated at 14.7 million tons, up 18.2 percent from the year before. Sumatra trailed behind in second place with 6.3 million tons.

Urip attributed the surge in cement consumption to the growing property and infrastructure sectors as a result of stable benchmark interest rate coupled with government spending on infrastructure projects. “As the interest rate is stable property developers are building property projects which require cement in large quantities,” he said.

He expressed his belief that infrastructure and property projects would continue to grow in the fourth quarter of 2011 and therefore, demand for cement would remain high. Cement factories were spurring their production to cater to the growing demand. Even state-owned cement maker PT Semen Gresik was now operating at 100% capacity, he said. “However, the vast majority of cement plants are still operating at 80 percent capacity so they still have a chance of fulfilling the surging demand,” he added.

Bank Syariah Mandiri Plans To Issue Rp900b BondsPT Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), a sharia unit of the country`s largest

lender, Bank Mandiri, plans to issue subordinated bonds (subdebts) worth Rp900 billion to meet its capital needs.

The plan to issue the subdebts, if approved by its parent company, would strengthen its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) which began to decline, PT BSM President Director Yuslam Fauzi said on Thursday.

Bank Mandiri had injected Rp200 billion in funds to BSM in two phases with each amounting to Rp100 billion, he said. Urip said if the capital injection from Bank Mandiri was far from enough BSM would issue subdebts.

BSM posted a net profit of Rp270 billion in the year ended June 2011, a 36.64% increase compared to Rp197.60 billion in the same period a year earlier. He said the total financing extended by BSM in the first half of 2011 reached Rp30.06 trillion, up by 51.28% percent from the same period last year when the figure was Rp19.87 trillion.

As per June 30, 2011, BSM`s unaudited assets surged by 44.49% to Rp38.25 trillion from Rp26.38 trillion a year earlier. He attributed the increase in total assets to third party funds which rose 45.56% to Rp33.96 trillion in the first semester of 2011 from Rp23.33 trillion in the same period last year.

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Three investors had failed to acquire the government s stake at Bank Mutiara after the Deposit Insurance

Agency (LPS) which organized the divestment said they did not meet the requirements.

The LPS said here on Thurs-day that the three investors had submitted their confirming let-ters of interest and other support-ing documents. After conduct-

ing a prequalification process of the three would-be buyers, none of the three investors met the re-quirements based on the crite-ria set by Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank).

Based on the provision in Ar-ticle 42 of Law on LPS, the LPS will reopen a chance and to recall a tender for the publicly listed PT Bank Mutiara. The date for the re-opening of the tender will be de-cided later.

The tender process of Bank Mu-tiara which was formally known as Bank Century was started on July 8, 2011, when the LPS an-nounced a bidding process for it assisted by PT Danareksa Seku-ritas as its financial adviser.

CARGO INSPECTION RATES

The situation of cargo terminal at Soekarno-Hatta Airport Jakarta. PT. Angkasa Pura II Soekarno-Hatta branch commencing on September 2011 implements the Regulated Agent (RA) to improve aviation security. The whole cargo to be transported in the aircraft must be inspected by the RA.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The divestment of PT Bank Mu-tiara is carried out based on Law No. 24 / 2004 on LPS (UU LPS). Through the invitation to the ten-der of PT Bank Mutiara, nine in-vestors offered participation. Af-ter PT Danareksa provided them with teasers on PT Bank Mutiara, only three would-be investors filed confirming letters of interest.

Based on the UU LPS, the di-vestment of the bank can be car-ried out until 2013 with a mini-mal price offer of Rp6.7 trillion, or equal to the bailout funds the gov-ernment provided for Bank Cen-tury. If LPS fails to sell Bank Mu-tiara until 2013, the bank can then be sold at any price.

The divestment of the bank can be carried out until 2013 with a minimal price offer of Rp6.7 trillion.

The tender process of Bank Mutiara which was formally known as Bank Century was started on July 8, 2011, when the LPS announced a bidding process for it assisted by PT Danareksa Sekuritas as its financial adviser.

Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. is preparing thousands of hot-spots in various locations across the country to help people access internet services quickly.

The executive general manag-er of Telkom Customer Service for Eastern Area, Sukardi Silalahi, said here on Monday the hot-spots would be set up in cooperation with the company s subsidiaries such as Telkomsel, Speedy and Flexi. “This shows Telkom`s com-

mitment to easing public informa-tion access to make the Indone-sian people more advanced and smarter,” he said.

Sukardi said the development of the hot-spots was also the follow-up to the “Indonesia Wi-Fi pro-gram” launched by the company s president director, Rinaldi Fir-mansyah, recently. The setting up of the installations is done simul-taneously in different locations by Telkomsel, Speedy and Flexi. “Lat-

er hot-spots belonging to Telkom will be available in various loca-tions which Telkom product users could use them to access internet service,” he said.

He said out of around 5,400 hot-spots to be built by Telkomsel more than 516 have already been installed. Meanwhile, 312 Speedy hotspots are operational out of the planned 2,000 to be set up in East Java and Indonesia s eatern regions.

Flexi Division for East Java area, Bali and Nusa Tenggara have also set up 36 Flexinet hot-spots at campuses and shopping centers.

“In the future after all are al-ready installed Telkom will ap-ply `a single sign on upon which Speedy users at home could also access the hot-spots free of charge. This also applies to users of Telkomsel and Flexinet,” Su-kardi said.

Telkom Prepares Thousands of Hot-spotsto Access Internet

To support Speedy s broad-band service Telkom through its Infratel Division and subsidiary Telkom International has pre-pared a band-with capacity of up 100 Gbps.

Telkom meanwhile is just fin-ishing the development of more than 47,000 kilometer long optic fiber network from Aceh to Pap-ua under the “Nusantara Super Highway” project.

www.kontan.co.id

www.wartaekonomi.co.id

www.hukumonline.com

BusinessThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011B2

SMEs TURNOVER INCREASE: A craftsman is making shoes and sandals. The values of SMEs’ perpetrators in Indonesia rise significantly around 200-300% in recent years due to the rise of consumer trust on domestic product.The President Post/Nandi Nanti

Hypermart Eyes 25% Sales GrowthMatahari Putra Prima had set 25% sales growth for its Hy-

permart unit during Ramadan and Idul fitri this year.Matahari Putra Prima Corporate Communication Director

Danny Konjongian said sales turnover reached Rp7.6 trillion last year and iti is expected to increase to Rp10 trillion this year. “We expect sales to reach Rp10 trillion this year from Rp7.6 tril-lion last year, up by 25%,” said Konjongian.

He said that sales surged 25% during the holy month of Ramadan to a week after Idul Fitri and attributed the surge to sales of favorite Ramadan products such as syrups.

He added that that the retailer had prepared stocks since three months ago and increased syrup stock by fourfold.

“The company plans to open 22 Hypermart outlets this year that requires between Rp40 billion to Rp50 billion investment, based on the sizes of the outlets,” he said.

Luxury House Prices Rise in Q2Prices of houses in posh areas in several cities in Indonesia,

especially Jakarta, increased by more than 10% in the second

quarter, according to an international survey agency The Knight Frank Global House Market.

A report released recently by agency said prices of houses in all major cities in Indonesia rose by 4,5% on average compared to the same period last year.

“Indonesia was among the top 15 countries out of 50 coun-tries in the world that were surveyed in the second quarter for price hikes over the past 12 months,” said the report.

The report attributed the price hikes to Indonesia’s economy which became more conducive as it was supported by a stable political condition, thus enabling almost all areas in Indonesia to enjoy price hikes. Indonesia ranked 6th among other Asia Pacific nations in terms of the highest house price increases in the second quarter of this year.

Knight Frank recorded 0.1% average global price increase in the second quarter with annual growth rate of 1.7%, the low-est price rise since 2009. “House prices in 23 out of 50 coun-tries in the global index showed negative growth in the second quarter,” said the report.

However, house prices in Asia posted positive growth amid the sluggish global property market with 8% rise. Countries

with the biggest price increase in Asia Pacific were Hong Kong with 26.5% surge, followed by India 21.3%, Taiwan 12.7%, Sin-gapore 6.7%, China 6.5%, and Malaysia 6.5%.

Countries that suffered the biggest house price plunges in the second quarter of this year were Latvia 63.6%, Dubai 49.7%, and United States 32.3%. In Asia Pacific, Japan suffered the biggest plummet with 41.7%, the lowest since the first quarter of 1995.

Garuda, Lion Enjoy Load Factor RiseGaruda Indonesia and Lion Air saw an increase in their load

factor by 27% and 20% respectively during the Idul Fitri holiday compared to the same period last year.

Garuda Indonesia Commercial Vice President Agus Priyanto said the total number of Garuda’s passengers from seven days ahead of and six days post Idul Fitri reached 655,576, an increase of 27% compared to last year’s Idul Fitri holiday. Pri-yanto added that the 27% passenger hike exceeded Garuda’s expectation which expected to see a 15% rise.

Priyanto also said that Garuda’s strategy to encourage pas-sengers to conduct city check-in or web check-in turned out to

be effective as it helped prevent passenger pile up at the air-port. With regards to its punctuality or on time performance, Garuda claimed it had improved from 85% to 89.4% during 23 August - 6 September 2011 period.

Meanwhile, Lion Air President Edward Sirait said the airline saw a 20% passenger hike during the Idul Fitri holiday to 1.2 million passengers. This year Lion Air provided 30,000 addi-tional seats for Idul Fitri.

Sirait said the airline’s busiest routes were Surabaya-Balikpa-pan, Surabaya-Banjarmasin, Jakarta-Yogyakarta, Jakarta-Solo, and Jakarta-Padang. “These routes experienced a significant increase of more than 15% compared to normal days,” he said.

Lion Air claimed that its OTP during the Idul Fitri holiday in-creased to 82% from its initial target of 80%.will result among others from a 20 percent increase in production capacity,” he said.

Last year, the company had a production capacity of 3,000 tons which came from its two plants located at Cimareme in-dustrial complex, Padalarang, Bandung district, West Java.

PAL Indonesia is looking for a strategic partner to develop its commercial division. The state company is planning to sell 20% of its stake to a strategic partner and has conveyed the plan to the State Ministry of State Enterpris-es as the shareholder of the com-pany.

PAL President Director Harsu-santo said recently that as a stra-tegic company, PAL is prohibit-ed from selling its shares to other parties. However, the plan may be

PAL SeeksStrategic Partner

possible in line with the expan-sion of its commercial division.

“We will sell 20% of the com-mercial division to the public to Korea or the Netherlands, for ex-ample,” said Harsusanto at the parliament building.

PAL management has dis-cussed the matter with the deputy minister but they need to work out the method to realize the plan.

The company also continues to develop its core business. PAL is preparing to produce three ships with rudals for Armed Forces.

PAL President Director Harsusanto

PT Taman Wisata Candi (TWC) Prambanan, Borobu-dur and Ratu Boko has been ranked 24th in the list of 48 state-owned companies com-piled by Infobank magazine (Sep 2011).

The company manages three major temples that are

PT TWC Prambanan, Borobudurand Ratu Boko Ranks High AmongState-owned Companies

located in Central Java.The criteria are growth assets,

operating revenue, and net profit, short-term liabilities, solvability, operational cost, and profitability.

Despite a correction in net prof-it (minus 16.81%), Purnomo Sis-woprasetjo, the president of TWC,

remains optimistic about the future prospects of the tour-ism industry. Until December 2010, the company’s revenue reached Rp 103.14 billion.

The company also won the PATA Gold Award 2011 in the Cultural Heritage category.

(Billion) Rp (%)

Assets 147,96 14,71

Liabilities 22,52 42,90

Own Capital 125,44 10,78

Operating Revenue 103,14 15,80

Net Profit 12,83 16,81

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 B3

Investment

The government will boost domestic salt production by facili-tating investments on new salt plants to re-

duce import dependence for in-dustry needs.

“Currently, almost 100% salt for industries are imported and we want to reduce dependence on imported salt by facilitating in-vestments on new salt plant devel-opment,” said Industry Minister MS Hidayat in Jakarta, recently.

Hidayat said that several com-panies are planning to build new salt plants for industry needs, in-cluding Cheetham Garam Indo-nesia, a subsidiary of Australia-base Cheetham Salt, which will build a plant next year in Nagekeo regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

“They will cooperate with the lo-cal administration for a $21 mil-lion investment to build a salt plant on a 1,050 hectare land in Nagekeo. They have already se-cured 700 hectares of land,” he said.

Cheetham will initially produce 300,000 tons of salt per year.

Hidayat added that state salt producer PT Garam is also plan-ning to invest on a new salt field in Teluk Kupang, East Nusa Tengg-ara. The state company previous-ly asked the government to place

Rp421 billion capital to build a salt field which is expected to pro-duce 345,000 tons salt per year in Teluk Kupang.

The new investments in the salt industry are hoped to boost domestic industry’s capability to meet domestic industry and household demand for salt and at the same time reduce the coun-try’s dependence on imported salt.

Industry Ministry data showed that domestic salt demand last year reached 2.8 million tons comprising 1.2 million tons of consumer salt and 1.6 million tons salt for industry needs. Total domestic salt demand this year is estimated at 3.4 million tons consisting of 1.4 million tons for household consumption and 1.7 million tons for industries.

Pertamina Upbeat on Completing Senoro Project by 2014

State oil and gas company Per-tamina is confident it can com-plete the Donggi-Senoro liqui-fied natural gas refinery project in Banggai regency, Central Sulawe-si, by 2014.

Pertamina Upstream Director

Muhammad Husen claimed that both upstream and down-stream projects were run-ning well. “Given the progress in both upstream and down-stream projects, I am confident we can make our first LNG shipping in 2014,” Husen was quoted as saying by Antara.

He acknowledged that the company was still facing prob-lems related to land clearing, especially for the upstream project which will become the site for exploration and pro-duction activities.

The Senoro gas development project covers development in Blok Senoro-Toili which is op-erated under a Joint Operating Body (JOB) between Pertam-ina and Medco and the Mat-indok area which is operated by Pertamina. Gas from both fields will be processed into liq-uefied natural gas at the Dong-gi-Senoro refinery.

The Donggi-Senoro project is the first LNG development project in Indonesia that ad-opted the downstream scheme. The LNG Senoro refinery proj-ect will have a capacity of two million tons per year.

Govt to Boost Local Salt Production

The investment needed to de-velop East Natuna’s oil and gas block in Riau Islands is estimat-ed at Rp160-320 trillion or $20-40 billion.

Pertamina Upstream Direc-tor Muhamad Husen calculated the value to be above US$20 bil-lion but not more than $40 billion with estimated development peri-od of between 6-10 years and on-stream by 2021-2022.

Husen attributed the high in-vestment value in East Natuna to the high carbondioxide gas re-serve in the block that reaches

71%. The $20 billion investment estimation is the lowest using a scenario that gas production is distributed through pipes to Su-matra or Java to be exported to Malaysia.

He added that Pertamina will further discuss the investment development scheme of East Na-tuna with three other contractors who have obtained cooperation contracts (KKKS) namely Esso Natuna Ltd, Total E&P Activities Petrolieres, and Petronas. The discussion will cover the scenar-ios for East Natuna development,

gas production and distribu-tion with options to distribute gas through pipes or by build-ing a new LNG plant.

“We don’t know whether we will build an LNG plant yet, it depends on the outcome of the discussion,” he said.

Pertamina and three oth-er KKKS signed principles of agreement on 19 August 2011 for exploration and exploita-tion on East Natuna block. Pertamina expects to sign the Production Sharing Contract on 28 October.

East Natuna Block Investmentto Reach Rp320t

Food, Beverage Industry Absorbs Highest Investment in H1

The food and beverage in-dustry absorbed the highest domestic investment in the first half of the year, account-ing for a quarter of the total investment in the manufac-turing sector.

Investments in the food and beverage industry reached Rp4,569.1 billion in the first half from 159 projects.

Industry Ministry’s Head of In-dustry Policy, Climate, and Qual-ity Assessment Agency Arryanto Sagala said foreign direct invest-ments and domestic direct invest-ments had focused on three in-dustrial sectors.

“The most dominant were met-al, machineries and electronic, food beverage and chemical and pharmaceutical industries,” said

Sagala during a recent press con-ference.

He added that domestic di-

rect investment realization in the manufacturing sector reached Rp18,624.8 billion in the first half. “The biggest was contributed by food and beverage, followed by metal, chemical and pharmaceu-tical industry,” he said.

Meanwhile, total foreign di-rect investment in the man-ufacturing sector reached US$3.25 billion from 871 dif-ferent projects. “The biggest FDI was made on metal and machineries industries, fol-lowed by pharmaceutical and chemical industries and food and beverage industry,” he said.

New investments in the salt industry are hoped to boost domestic industry’s capability to meet domestic industry and household demand for salt and at the same time reduce the country’s dependence on imported salt.

Industry Minister MS Hidayat: Several companies are planning to build new salt plants for industry needs, including Cheetham Garam Indonesia, a subsidiary of Australia-base Cheetham Salt, which will build a plant next year in Nagekeo regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

JCI IMPROVED BACK: Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) rose 38 points on the accumulation on leading shares by local and foreign investors, particularly in mining stocks that continue soars. Index also gets the positive impact of the improvement of Asian and European markets.The President Post/Nandi Nanti

www.mediaindonesia.com

Executive HighlightsThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011B4

President Yudhoyono announced the government’s draft 2012 budget and macroeconomic assumptions in his state-of-the-nation address to parliament on 16 August.Emphasizing Indonesia’s abili-ty to maintain fiscal resiliency at a time when many countries are facing debt crises, SBY asserted his intention to cut the deficit to 1.5% of GDP in 2012 compared to a projected 2.1% this year. He said the nation’s overall debt lev-el would also be reduced to 24% of GDP from 25% currently. Gov-ernment spending is projected to reach Rp1,419 trillion in 2012, up 7.4% from this year. Capi-tal expenditures, meanwhile, are forecast to rise 19.3% to Rp168 trillion, including funding for 150-km of new railways and 14 air-ports. Notably, spending for sub-sidies in 2012 is projected to fall Rp28.3 trillion from this year to Rp209.9 trillion, implying a possi-ble increase in fuel and electrici-ty prices. The subsidies comprise Rp123.6 trillion for fuel, Rp45 tril-lion for electricity and Rp40.3 tril-lion for non-energy subsidies like food, fertilizer and social servic-es. 2012 GDP growth is fore-cast at 6.7%, up from 6.5% this year. Inflation is projected at 5.3%, unchanged from this year; the benchmark interest rate at 6.5% from 5.6% this year; the Rp-US$ exchange rate at Rp8,800 from Rp8,700; average oil prices at US$90 per barrel from US$95 currently; and oil production at 950,000 barrels per day versus 945,000 this year.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said new regulations have been finalized for tax holidays and tax allowances in a bid to boost investment.Industries that will be eligible for a tax holiday include base metals, oil refining, petrochemicals and renewable energy. The minister said the project investment also needs to be at least Rp1 trillion to qualify for a tax holiday. The tax holiday will cover a period of five years from the time the proj-ect begins commercial operations. According to investment board (BKPM) chairman Gita Wirjawan, five companies have so far sub-mitted requests for a tax holiday: Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (Rp60-70 trillion project), South Korea’s steel maker Posco (Rp60 trillion project) and tire maker Hankook (Rp5 trillion project), heavy equip-ment manufacturer Caterpillar (Rp5 trillion project) and local tex-tile firm Indorama (Rp3-5 trillion project). The new regulations will also expand the business sectors eligible for tax allowances, which reduce the amount of tax stem-ming from a project. Priority sec-tors for tax allowances include infrastructure development and projects in remote areas. Com-panies will need to invest at least Rp50 billion to qualify for a tax al-lowance.

The rupiah has strengthened to around Rp8,520 to the dollar over the past several days, after falling to a six-week low of Rp8,610 to the dollar in the first week of August amid concerns over the escalating debt crisis in Europe and the U.S. ratings downgrade by S&P. Bank Indo-nesia governor Darmin Nasu-tion said capital inflows into the country would likely continue fol-lowing the U.S. federal reserves’ recent decision to keep inter-est rates near zero through mid-2013. The rupiah has appreciat-ed around 5.5% year-to-date, one of the strongest in the region, on capital inflows. Foreign investors have bought a net total of US$2.1 billion in Indonesian stocks year-to-date. Foreign ownership of Indonesian government bonds, meanwhile, totaled Rp241.5 tril-lion as of 12 August, up 23% year-to-date.

U.S. Energy giant Exxonmobil has awarded a US$750 million contract to Samsung Engineering and local firm Tripatra Engineering to help develop the Cepu blockin East Java. The deal marks a milestone for ExxonMobil as the first of five engineering, pro-curement and construction con-tracts for work on major facili-ties at Cepu. The remaining for contracts will likely be awarded before the end of the year. Ter-ry McPhail, president of the Exx-onMobil unit operating the block, said with the latest contract the Cepu project was now at a point that development will likely lead to peak production estimated at around 165,000 barrels per day (bpd). He added that that major challenge at Cepu, land acqui-sition, was also at a stage where ExxonMobil could proceed with full field development. The Cepu block has recoverable resources estimated at 450 million barrels. ExxonMobil has operatorship of the block with a 45% interest, with state-owned oil and gas firm Per-tamina owning a 45% stake. The remaining 10% interest is held by four local government companies.

National carrier Garuda Indonesia has finalized its purchase of 25 Airbus A320 aircraft. The purchase, worth US$2.2 bil-lion, realizes an MoU signed in June with Airbus. The deal cov-ers 15 standard A320s and 10 of Airbus’ new fuel-efficient A320neos. Delivery will start in 2014. The A320s will be operat-ed by Garuda’s low-cost carri-er unit, Citilink, as part of a ma-jor expansion plan for the latter. Citilink currently operates a fleet of six Boeing 737-300/400s, two more 737-300/400s due next year. It currently serves 10 do-mestic routes connecting Jakarta to Surabaya, Denpasar, Medan, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan and Batam, and routes connecting Surabaya to Balikpapan, Ban-jarmasin and Makassar. Citilink has plans to expand domestic ser-vices to eastern Indonesia and add short-haul routes to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Australia. The low-cost air-line aims to carry more than eight million passengers over the next several years from two million passengers currently.

Top rubber producer Kirana Megatara has secured a US$600 million loan facility from a syndicate of 12 banks.

The bank consortium was led by Bank CIMB-Niaga, HSBC Indo-nesia, Bank Permata and Stan-dard Chartered Bank. The facility comprises a three-year, US$500 million loan for working capital and US$100 million in invest-ment credit. Kirana has the op-tion of upsizing the facility by an additional US$200 million. The company will use the funds to ex-pand 14 existing rubber process-ing facilities and build six new fa-cilities by 2013. The expansion is aimed at boosting Kirana’s output to one million tons per year from 550,000 tons currently. Kirana is owned by Teddy Rachmat, a former Astra International pres-ident director who has business interests in mining and palm oil. The company supplies a range of major tire producers including Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear, Hankook and Kumho.

Indian infrastructure group GMR has entered an agreement to acquire a 30%

stake in coal miner Golden Energy Mines in a deal estimated at US$500 million. As part of the deal, GMR will be entitled to purchase coal from Golden Energy in a 25-year off-take agreement. Completion of the acquisition is expected before the end of the year. GMR senior executive Raaj Kumar said the deal represented a unique oppor-tunity to invest in a high quality asset with strong growth poten-tial. The acquisition will help pro-vide GMR fuel security for power plants now under construction in India. Golden Energy currently owns four producing and six non-producing thermal coal conces-sions in Kalimantan. It has coal reserves estimated at 860 million tons and coal resources estimat-ed at 1.9 billion tons. The miner’s annual coal production is expect-ed to rise to 10 million tons over the coming years. Golden Ener-gy is affiliated with the Sinar Mas Group.

PLN has signed Rp5.5 trillion, 20-

year deal with South Korea’s Hankook Tire to supply up to 60 mega volt amperes (MVA) to the latter’s manufacturing facility in Bekasi. The state power utility will provide the electricity under its special premium contract. Un-der this premium contract, Han-kook will pay Rp745 per kilowatt hour (kwh) compared to an aver-age Rp605 per kwh for PLN’s stan-dard industrial clients. In return, PLN will compensate Hankook for any electricity outage. PLN pres-ident director Dahlan Iskan said the company would be invest-ing Rp200 billion in new equip-ment to support its contract with Hankook and expand its premi-um services. He said PLN would start delivering an initial 30 MVA to the South Korean tire maker by March 2012, with the remaining 30 MVA to be provided by August 2015. According to Dahlan, 27 major companies have signed up for PLN’s premium services, in-cluding cement producers Semen Gresik and Holcim and steel mak-er Krakatau Steel. PLN began in-troducing its premium services to business clients last year to deal with rising costs.

State fertilizer producer Pupuk Kaltim has secured a syndicated loan worth Rp4.4 trillion to help fund construction of a major new facility in East Kalimantan.

The bank syndicate was led by Bank Mandiri and also included Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), and re-gional development banks BPD Kaltim and BPD Jabar Banten (BPJB). The loan, which includes a rupiah-denominated portion and a dollar-denominated portion, will have a 10-year term and a three-and-a-half year grace period. Pu-puk Kaltim president director Aas Asikin Idat said the new facility, known as Kaltim-5, will have an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons of urea granule and 850,000 tons of ammonia. Con-struction of the facility is sched-uled to start before the end of the year, with commercial operations slated for 2014. The fertilizer will be fueled by 80 million cubic feet of natural gas per day supplied by gas producers such as Pearl Oil, Total ERP Sebuku and Inpex South Makassar.

State miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) has mandated seven financial institutions to help arrange US$1 billion in funding for a ferronickel smelter in North Maluku.

The financing consortium com-prised Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Mandi-ri Sekuritas, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Sumitomo Mit-sui Banking Corporation and Standard Chartered Bank. The cost of the smelter is estimated at US$1.6 billion, and Antam pres-ident director Alwin Syah Lubis said the firm would also issue bonds to help fund the project. He said the ferronickel smelter was a strategic project for the compa-ny as it would enhance the val-ue of the miner’s nickel reserves through processing. The smelter will have a production of 27,000 tons per year. Alwin said he ex-pects to start construction of the project before the end of the year, with commercial operations slat-ed for end-2014.

General Motors (GM) is investing US$150 million in reopening a

manufacturing plant in Bekasi, West Java. The facility will have a production capacity of 50,000 vehicles and will function as a manufacturing hub for GM’s Southeast Asia mar-ket. Martin Apfel, GM’s president for Southeast Asia, said the deci-sion to invest in Indonesia reflect-ed the country’s favorable growth trajectory in terms of market eco-nomics, market dynamics and de-mographics relative to other coun-tries in the region. The company is scheduled to start production of a seven-seat “people mover” van by 2013 to reestablish its presence in an Indonesian market domi-nated by multi-purpose vehicles. GM Indonesia chief executive Marcos Purty said the firm may also introduce GM trucks in the coming years. GM sold 2,500 ve-hicles in Indonesia in the first half of the year, up 18% y-o-y. Sales jumped 72% y-o-y to 4,500 vehi-cles in 2010.

Global consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) began construction of its first manufacturing facility in Indonesia. The plant, worth an estimat-ed US$100 million, will produce P&G’s popular baby diapers brand Pampers. The facility will be lo-cated in Karawang, West Java. Mohamed A. Ismail, president di-rector of P&G Home Products In-donesia, asserted that baby care products would be a key driver of growth for P&G in the country. He noted that Indonesia had one of the world’s largest baby popu-lations, with 12,000 babies born every day and with an estimated 17 million babies currently aged 48 months or younger. The firm said the plant would begin com-mercial operations in early 2013. Regi Aalstad, P&G vice president for ASEAN, Australasia and India, said the new facility would cater mostly to Indonesia’s lucrative do-mestic market but would also be set up to serve the regional mar-ket.

Consumer foods maker Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food has acquired Taro snack brand from Unilever Indonesia in a Rp200 billion deal.

Under the agreement, Tiga Pilar will also get production facilities located in Gunung Putri, Bogor and Medan, North Sumatra. Tiga Pilar corporate secretary Yuli-anni Liyuwardi said the acquisi-

Selected Instant Indicators

Business Highlights are contributed to The President Post by CASTLEASIA/PT Jasa Cita from information supplied to members of their CEO Forum, the Indonesia Country Program. They are reprinted here with permission. For more information about CASTLEASIA programs, please contact Juliette or Wijayanti at 62 21 572 7321 or email castle@castleasia.com subject CEO Forum

tion of Taro Snack was a strategic move given that the brand tar-geted mainly middle and upper-end consumers. Tiga Pilar’s main products like Ayam 2 Telor noodles and Gulas candy currently cater to middle and lower-end consum-ers. Unilever Indonesia corporate secretary Sancoyo Antarikso said the divestment of Taro Snack was in line with the parent company’s global portfolio of products, where food snacks was no longer part of the composition. He said the di-vestment would not have a major impact on Unilever Indonesia rev-enue given that Taro Snack con-tributed less than 2% of the firm’s overall sales.

Global real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) has acquired local property consultant Procon. No financial details were provid-ed. The combined firm will make it the largest real estate services company in Indonesia. JLL coun-try head Todd Lauchlan asserted that the decision to acquire Pro-con was driven by the long-term prospects of Indonesia’s real es-tate market. He said there were significant opportunities in Indo-nesia, and noted that a number of JLL’s global clients, including ma-jor oil and gas, banking and con-sumer goods firms, were focusing aggressively on the country. Ac-cording to JLL, this has led office rent to grow faster than any place in Asia excluding Beijing. Lucy Rumantir, the president of Procon who will serve as chairwoman of the new merged firm, said the deal would provide JLL with sub-stantial local expertise that would enable it to better penetrate the domestic property market.

GDP GROWTH (%)By QuarterYear on Year

% Index*2000=100

165

95

105

115

125

135

145

155

8

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

06

07 09

08

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

2010200920082007

10 Q4

175

2011

Q1

Q2

INFLATION 66 CITIES

108 General

Food

WPI

Index

105

102

99NovJ

10S O F Mar Apr Jun

2010

Aug JD Jan11

104.6

105.2

2011

M

EXPORT AND IMPORTS(US$ Million)

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0NJ S O Jan

11F Apr May Jun

2010

AugJun

*Q4 2000=100

Exports

Imports

Dec

2011

Mar

Crude Oil-LHS

Palm Oil-RHS

COMMODITY PRICES Mal$ permetric ton

Sumatran LightUS$/barrel

4,000

88

83

78

73

68

3,750

3,500

3,250

3,000

2,750

2,500

2,250

M$ 3,100

M$2,589

$78.36

NJ S O F Mar M Jun

2010

Aug JD Jan11

93

4,250

98 $96.0

103

108

113

Apr

2011

PropertyThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011B6

Advantages/DisadvantagesThe primary advantage would

be that an under-construction property will invariably come cheaper than a ready-for-posses-sion property. Depending on the stage of construction and also the response that the project has al-ready elicited from other buyers/investors, the rates can be from anywhere between 15-30% lower.

Also, its value often appreciates even if it is not completed. It is in-correct to assume that property value may not appreciate while it is being developed. It has been ob-served in a number of cases that property prices usually appreciate once they are nearing the phase of completion. This aspect is usual-ly inherent to the property, and is attributed to the stage in its life-cycle. The market is likely to read a lesser risk in a project nearing completion. Consequently, it may be willing to pay a slight premium on account of this aspect. There-fore, it can make a lot of sense to invest in a under-construction property by a credible and reput-ed developer.

The primary disadvantages would be that the property cannot be immediately used for occupan-cy or renting out, that one’s mon-ey is locked into a non-performing asset and that there may be deliv-ery delays or sometimes even de-faults. that can have serious fi-nancial repercussions.

What To Check Before Buying An Under-Construction Property

To begin with, if one is buying into an under-construction proj-ect, the developer’s bona fides and market standing should be care-fully researched and verified

A buyer is entitled to ask for a •copy of the project’s drawings, duly stamped by the municipal authoritiesLocations should be chosen for •future appreciation potentialCheck on option to choose a •construction linked payment plans, which are usually struc-tured on a project-to-project ba-sis

Changes In The Original Development Plans

Certain necessary changes are usually permitted and also men-tioned in the agreement. Once ac-tual construction begins, there may be grey areas on the blue-prints that come to light only later. Sometimes, this may involve new regulations with regards to park-ing space or other aspects beyond the developer’s control.

Failure To Hand Over The Property On Time

There are certainly such inci-dences, as can be expected in a largely disorganized market. Gen-erally, reputed builders deliver on time and as per promised speci-fications. Small developers, how-ever, often default by stretching

their projects beyond the prom-ised delivery date – sometimes by as much as a year or more.

Often, this is caused by fund-ing issues. They may also skimp on construction costs, banking on the buyer’s ignorance of qual-ity parameters. Sometimes, the drawings they submit to the mu-nicipal authorities are not suffi-ciently detailed, leading to non-approval of their projects. There are also fly-by-night operators who pocket their clients’ up-front payment and then disappear al-together.

Most developers operating in city centres are well-established and experienced players with rep-

Tips on Buying into an Under-construction Project London has the highest rents and

Mumbai the lowest out of the top 10 cities in the new ‘World Class Index’ of premier global residential property locations recently published by international real estate adviser Savills.

The top five most expensive rental cities are London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, where demand is fuelled by domestic, as well as corporate demand as would-be purchasers are pushed into the rental sector due to credit restrictions.

Rents have moved, on average, across all cities at a slower pace than capital values, thereby suppressing yields.

There is an old world/new world difference in the growth of rents but it is not as pronounced as with capital values. This highlights that strong capital-growth-motivated investment activity is driving capital values in the ‘new world’ and means that yields are moving in much faster in these cities. In consequence, it could be argued that there is a stronger case for rental-return-motivated investment in the cities of the ‘old world’.

The Savills Research says a clear gap can be seen between what might be called the ‘old’ economies of Tokyo, London, Paris, Sydney and New York - which grew by 32% since 2005 - and the ‘new’ or emerging economies of Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Moscow and Mumbai. These economies grew, on average, by 123% over the same period.

Within the ‘old world’ the more cosmopolitan cities have fared much better than those that restrict foreign purchasers.

It becomes apparent that the debt-induced crisis of 2008 was suffered most by the ‘old world’ cities and not the ‘new world’ ones,” said Yolande Barnes, head of Savills Residential Research.

“The biggest ‘old world’ value rebounds have been experienced in the cities most open to new world investment, notably London and Paris.”

A shift has occurred in the global real estate premier league since 2005 according to Savills. Hong Kong remains the most expensive and values are now 107 percent above the 10 cities index average, and 63% more expensive than second place London, which is grouped alongside Tokyo, Singapore and Paris.

Singapore has seen growth over the last five and a half years at 123% cent, so it has come up the ranks from 7th position in 2005 to fourth in 2011 At the other end of the scale, Mumbai is the least expensive world class city, costing 43% less than the average of all the 10 cities. But it is the great pretender having grown by 154% off this low base, and recording the highest rate of growth over the period, - marginally ahead of Shanghai’s 143%.

Barnes concluded: “Increasingly, our cities have more in common with each other than with the domestic, mainstream markets in which they operate. Their future performance will depend upon their continued appeal as places to live and work as well as to invest.

“Meanwhile, ‘old world’ cities like Tokyo and Sydney are geographically very well placed to benefit from investment from frustrated Chinese and other Far Eastern investors but they will need to open up their markets to such investors to trigger this.

“It seems likely that, for wealthy, globally-footloose investors, prime residential property in London and Paris will remain a favoured safe haven for wealth created in the ‘new world’ economies.”

Source: Fly2let™

It’s ‘Old World’ versus ‘New World’on Overseas Property Investment

utations to protect. The incidence of gross defaulting on promis-es there is less than 10%. It can, however, be as high as 15-20% in emerging suburban areas be-cause there is a fairly large inci-dence of small developers. Many developers who respond to sud-den property booms in suburban areas are simply traders who are putting up the only project they ever will in their entire lifetimes. They have no experience or tech-nical knowledge and often do not have banks backing them. Most emerging suburbs are also de-fined by unclear land titles.

A prospective buyer should •check into the developer’s cred-ibility, past projects and perfor-

mance and delivery recordThe buyer is perfectly enti-•tled to ask for copies of all necessary permissions prior to making a financial com-mitmentHe should also ensure that •the project is funded by a known bank and that the project has all the correct approvals.

If there is any reason for ini-tial doubt, conducting a prop-erty purchase through an attorney qualified and experi-enced in handling real estate-related issues is certainly ad-visable.

Source: Property Report

Buying into an under-construction property can have its advantages but also involves significant risks, says Santhosh Kumar, CEO of Operations, Jones Lang LaSalle India.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 B7

Technology

The term software pi-racy is common-ly considered as the act of buying or us-ing pirated or coun-terfeit software.

However, not purchasing pirated software does not guarantee the software to be legal and genuine.

According to Business Software Alliance (BSA) in 2010, many computer users in mature or de-veloping countries are unaware that the software they use are not genuine and can be categorized as illegal software.

Then, what defines genuine software? Genuine software is the software that is officially pub-lished by its developers, has a proper license and also supported by its developer. This term is often misunderstood by the users and usually happens when custom-ers purchase software in bulk of amount or known as Volume Li-censing (VL).

Volume Licensed customers consider it legal to install a soft-ware product in a naked comput-er or in a computer equipped with a different operating system. De-spite this ignorance, it is actual-ly considered as the use of illegal software or called ‘mislicensing’.

On the other side, ‘misversion-ing’ is misconduct when users are

upgrading their computers which are already equipped with a par-ticular operating system software, with a non-qualified version.

Sudimin Mina, Anti Piracy Lead from Microsoft Indonesia, is aware that the public does not un-derstand and is not familiar with the term ‘mislicensing’ and ‘mis-versioning’. “Misversioning oc-curs when a customer purchases a low-end product that is a non-qualified version, for upgrade pur-pose, using their VL agreement. For example: purchasing Win-dows 7 Home Basic and upgrad-ing to Windows 7 Business. These licensing terms are covered in the Product List that governs VL agreements,” he added.

Sudimin also explained that many enterprises consider it legal to make changes on their comput-er units, since they own Microsoft license through Volume Licensing Agreements. This act includes in-stalling an operating system on a naked PC, even though the oper-ating system license is different from the upgrade license includ-ed in the agreements. Ideally, ev-ery PC should have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) before an upgrade version is installed al-though it is covered in the Win-dows Volume Licensing.

“Mislicensing is underrated,

Mislicensing and Misversioning of SoftwaresEqual to Use of Illegal Software

On the other hand, by using the genuine and fully-licensed software, customers will be guar-anteed to benefit from the usage of all software features, options and necessary capability, in order to maximize productivity. Other than that, it provides protection from Trojans, spyware and oth-er dangers that come with coun-terfeit software. Customers can also enjoy a wide access to impor-tant updates, product enhance-ments, technical supports and many more.

Lack of education, especially on the various terms of pirated and illegal software, has made Indo-

nesia the country with the high-est rate of software piracy (87%) in Southeast Asia in 2010, accord-ing to Business Software Alliance (BSA) report.

The most common way people in developing countries engage in piracy is to buy a single copy of software and install it on multi-ple computers, including in offic-es, where software is highly val-ued. Nearly half of PC users (45%) assume it is legal to install soft-ware lent to them by a friend or co-worker.

“A thorough education from all parties, including government, law enforcers, intellectual proper-

Many computer users in mature or developing countries are unaware that the software they use are not genuine and can be categorized as illegal software.

even though it is actually cate-gorized as the use of illegal soft-ware, and needs a thorough edu-cation in order to prevent this type of practice from happening again in the future. Using counterfeit or improperly licensed software puts your organization’s systems and intellectual property at a serious risk,” he added.

In order to legalize a PC which has been equipped with counter-feit, pirated, illegal, or unlicensed software, Microsoft provides The Get Genuine Kit which can be found in official Microsoft resell-ers. The resellers will help to de-termine if The Get Genuine Kit is suitable for the PC.

Donny A. SheyoputraRepresentative & Spokesperson ofBSA Indonesia

Each PC needs its own full license

Volume Licensing agreements cover Windows desktop software

upgrades only

There are two ways to legally buy the initial full version of Windows

for a new PC :Pre-installed on a PC through a PC manufacturer

• As boxed software, also known as a Full Packaged Product

• (FPP) from a retailer.

Commercial customers with a Volume Licensing agreement can’t

upgrade to Windows Vista Business or Windows 7 Professional

from Windows 7 Home Basic or Windows 7 Home Premium.

Windows Home aren’t designed for businesses and don’t count as

qualifying operating systems for Volume Licensing upgrades.

Microsoft has a portfolio of legalization solutions available to help

customers get genuine Windows for existing PCs. Pre-installed

(OEM) licenses CAN’T be used to legalize existing PCs.

5 Important Facts AboutMicrosoft Windows Licensing

1.2.

3.

4.

5.

ty owners and other related par-ties, as well as users, is needed to create a better understand-ing about the use of illegal soft-ware in all kinds and forms,” said Representative and Spokesper-son of Business Software Alliance (BSA) Indonesia, Donny A. Shey-oputra. ”However, besides educa-tion, awareness is also important, in which legal regulations play a truly essential role in Indonesia to reinforce the use of legal software. In addition to protect intellectual property owners, law enforcement is also expected to give a deterrent effect for those who broke the law while also reducing the use of ille-gal software.”

A thorough education from all parties, including government, law enforcers, intellectual property owners and other related parties, as well as users, is needed to create a better understanding about the use of illegal software in all kinds and forms.”

www.businessweek.com

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Aceh NiasKomodo Island

Indonesia’s 100 Wonderful Destinations As Recommended by PATA

By Gresya NataliaIn the past, travelling to Indonesia was driven by the world’s largest archipelago’s natural

beauty. Today, cultural attractions will attract millions of visitors as hundreds of sultans

and kings feature every angle of their regions’

cultural charms to international tourists.

est archipelago’s natural beauty. Today, cultural attractions will at-tract millions of visitors as hun-dreds of sultans and kings fea-ture every angle of their regions’ cultural charms to international tourists.

Apart from natural and cutur-al beauty, Indonesia is getting in-creasingly popular as a good desti-nation for global business leaders, scientists, and the educated com-munity at large to visit, given its fast transformation into a peace-ful democracy—the world’s third largest after India and the Unit-ed States.

That democratic status has

earned Indonesia the reputation of a peaceful tourist destination, because the fast expanding civil-ian society gives bigger room now for preservation of human rights, which is another good reason for international tourists to feel se-cure travelling in this vast archi-pelago.

These encouraging develop-ments provide reason for Chair-man of the Indonesia Chapter of PATA, SD Darmono, to be opti-mistic about the country’s abili-ty to attract more than 20 million international tourists annually by 2020, way above the current aver-age of seven million. He exspects

an average 15% increase per an-num through 2020.

“This target is within our reach and we are optimistic about it,” Darmono said during a recent in-terview with The President Post.

“Indonesia is preparing 100 destinations by reviving the at-tractions of local cultures through sultanates and kingdoms.”

A Japanese businessman con-tacted this week by The President Post greeted the idea with enthu-siasm. “This should have taken place many years ago. Many peo-ple know only Bali, but now you said there will be 100 other des-tinations like Bali. So I think this

is good for tourists, including from Japan where we have high respect for cultural activities.”

Darmono himself is opimistic about Indonesia’s ability to trans-form itself into the largest tourist paradise in this part of the Asia-Pacific region in the not-so-dis-tant future, given the fact that 150 kings and sultans are determined to raise the country’s tourism pro-file on the global map by reviving the charm of historical relics and cultural activities.

Darmono recalled an opinion poll in Perth, Western Australia, which concluded that many Aus-tralians said they had visited Bali

several times but had not been to Indonesia yet. That is not the only instance of misperception about Indonesia being a tourist destina-tion. The writer was in Sydney a few years ago when a shopowner said she and her husband would “travel to Bali in spring and from there we will stop over in Indone-sia on our way to Thailand.”

Darmono says “such stories will no longer be heard in the fu-ture because these kings and sul-tans are determined to promote their respective local cultures on the global stage.”

International tourists will, in the not-so-distant fu-ture, have a longer list of attractive destinations to visit—thanks to an ag-gressive tourism industry expansion taking place in

Indonesia these days.In fact, the Indonesia Chapter

of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has recommended up to 100 wonderful destinations that have for so many years eluded the attention of uninformed tourists.

In the past, travelling to Indone-sia was driven by the world’s larg-

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TourismThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011C2

How to Return Lost Opportunities in the Tourism Industry

IIndonesia last year attract-ed only half of the number of foreign tourists Malay-sia did 10 years ago. Ma-laysia was able to draw in more than 15 million tour-

ists that contributed $10 billion in revenue while Thailand attracted 12 million tourists and garnered $8 billion in foreign exchange. Over the past couple of years, both Malaysia and Thailand have seen tremendous increases in the number of foreign tourists and their spendings.

Malaysia allocated $150 million while Thailand gave out $200 mil-lion for overseas promotion alone. Thailand went so far as to use then Prime Minister Taksin Shi-wanatra as the primary icon for overseas television commercials, billboards, and print media ads, including in TIME magazine.

Malaysia aggressively cam-paigned across Asia including placing ads in Indonesian mass media and billboards in strate-gic places in Indonesia’s big cit-ies. Jakarta’s Glodok and Kelapa Gading malls were dominated by

By Widya Sanjaya “Visit Malaysia Year” billboards at a time when Indonesia was not doing enough to address the on-slaught. As a result, great num-bers of Indonesian students and migrant workers flocked to Ma-laysia while Indonesian tourists put Malaysia high on their prior-ity destinations list.

Tourism campaign is but one of the many factors that boost a country’s tourist attractions. An-other important factor is domes-tic stability. Malaysia has not become the target of Al-Qaeda-re-lated terrorist bombs even though bomb experts such as Noordin M. Top and Dr. Azahari—both have been killed—were Malaysian na-tionals. Their involvment in a se-ries of bomb blasts in Indonesia has seriously downgraded Indo-nesia’s tourism rating, but their own country’s image in the eyes of international tourists has re-mained unaffected.

Another factor that determines a country’s tourism charm is the factor of collective awareness to-ward the importance of social sta-bility. In Mayalsia and Thailand, people are well aware that social instability endangers small and

medium-scale businesses be-cause many of them rely on tour-ist arrivals. This is the reason why even on the grass-root level, social stability is well preserved. For in-stance, in Malaysia and Thailand, you can see even female tourists go shopping alone at traditional markets without being haunted by robbers and pickpockets.

International tourists are as-sured—and they experience it—that anywhere they go, they will be safe. The government and se-curity apparatus will take very stern measures against any ele-ment in society that disturbs se-curity and order. Such a situation is very rare in a country like Indo-nesia, which has yet to be taught that such a phenonemon is much more powerful than any message in the mass media.

The government allocated $13.7 million for overseas marketing and promotion activities includ-ing millions of dollars for TV com-mercials on CNN and BBC. How-ever, the main issue is not that Indonesia has not done enough, but that others have done more and have done so more aggres-sively. A lesson we can learn from tourism development in Malaysia and Thailand is that in those two countries, tourism development has become a need even on the grass-root level. In other words, it is not just a duty of the govern-ment but it is a need of the society to develop tourism; thereby people have a sense of ownership toward tourism development programs.

Indonesia’s lack of awareness over these facts have caused the country millions of dollars in lost revenue. The lost opportunities need to be brougt back and there are any ways to do it, according to tourism analysts. The following are some of the efforts Indonesia can make to regain the lost oppor-tunities:

First, set up a joint plan to syn-ergize the action plans of differ-ent government ministries. For instance, in order to boost tour-ist arrivals, there must be tour-ist attractions. These attractions are not only in the form of tour-ist destinations like nice beaches and restaurants, but cultural ac-tivities and supply of local souve-nirs. That would involve millions of small and medium scale busi-nesses that provide various prod-ucts and services. So the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Coop-eratives and SMEs, and the Tour-ism and Culture Ministry need to cooperate on a joint plan to en-courage production of more at-tractive tourism programs, events, products, and services. For these to run well, they need to involve the local governments especial-ly the turism offices on district or mayoralty level.

Second is the issue of equita-ble distribution of tourism devel-opment. The biggest problem in Indonesia that has remained un-touched for more than two de-cades is the inability to promote what former minister of tourism Joop Ave called “The Other Side of

Bali.” In the 1990s Joop had actu-ally launched a massive campaign to promote other tourist destina-tions across the archipelago in or-der to balance out the charms of Bali. The idea was excellent but it lacked support from other govern-ment departments. Today, how-ever, according to the perception of many tourists abroad, even in Australia Bali remains as a “beau-tiful paradise near Indonesia.”

People overseas know Bali bet-ter than they know Indonesia as a country.

Given the fact that Indone-sia’s tourism industry promotion is heavily centered on Bali and a handful of cities on Java, other potential destinations in Suma-tra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and the eastern islands are somewhat neglected. Consequently, small and medium-scale businesses that rely on income from selling tourism-related products and ser-vices have difficulty growing in is-lands other than Bali.

Third is the issue of social and poilitical stability—not as per-ceived by Indonesian government officials, but as perceived by inter-national travellers. Certain plac-es in Indonesia may be considered stable and safe by Indonesian gov-ernent officials, but such may not be the perception of tourists wish-ing to enter Indonesia who are fed daily with reports about the coun-try.

Even the slightest bit of infor-mation that arouses suspicion to-

ward social stability could divert tourists to other destinations in Asia. On the contrary, if tourists feel that their destination, though being a foreign country, is as com-fortable as—or better, more com-fortable than—their home coun-try, they would prolong their stay here.

So the next duty of the Minis-try of Tourism and Culture is to study the characteristics of tour-ist attractions in foreign coun-tries and encourage development of better attractions in Indonesia. In this way Indonesia can com-pete with those countries because it has many things to offer that those countries do not have.

This should include develop-ment of “beyond-nature” tourism such as educational tourism, con-vention tourism, religious tour-ism, historical tourism and others under which tourists would flock into the country for purposes oth-er than being attracted by natural beauty of the archipelago.

Tourism analysts believe that Indonesia has a treasure trove of tourism potentials yet to be devel-oped in the years ahead. What is needed now is better cordination among government departments to increase the country’s charms while encouraging small and me-dium-scale businesses to grow as supporting elements. How soon this will become reality depends largely on the amount of priority the current government gives to this potential sector.

With more than 17,000 islands, the world’s largest archipelago—Indonesia—should have become the number one maritime tourism paradise. That isn’t the case—as yet. Surprisingly, Indonesia loses out against smaller neighboring countries in terms of tourism charms.

A lesson we can learn from tourism development in Malaysia and Thailand is that in those two countries, tourism development has become a need even on the grass-root level. In other words, it is not just a duty of the government but it is a need of the society to develop tourism; thereby people have a sense of ownership toward tourism development programs.

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And now that Indonesia has de-centralized its government pow-er down to regency level, the re-gents in those 497 districts and regencies will support the cultur-al tourism campaign in an effort to raise people’s wellfare level.

With kings, sultans, and local government leaders working to-gether, while business actors in-vesting aggressively in this sector, the Indonesian tourism sector is well on track not only to become a prolific revenue generating ma-chine, but an industry that will expand endlessly.

As the largest tourist paradise in Sotheast Asia, Indonesia is of-fering a good array of destinations international tourists can book-mark now. Some of them are as follows:

Aceh: The regency on the northernmost tip of Sumatra is-land has for centuries been rec-ognized for its historical charms including the epic war against Dutch occupation forces which saw Cut Nyak Dhien leading a fearless battle against the Dutch for 25 years following the death of her husband Teuku Umar. Aceh

is also known as the Mecca of Asia. One of Aceh’s best attrac-tions is the Saman Dance which symbolizes unity of thought, words, and deeds. This dance is often performed in international events and has even been learned by students in Singapore, Malay-sia, Australia, and Europe.

Nias: This tiny regency off the western tip of North Sumatra is famous for its so-called Lom-pat Batu or “stone jumping” skill. Male residents must be able to jump over a pile of stones of about two meters high before being ac-knowledged as adults. The popu-lation here is a mixture of Malay, Japanese, and Indochinese an-cestries, quite a distinction from that in the rest of Sumatra island. Nias’ pristine beaches and very clean coasts are indeed worth visiting. Its exposure to the Indi-an Ocean makes adventure here more exciting.

NorthSumatra: This is home to one of Indonesia’s largest tribes, the Batak. Given its proximity to neighboring countries, the prov-ince is also a good internationl

gateway which has over the past decade seen tremendous increase in the number of international visitors, including tourists, busi-nesspersons, and people from oth-er professions. This province is as popular as its world-famous Lake Toba. The Batak tribal rituals are always a good attraction for inter-national tourists. Souvenirs you can buy here include tradition-al sarongs which are beautiful-ly handwoven, and are commonly used as part of traditional mar-riage rituals.

West Sumatra: This province is very rich in a mixture of Malay and Islamic traditions. The major tribe and tradition here is called Minang. Its natural beauty, cul-tural relics and performances, martial arts—especially pencak silat—and even food are famous everywhere, including the Padang restaurants you can find in al-most every corner of the country. This major tribe embraces a mat-rimonial tradition due to which respect for women is very high and well preserved.

Lampung: Here is a place

known for its natural fertility in-cluding white beaches and—in re-cent years—pachydermic attrac-tion. Lampung has an “elephant school” where the pachyderms are trained originally by trainers from Thailand and now by Indonesian instructors. The elephants once attracted world attention when they were deployed in the opening

ceremony of National Games. Two teams of elephants were playing soccer and in the midst of cheers from enthusiastic spectators, the goal keeper of the losing team, ap-parently upset by what it saw as an unfair decision by the refer-ee, angrily pulled down the goal posts and walked away.

SouthSumatra: This was the seat of the former Sriwijaya King-dom which covered all of South-east Asia and even beyond. Palembang, the provincial capital city, still stores thousands of his-torial relics and objects worth see-ing. This province is famous for a mixture of local and Chinese cul-tures from food to dress, dances to songs. The main theme of tra-ditional weaving still reflects roy-al tradition of centuries ago with red and gold the dominant col-ors. This region is famous for tra-ditional dances and food. This is a place where you can eat sub-marines—well not the battle ship under the sea, but a special dish locally known as “mpek mpek.” Tanjung Lesung: This newly de-veloped tourist resort on the west-ern tip of West Java is surprisingly

attracting a good number of inter-national tourists ever since it was launched some time ago. Its first-class hotel and recreational facili-ties including sailing club and re-lated activities are now the talk of the town, especially among for-eigners wishing to get a differ-ent atmosphere of the Indonesian paradise.

Komodo Island: Though the govenrment has withdrawn the candidacy of Komodo Island from the race of new wonders of the world, this unique island on the western tip of Flores remains a powerful magnet attracting inter-national tourists. This island of the dragons is winning the hearts of many. An increasing number of global visitors including scien-tists are still wondering how on earth have the ancient animals managed to survive and repro-duce when other ancient animals such as dynosaurus have all dis-apeared.

Morotai: Little do people know that this group of islands was chosen by Commander of U.S. Pa-cific Fleet General Douglas McAr-

thur as the basis for Allied Forces to liberate Mindanao in south-ern Philippines after his forces defeated the Japanese and con-trolled North Maluku in Septem-ber 1944. The military airbase is still there and will now be turned into an international airport to become the main gateway for the Pacific region. In 2012 the govern-ment will organize Sail Morotai festival where hundreds of sail-ing boats from many countries in participate. This internation-al event is expected to draw in a countless number of visitors.

Space is too limited to describe every one of the 100 wonderful destinations in Indonesia today. But for sure, you will soon find “the other side of Bali” namely other such beautiful places to vis-it that have skipped the attention of many for so long.

But should you need further in-formation, please feel free to vis-it the website of PATA, or that of the Indonesian Ministry of Cul-ture and Tourism. In the next edi-tion, we will publish more stories on Indonesia’s 100 wonderful des-tinations.

from page C1 Indonesia’s 100 Wonderful Destinations

Space is too limited to describe every one of the 100 wonderful destinations in Indonesia today. But for sure, you will soon find “the other side of Bali” namely other such beautiful places to visit that have skipped the attention of many for so long.

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 C3

Tourism

Is ACFTA Really a Threat?

TThe regional free trade arrangement that came into effect on Jan. 1, 2010 opened up to 49% of the trav-el industry to foreign

business institutions to operate inside Indonesia. That is enough to facilitate foreign travel agents to establish offices in Indonesian cities and towns. In the process, local travel operators will find it hard to compete for lack of capital and network.

Sapta Nirwanda, the direc-tor general for tourism market-ing, says this situation “must be approached carefully but seri-ously,” to ensure the survival of local travel oprators and at the same time comply with the ACF-TA agreement. He says, “ACFTA means the market is opened wide. If our travel industry cannot com-pete, foreign travel operators will step in deep into our regencies.”

Availability of human resourc-es and investment capital will be-come a problem, he says, but an influx of foreign travel operators especially in regencies may pose a serious challenge to local op-erators who lack experience and network. Indonesian travel op-erators focus more on domes-itc rather than overseas travel. This is why their existence could

By Widya Sanjaya be threatened when foreign oper-ators stream in to compete right there with better experience, the official argues.

To overcome the problem, the official proposes that the travel in-dustry paradigm be changed to focus not on domestic but on over-seas travel. He suggests that In-donesian operators need to look at the region with well over 2 bil-lion people (580 million in ASEAN alone) as a huge market with nu-merous opportunities to tap and not just stay home worrying about foreign competitors threatening their existence. There are myriad opportunities you can tap with-in the CAFTA region, the official says, urging local travel operators to find new market niches abroad. “I want to see our travel operators market their packages in Malay-sia, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France,” he says, add-ing the globalized world requires a more sophisticated approach to business.

ACFTA’s initial framework agreement was signed on Nov. 4, 2002 in Phnom Penh, Cam-bodia. This is the world’s largest free trade area in terms of popula-tion and third largest in terms of nominal GDP. ASEAN members and the People’s Republic of Chi-na had a combined nominal gross domestic product of approximate-ly $6 trillion in 2008. In that year

the free trade area had the third largest trade volume after the Eu-ropean Economic Area and the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). While members of ASE-AN have a combined population of more than 580 million, Indonesia accounts for more than 40 per-cent of the group, and its people have voiced the greatest amount of opposition to the agreement, fearing inability to compete.

One may still remember that several days following the im-plementation of the free trade scheme, Indonesia announced plans to renegotiate tariffs on 228 product categories. In exchange, it would accelerate implementa-tion of the agreement on 153 cat-egories. The People’s Republic of China first proposed the idea of a free trade area in November 2000. Following that, between 2003 and 2008, its trade with ASEAN grew from $59.6 billion to $192.5 bil-lion. China is also the world’s larg-est exporter.

The overall scheme of this free trade agreement reduced tariffs on 7,881 product categories, or 90 percent of imported goods, to zero starting from January 2010. This reduction took effect in Chi-na and the six original members of ASEAN: Brunei, Indonesia, Ma-laysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The remaining four countries will follow suit in 2015. The average tariff rate on Chi-nese goods sold in ASEAN coun-tries decreased from 12.8 to 0.6 percent on Jan. 1, 2010 pending implementation of the free trade area by the remaining ASEAN members. Meanwhile, the average tariff rate on ASEAN goods sold in China decreased from 9.8 to 0.1 percent. The six original ASE-

tourists were visiting the country, and this year the number is ex-pected to increase beyond 8 mil-lion—thanks to better political stability in place. Firmansyah Ra-him, the director general for tour-ism development says travel desti-nations are now well prepared to welcome millions of tourists from abroad, through air, sea, and land transporation routes.

In order to make tourists stay

longer and spend more, the gov-ernment has launched a pro-gram called Sapta Pesona (seven charms). The purpose is to keep tourists longer because they enjoy Indonesia’s “beauty, safety, order-liness, comfort, cleanliness, hos-pitality, and memorable activi-ties.”

The next step is to build a sus-tainable tourism industry that is based on people instead of natural beauty. In this way, tourism activ-ities will contribute significantly to the development of every regen-cy. At the same time, Indonesia will be able to improve its interna-tional standing, after having been ranked at the 81st place from 133 countries polled by World Eco-nomic Forum.

For Indonesia to climb the lad-der of fame, a better interministe-rial coordination is needed. Only 15 aspects of WEF evaluation fall under the auspices of the Tour-ism and Culture Ministry, the rest must be handled by other min-istries, the official says. For in-stance, Indonesia’s global tour-ism ranking is also deteemined by the availability of hopsital beds for tourists, the rate of street acci-dents and other aspects that ac-tually are not the responsibility of the tourism ministry.

Meanwhile, there must be a clear definition of what is meant by the term “international tour-ists”, otherwise it is difficult to correctly assess the growth of the industry. The definition that the government uses for this corresponds to the recommen-dations by the International Union of Office Travel Organiza-tion (IUOTO) and World Tour-ism Organization (WTO) which cover any person who travels to a country other than that in which she/he has his/her usu-al residence but outside his/her usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an ac-tivity remunerated from within the country visited.

Implied in this definition are cruise passengers who arrive in a country on a cruise ship and return to the ship each night to sleep on board even though the ship remains in the port for sev-eral days. The government ap-parently prefers to count on foreigners who visit tourist des-tinations without maintaining permanent residence inside this country. That being the case, lo-cal travel operators still have in-numerable opportunities to tap, given that such tourists are flocking into the country in big numbers every day.

So, in other words, the wor-ry about Indonesian travel oper-ators not being able to compete is perhaps not very well-ground-ed. Officials are worried, but the operators are making money, sending tens of thousands of In-donesians abroad and catering to the needs of millions of for-eign tourists every day.

More than a year after ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) went into effect, Indonesian tourism authorities are wondering whether local travel agents can compete in their own market. But while officials are worried about it, the operators are making money.

prefer to travel abroad for holidays and various other purposes.

dent during the just-ended Ra-madan celebration. The Austra-lian Immigration office in Jakarta reported that it had issued more than 16,000 tourists visas for In-donesians to spend the Ramadan holiday in Australia. Imagine how many Indonesians travelled to Asian coutries, Europe, the Mid-dle East, and the Americas! One estimate put the total number of Indonesians travelling abroad during Ramadan at 120,000. Imagine how much they contrib-uted to foreign airline companies,

AN members also reduced tariffs on 99.11 percent of goods traded among them to zero.

The tourism sector, meanwhile, is among the first to be affected by this regional arrangement. But rather than complaining about inability to compete, ACFTA sig-natory governments have seen tremendous surge in many areas from trade to industry and the ser-vices sector. The right way for In-donesian business actors to look at ACFTA is that this is a huge market one must grab quickly be-fore others do. There is no turn-ing back.

The right way for Indonesian business actors to look at ACFTA is that this is a huge market one must grab quickly before others do. There is no turning back.

Indonesia still has enough time to improve its performance before the five other of ASEAN mem-ber countries join ACFTA in 2015. There is a lot going on in the pri-vate sector that does not get pub-lished by the local media. But Indonesia’s SMEs are bagging big-ger revenues from increased ex-ports inspite of worries from gov-ernment circles. In the sub-sector of special-purpose tourism, for in-stance, Indonesia is not just a des-tination, it is now home to tens of thousands of big spenders who

hotels, restaurants, and souvernir shops in those many countries!

So, while government officials are worried about the possibili-ty of local travel agents not being able to compete in the ACFTA era, the plain fact is that a huge num-ber of Indonesians are travelling abroad, using their services—not to mention more than seven mil-lion foreign tourists who use the services of local travel operators.

In 2010 alone the government said some seven million foreign

In 2012 when Fadel Muham-mad, the Minister for Maritime and Fishery Affairs, launches the Sail Morotai festival, the message he will send out to the world is that Morotai is not just a worth-visiting destination, it is Indonesia’s next international gateway. It is here on Sept 15, 1944 that this part of In-donesia’s eastern region drew the wold’s attention when American and Australian forces stormed and defeated the Japanese occu-pation army and developed naval and airbases for liberating Mind-anao. Since then the Battle of Mo-rotai sank into history as did the military airbases therein. Very lit-tle was left of these area even in the memory of its own nation.

But 67 years later, the govern-ment of Indonesia is now talking about rebuilding Morotai as an international gate, given its stra-tegic proximity to many interna-tional trading centers. For start-ers, local authorities have called on the government in Jakarta to turn the military airstrips into an international airport for commer-cial purposes. In so doing, they expect international tourists to flock in to see the island’s natu-ral beauty. Morotai would then be able to attract many internation-al investors as well. The Sail Mo-rotai event next year is, therefore, expected to draw in thousands of enhusiasts from many different countries, like the previous Sail Banda festival which attracted a good number of sailors and tour-ists.

Given the strategic position of the Morotai island and its histor-ical imortance, the regent of Mo-rotai, Imam Lastori, has renewed his appeal to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to develop this region as a new Eastern In-

donesia gateway for internation-al tourists and businesspersons. “Let Morotai not remain only on the dead pages of Pacific War history; let it become part of our pride,” the regent says. The re-gent has a reason for saying that, as it only takes three hours of flight from Morotai to Taiwan, five hours to Jakarta, and 10 hours to Hawaii. So the existence of an in-ternational commercial airport in Morotai would mean a lot for de-velopment of Indonesia, he says.

Minister for Developent of Least

Developed Regions Helmy Faishal Zaini supports the idea and says that the government needs a com-prehensive plan to build this part of Indonesia, especially ways to maximize economic potentials of the region. There are two op-tions, the minister says—one is to turn Morotai into an internation-al gateway, the other is to do so on Halmahera which is a bigger is-land in North Maluku. But the lo-cal government of Morotai wants the seven military airstrips there be turned into a huge internation-al airport for commercial purpos-es instead of developing likewise facilities on Halmahera. There-fore, they have started to discuss this with the Indonesian military headquarters in Jakarta.

Morotai is a small island lo-

cated in the Halmahera group of eastern Maluku Islands. Most of the island’s interior is rugged and covered in thick jungle. The Doroeba Plain in Morotai’s south-west corner is the largest of the is-land’s few lowland areas. Prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War, Morotai had a population of 9,000 and had not been commercial-ly developed since. The Japanese occupied Morotai in early 1942 during the Netherlands East In-dies (NEI) campaign but did not garrison or develop it. It formed part of the NEI and was ruled by

the Dutch through the Sultanate of Ternate. The former territory of Netherlands East Indies is now the Republic of Indonesia.

In early 1944 Morotai emerged as an area of importance to the Japanese military when it started developing the neighboring larger island of Halmahera.

It was General Douglas Mac-Arthur, the commander of the South West Pacific Area, himself who selected Morotai in July 1944 as the location for Allied Forc-es’ air bases and naval facilities. The Allied Forces’ occupation of Morotai was designated “Opera-tion Tradewind.” The landing took place on September 15, 1944, the same day as the US 1st Marine Division’s landing at Peleliu. As little opposition was expected, Al-lied planners decided to land the invasion force close to the airfield sites on the Doroeba Plain. Two beaches in the south-west coast of the island were selected as suit-able landing sites.

At the time of the Allied land-ings, Morotai was defended by ap-proximately 500 Japanese sol-

diers. Understandably, the Allied forces outnumbered the island’s defenders by more than one hun-dred to one. The Tradewind Task Force also included large numbers of construction and other line of communications units whose role was to swiftly develop the island into a major base. The 6th Infan-try Division was designated the force reserve but remained on the mainland of New Guinea. Gener-al Douglas MacArthur accompa-nied the force onboard USS Nash-ville, though he was not in direct command of the operation. When the Battle of Morotai began, Allied warships conducted a two-hour-long bombardment of the landing area to suppress any Japanese forces there. This bombardment set some native villages on fire but caused few Japanese casualties as they did not have many troops in the area.

Work began on base facilities before Morotai was secured. Sur-vey parties began transit sur-veys of the airfield sites on Sept 16 which determined that their planned alignment was unwork-able. Plans to complete the Japa-

nese airfield were also abandoned as it would have interfered with the larger airfields which were to be built to the east. It was instead cleared and used as an emergen-cy “crash strip”.

Work on the first new airstrip (called Wama Drome) began on Sept 23 after the site was cleared. By Oct 4, Wama Drome’s run-way was operable for 5,000 feet (1,500m) and was supporting heavy bomber raids on Balikpa-pan in Kalimantan. Construction of the even larger Pitoe Drome, which was to have two runways parallel to Wama Drome, began in late September and by Oct 17 that year it had a usable 7,000-feet (2,100m) runway. Construc-tion work was accelerated hence-forth after the United States Third Fleet withdrew from providing direct support to the planned landing at Leyte. When the two airstrips were completed in No-vember that year, they boasted three large runways and hard-standings for 253 aircraft, includ-ing 174 heavy bombers. Although the air base construction required the destruction of native villages,

Morotai Set to Shine Once Airbase Becomes International Airport

By Natasya Graciela

The government of Indonesia is talking about rebuilding Morotai as an international gate, given its strategic proximity to many international trading centers.

Wama Drome airstrip: Morotai Island was the site of a major battle in World War II. The landing strips in Morotai built by the Allied forces led by General Douglas MacArthur, could handle today’s jumbo jet. It was an important airbase during World War II. Many wrecks of aircrafts and rusting guns still lie abandoned in the bushes.

www.morotaiheaven.com

the American and Australian air-field engineers were assisted from Oct 1 by about 350 native labor-ers recruited by the NICA detach-ment.

Other base facilities were erect-ed concurrently with the con-struction of the airstrips. Work on fuel storage facilities began short-ly after the landing, and the first was ready on Sept 20 that year. A jetty for oil tankers and a larg-er tank farm were completed in early October, and storage fa-cilities continued to be expand-ed until November, when capac-ity for 129,000 barrels of fuel was available. Several docks ca-pable of accommodating liberty ships were constructed on Moro-tai’s west coast, and the first was completed on Oct 8. In addition, twenty LST landings were con-structed on Blue Beach to facil-itate the loading and unloading of these ships. Other major con-struction projects included an ex-tensive road network, a naval in-stallation, 28,000 square feet (2,600sqm) of warehousing, and clearing land for supply dumps and bivouacs. A 1,000-bed hospi-tal was also built after the origi-nal plans for a 1,900-bed facility were revised. The main difficulties encountered were overcoming the mud caused by unusually heavy rains and finding sufficient water supplies.

A revision to Allied plans meant

that Morotai played a much great-er role in the liberation of the Phil-ippines than had been originally envisioned. The invasion of Mind-anao was postponed in September 1944 in favor of a landing at Leyte in the central Philippines in late October. The air bases at Morotai were the closest Allied air strips to Leyte and fighters and bombers based on the island attacked tar-gets in the southern Philippines and NEI in support of the land-ing at Leyte on Oct 25. The Japa-nese force subsequently withdrew into central Morotai where many soldiers died from disease or star-vation. The last Japanese supply barges from Halmahera reached Morotai on May 12, 1945.

Morotai remained a significant Allied base in the months after the war. The Australian force respon-sible for the occupation and mili-tary administration of the eastern NEI was headquartered at Mo-rotai until April 1946, when the Dutch colonial government was reestablished.The island was also one of the sites where the Austra-lian and NEI militaries conducted war crimes trials of Japanese per-sonnel.

With so many memories of the past, there is only one option left for Indonesia to revive Morotai’s strategic position on the Pacific map: Rebuild the island as a good international gateway for econom-ic purposes.

General Douglas MacArthur

www.publicbroadcasting.net

TourismThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011C4

Lampung Barat (West Lampung) district in Lampung Province can be turned into an international tourist destination in Indone-

sia. It is possible for the district to compete with other tourist desti-nation areas in the country be-cause of its tourism potential in abundance.

Lampung Barat Culture and Tourism Office spokesman Hu-daibi said in the district town of Liwa recently that the district de-served to be turned into both do-mestic and international tourist destination in the country.

“Its potential richness of nature and the beautiful panoramic view serve as an important asset of the district to be turned into domestic and foreign tourist destination be-sides Bali,” Hudaibi said.

According to him, a lot of foreign tourists who ever visited Lampung Barat said that with its abundant natural beauty, the district could compete with Bali as internation-al tourist destination.

He said that besides natural tourism, Lampung Barat also presented cultural tourism that could be studied by both domes-tic and foreign tourists.

“Therefore the local govern-ment continues to develop tourist

areas including tourist villages in the district,” he said, adding that the marine and natural beauty in Lampung Barat was able to at-tract more than 100 foreign tour-ists to visit the district every year.

Meanwhile, Lampung provin-cial government is making every effort to step up its international tourism potential to increase for-eign tourist arrival in 2011.

“We will involve various private parties in our effort to step up the international tourism potential here,” provincial culture and tour-ism department s investment pro-motion agency spokesman Gatot Hudi Utomo said in Bandarlam-pung early this year.

According to Gatot, Lampung province has more than 150 tour-ism objects but most of them have yet to be optimally managed. “Therefore we are going to opti-mize the international tourism potential in the province,” Gatot said, adding that the coastal area in Lampung Barat district was good surfing. To optimize and to promote the international tourism potential in the province, he said the infrastructure facility should also be improved.

With its white sandy beaches, pristine waterfalls, and lush na-ture preserves, Lampung is one of many many provinces in Indo-

West Lampung Set to Be InternationalTourism DestinationLampung Barat (West Lampung) district in Lampung Province can be turned into an international tourist destination in Indonesia. It is possible for the district to compete with other tourist destination areas in the country because of its tourism potential in abundance.

nesia with great potential to at-tract international tourists. The Elephant Rehabilitation Center in Way Kambas, where wild, ram-paging elephants are domesticat-ed and taught useful skills, also offers special attraction to visi-tors. Shaped in many ways by the impact and eruption of Kraka-tau volcano eons ago, its attrac-tive beaches of Merak Belantung, Pasir Putih, and tourist resort like Lalaan waterfall and Mount Raja-basa are also worth visiting.

Meanwhile, Lampung Barat s culture and tourism office chief for promotion section Riady Andrian-to said in Bandarlampung recent-

ly that a number of tourist objects in the district have been prepared to attract as many holiday mak-ers as possible this year. In a bid to make the holiday makers feel at home, Riady said a number of tourist objects in Lampung Ba-rat have increased the number of their workers to give an optimum service, sense of comfort, and se-curity to the visitors.

Riady said one of tourist at-tractions in Lampung Barat was Tanjung Setia Beach in Pesisir Selatan sub-district. It has has natural panoramic view and chal-lenging waves for foreign tourists to go surfing. As Riadiy sees it, the

coolness and crystal clear sea water at Tanjung Setia also offered addition-al attraction for the foreign holiday makers.

Besides Tanjung Setia, Lampung Barat also has oth-er tourists objects such as Labuhan Jakung Beach, Pulau Pisang, Lake Ranau, Way Besai rafting resort, and Sekura Cakak Buah cultural festival.

He said that in 2010, more than 400,000 tourists visited West

Lampung tourism objects and 10,000 of them were from Aus-tralia, New Zealand, the Unit-ed States, and other Asian coun-tries.

“Lampung Barat has a river with good potential for rafting and

therefore we offer it to both domes-tic and foreign tourists who love water sports,” he added.

“The swirling current of the riv-er offers special attraction for tour-ists to try their surfing skills.”

TThe Sultan Hotel Jakar-ta introduces Royal Java-nese hospi-tality to make your stay a

memorable amd enjoyable experience. With 694 room and extensive facilities, The Sultan Hotel Jakarta main-tains its reputation as a one of premium and prestigious five star hotels.

Located at the famous “Golden Triangle” of Se-manggi interchange the hotel has easy access from and to the airport, central business district, government office , Senayan sport complex and major shopping mall.

Formerly known as the Jakarta Hilton Internation-al Hotel for 30 years, the ho-tel was rebranded as The Sultan Hotel Jakarta in Au-gust 2006 and managed by Singgasana Hotels & Re-sort (Management Company which also manage the Ay-odya Resort Bali, Singgasana Hotel Surabaya, Singgasa-na Hotel Makassar, Jakarta Convention Centre, The Res-idence and Lombok Golf Ko-saido).

With a combined touch of Royal Javanese hospitality, international 5-star service standard plus extensive fa-cilities, The Sultan Hotel Ja-karta ready to compete with other five star hotels in Ja-karta.

The Sultan Hotel Jakar-ta is the only 5-star hotel in Jakarta that has two lobbies with different ambiences, at the Lagoon Tower (modern ambience) and the Main Tow-er (traditional ambience).

As one of premium five star hotels in Jakarta, The

“The Sultan Hotel Jakarta”ICON OF THE CITY

er I Nyoman Sarya. “We conduct continuous train-

ing to update their skills and knowledge, campaign and imple-mentation of Sultan roots in day to day work, and create the ser-vice culture by giving the award/recognition to the employee for the excellent services delivered to the guest, he added.

The Sultan also have Sultan Care (Sultan Peduli) program, a series of activities to show its awareness to the community and environment. In 2010, The Sultan was awarded one of the “Green Hotels in Jakarta” by CSR mag-

azine. To promote traditional cul-ture from around the country,The Sultan Hotel will continue to hold cultural festivals like the one it did in 2008, the Jawa Timur Food, Fashion Festival.

Hotel Manager I Nyoman Sarya

The Sultan Hotel Jakarta is the only 5-star hotel in Jakarta that has two lobbies with different ambiences, at the Lagoon Tower (modern ambience) and the Main Tower (traditional ambience).

Sultan Hotel equipped with com-plete of facilities. There are many type of room from deluxe, grand deluxe, suite,executive floor, Pres-ident Suite and Penthouse. The room is equipped with TV (with 59 channel), broadband internet, coffee/tea facility, amenities, and mini bar.

For the MICE facility from the glorious Golden Ballroom, ASEAN room and meeting room at Busi-ness Centre equipped with latest technology. F&B facility with var-ious types of restaurant bar and lounge.

Gourmets will appreciate the culinary delights served in its res-taurants, serving a wide range of traditional Indonesian cuisine to exquisite French fine dining, which will definitely satisfy your taste.

The extensive range of fitness and recreation facilities is anoth-er distinctive feature of the ho-tel. You are welcome to enjoy the game in tennis courts. Plunge into any of the swimming pools to beat the heat or exercise in gyms with modern latest fitness equipment. Life spa fitness is the newest facil-ity at the hotel, providing various fitness classes, latest equipment from USA, and spa treatments.

The Sultan Hotel Jakarta with its strategic location has been chosen for the venue to host the accommodation for various im-portant events such as Java Jazz music festivals and various other international music concerts. The easy access to the Senayan Sport Complex and government build-ings also make it the Sultan as preferred location for the accom-modation of international sport group, conferences, convention and government meeting.

As the service industry, the fa-cilities would be not enough with-out the excellent service delivered by experience and professional employees, said the Hotel Manag-

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 C5

Travel

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism plans to promote North Malu-ku as a potential tour-ists destination. Pro-

motion official at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Diah Wid-iati said in Denpasar, Bali, recent-ly that the provinces in eastern In-donesia had the potential to lure a lot of local and foreign tourists if they were promoted properly.

“Thus, we are promoting North Maluku in the hope of attracting more tourists,” she said, adding that the local government should prepare proper transportation and accommodations to the tour-ists.

Meanwhile, rich in marine and natural resources, the islands of Halmahera and Morotai in North Maluku are to be developed into industrial centers in East Indone-sia. Halmahera is host to under-ground high-grade gold mines and abundant natural resources, and Morotai has plentiful fishery resources.

North Maluku provincial ad-ministration spokesman Abuba-kar Abdullah said in Ternate re-cently the local government was

planning to de-velop the two is-lands into indus-trial centers. He

said Halmahera is-land could be a center of agricul-ture and mining industry and Morotai island a center of fishery processing industry.

Abubakar said mining compa-nies such as PT Aneka Tambang and PT Nusa Halmahera Minier-al have been operating in Halma-hera for a long time.

Morotai island, Abubakar said, would be integrated with the Maritime Affairs and Fisher-ies Ministry s program to make it tuna processing center.The Moro-tai island waters is huge, consist-ing of 160 different fish species of significant economic value and of 31 different commercial value, with a volume reaching 148,473.8 tons per year.

General Chairman of the Indo-nesian Industrial Estates Associa-tion, under the Indonesian Cham-ber of Trade and Industry (Kadin), Hendra Lesmana said in Jakarta early this year that the abundant fishery resources made Morotai island to have a high potential for Japanese investment.

North Maluku:

hammad has said that Morotai is-land has a great potential of fish-ery resources and that the island has been offered to investors to in-vest in seafood processing indus-try. According to Fadel, Morotai island would also be the center of national tuna processing in-

Rich in Marine and Natural ResourcesRich in marine and natural resources, the islands of Halmahera and Morotai in North Maluku are to be be developed into industrial centers in East Indonesia. Halmahera is host to under-ground high-grade gold mines and abundant natural resources, and Morotai has plentiful fishery resources.

“Morotai is quite well known in the world, and if its potential nat-ural resources can be promoted with supporting data, it is quite possible that Japan and some other countries would be inter-ested in doing business there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Mu-

dustry, because Taiwan has ex-pressed interest to invest in the is-land, located at the Pacific Ocean. Fadel said Morotai was known to have high fisheries potential be-cause the island was a stopover point of tuna from the Pacific Ocean to Indonesian waters.

Abubakar said that the North Maluku provincial government program to turn Morotai and Halmahera into the center of in-dustrial development was ful-ly supported by central govern-ment, and has even been put on

the concept of national econom-ic development acceleration. He said both domestic and foreign investors had expressed interest to develop Halmahera and Moro-tai islands into industrial center. According to him, investment val-ue to develop the two islands in North Maluku was estimated to be more than Rp1 trillion. There-fore the local government has tak-en various concrete steps to sup-port industrial development in the islands of Halmahera and Morotai by constructing basic infrastruc-ture facilities such as Halmahera

ring road and Morotai ring road.

Abubakar said North Malu-ku provincial government has expressed hope that all related parties including the local com-munity would support the real-ization of Halmahera and Morotai as industrial center in East Indo-nesia. “If the two islands have be-come the centers of industrial de-velopment, it will have a great positive impact on the improve-ment regional economy and the the local people s welfare,” Abuba-kar said.

HALMAHERA

MOROTAI

www.travel.kompas.comwww.travel.detik.com

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad has said that Morotai island has a great potential of fishery resources and that the island has been offered to investors to invest in seafood processing industry.

Several crew members of yachts arriving in Wakatobi to partici-pate in Sail Wakatobi-Belitung (SWB-2011) in July have enjoyed the magnificent diving facilities in the waters at Hoga island.

Wakatobi Culture and Tourism Office spokesman Tawakal said all participants of the SWB-2011 as well as divers from around the world have undeniably a great op-portunity to go diving in the su-perb diving sites and the most pristine reefs at Wakatobi Div-ing Resort. Therefore the Waka-tobi district administration and local coral reef youths will guide Sail Wakatobi-Belitong partici-pants when they all arrive at the location.

According to Tawakal, the Sail Wakatobi-Belitung participants tried to arrive in Wakatobi much earlier because they wanted to en-joy the underwater natural beau-ty and the hospitality of Wakatobi people as much as possible.

Wakatobi district head Hu-gua has ever said at least 1.3 million hectares of Wakato-

bi are part of Wakatobi Nation-al Marine Park with Karang Mari Mabo, Onemobaa, Pulau Hioga, and Pantai Patuno diving sites. Therefore the Wakatobi Coral Reef Youths will guide the SWB-2011 participants wherever they want to go diving at the center of the world`s coral reefs triangle in Wakatobi.

“Divers, tourists, and guests will have an excellent diving hol-iday and enjoy every moment of it to see the colorful and magnif-icent underwater life because the area is tremendously rich in ma-rine heritage,” Hugua said.

Wakatobi is one of the protect-ed marine national parks in Indo-nesia. According to Hugua, Sail Wakatobi-Belitung participants and tourists divers at Wakatobi Diving Resort would experience a highly enjoyable moment that they would never forget.

In the Wakatobi Diving Resort there are a lot of beautiful div-ing sites with incredibly colorful marine diversity which could be reached easily. Known for its built-in Beach and a house reef just twenty meters from the dive cen-ter, Wakatobi attracts many pro-

Sail Wakatobi Participants Enjoy Underwater Beauty

Sail Wakatobi-Belitung participants and tourists divers at Wakatobi Diving Resort would experience a highly enjoyable moment that they would never forget. fessional divers from around

the world who want to go div-ing there. The Wakatobi Diving Resort is surrounded by stun-ning and pristine drop-offs, walls and slopes to ridges, cav-erns, caves and sea-mounts. “Here at Wakatobi, the beau-ty of the marine life is waiting to be discovered and explored by the Sail Wakatobi-Belitung participants,” Hugua said.

Besides, Wakatobi Diving Resort is also offering premier and luxurious accommodation with modern comforts to tour-ist divers and guests in Bun-galows, Garden Bungalows, Beach Bungalows, and Cliff Villas. There are still many beautiful diving sites with pristine reefs, stunning color-ful corals and tropical marine life that are in remote sites and not accessible from the Waka-tobi Diving Resort that are waiting to be explored and dis-covered by SWB-2011 partici-pants. Wakatobi Diving Resort also offers a very comprehen-sive diving package holiday for tourists and Sail Wakatobi-Be-litung participants to have an opportunity to explore its un-derwater marine life.

In the Wakatobi Diving Resort there are a lot of beautiful diving sites with incredibly colorful marine diversity which could be reached easily.

www.sailwakatobi-belitong2011.com

Photo EssayThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011C6

The consistency of Indonesia’s economic growth as well as the country’s geographic condition as an archipelagic country bring optimism to the future growth of the national aviation industry.

Chairman of Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA) Emirsyah Satar said that the airline industry is currently booming as the number of

passengers, new routes are opened, and many airlines are expanding by adding up new aircrafts two or three times more than they have today.

Official data show that in 2009 domestic passengers reached 43.8 million and 5 million international passengers. On 2010, the figures rose to 51.6 million for domestic and 6.6 million for international passengers. For this year, it is estimated national airlines will transport as many as 58.9 million domestic passengers and 7.5 million international passengers.

The data show rapid growth in Indonesia’s aviation industry. In six to seven years the number of passengers is estimated to reach 100 million, with the assumption of 15% growth per year. The estimate comes from the number of Indonesian citizens travelling by air, 20 million, each flying five times a year.

According to Emirsyah Satar, who is also Garuda Indonesia’s CEO, the margin of this industry is only about 4%, due to the high cost of operation: fuel cost 35-45%, maintenance 18%, aircraft leasing 18%, and others 12%.

Nevertheless, the airline business will keep flourishing and is considered prestigious.

Flying HighThe airline industry is currently booming as the number of passengers, new routes are opened, and many airlines are expanding by adding up new aircrafts two or three times

more than they have today.

Text & Photos by Nandi Nanti

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com September 12, 2011 C7

Living

Be a jet fighter pilot for a day, worldwide

“Top Gun” references aside, these day you really can fly a fighter jet. Choose from the MiG-29, L-39 Albatross and Hawk-er Hunter to finally realize those childhood, Tom Cruise-inspired dreams.

MiGFlug is available in various locations from Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

www.migflug.com

Go volcano boarding, Nicaragua

The live volcano, which erupted as recently as 1999, has become a hot spot for extreme boarders. Boarders can reach speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour as they course down the vol-cano’s sides.

www.bigfootnicaragua.com

Enter the Cage of Death, Australia

Stare into the faces of some of Australia’s biggest salt-water crocodiles for 15 minutes, separated by nothing more than a couple inches of perspex.

Luckily the cage can house two people at one time, so there’ll be someone there to hold your hand.

www.crocosauruscove.com

Cling to a cliff, ChinaHere’s a trek with a dif-

ference: at 2,160 meters, the majestic South Peak of Mount Hua is one of the most popular among climbers in the mountain range, and, some say, the most treacherous.

cktravelblog.wordpress.com

Ride Insanity, United States

Hovering 270 meters above the ground and 20 meters over the edge of Las Vegas’ Strato-sphere Tower, these spinning me-chanical arms are sure to get your heart pounding and your hands sweating.

www.stratospherehotel.com

Perform an Everest skydive, Nepal

The self-proclaimed “world’s most elite skydiving ad-venture” allows adventurers to jump from 29,500 feet, higher than the Everest summit.

www.everest-skydive.com

Jump the Nevis Bungy, New Zealand

You can travel 134 me-ters in 8.5 seconds, if you have a go on the Nevis Bungy, New Zea-land’s highest.

The adventure starts before you get to the pod, 134 meters above the Nevis River, with a 4x4 jeep journey across the kiwi back-country.

www.bungy.co.nz

Ride the world’s steepest roller coaster, Japan

The world’s steepest steel roller coaster opened at the Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park in Tamanash, Japan this year. The near-vertical free fall is the 14th Guinness World Record set by Fuji-Q, one of the leading

amusement parks in the world for thrill seekers.

www.fujiq.jp

Go water buffalo racing, Indonesia

Balancing on small, wooden chariots while wading through shin-deep wet rice fields, racers have to control both their own nerves and not one but two charging bullocks.

You won’t be able to compete, but just watching these animals careering almost out of control through mud and water will got your blood pumping.

www.blog.baliwww.com

Run with the bulls, Spain

Fifteen bulls charge through the streets of the old city, to be herded from off-site pens into the bull ring. 15 people have died since 1924.

www.pamplona-spain.com

Take a motorcycle cab ride, Thailand

In places like Kra-bi and Bangkok, tourists and lo-cals alike often enjoy the thrill of snaking through crowded streets at high speed, inches away from buses on either side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_taxi

Run (or limp) the Marathon des Sables, Morocco

Six days, 50 C, 254 kilometers – just some of the reasons this ultra marathon across the Sahara Des-ert in Morocco is known as the world’s toughest foot race.

In 2007, two competitors died on the way.

www.darbaroud.com

Go hot air ballooning, Turkey

Enjoy the sweeping vistas of the Cappadocia while you float silently in clear skies above the region’s villages.

www.hotairballooncappadocia.com

Swim with great white sharks, South Africa

There are countless places where you can swim with sharks (50 of which are listed here), but one of the best is on of-fer in Cape Town.

www.cpepointtroute.co.za

Go ice swimming, Finland

If the thought of plunging right into an icy hole sends shivers up your spine, heat up with a sauna session first. The freezing climes that you encoun-ter afterward may be a slight re-lief.

www.kuninkaantie.net

Paraglide over Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Paragliding anywhere is going to be a thrill, but we were inspired by a video of a flight over the fan-tastical Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

Ride the world’s longest

zip line, South AfricaTravel 280 meters in less than

10 seconds. Become a human tor-pedo on the world’s longest and fastest zip line. At a height of 280 meters and two kilometers long, riders can hit 100 kilometers per hour.

www.zip2000.co.za

Take part in a Rickshaw Run, India

With these three-wheeled, half-a-horsepower con-traptions, dozens of gallant trav-elers race from one end of India to the other three times a year.

Each edition is different from the last and is “the most stu-pid and probably the best thing you could possibly do with two weeks”, according to The Adven-turists website.

www.theadventurists.com

Go dog-sled racing, United States

Dog sledding may not sound exciting, but think about it -- you’re on dog-powered trans-portation whistling past trees at speeds that humans weren’t real-ly designed for.

www.alaskaadventures.net/dog-mushing

Do the Death Drop, Zambia

Feel four glorious seconds of terrified regret as

you walk off a 53-meter high cliff and free fall at 180 kilometers an hour.

www.thezambeziswing.com

Cycle the Death Road, Bolivia

The road connects Bolivia’s main city, La Paz, and the Yungas region. Some reports say it claims up to 300 lives each year.But such is the beauty of the scenery through which it passes, thousands of people flock to ride this route every year.

www.gravitybolivia.com

Walk a wing, United Kingdom

Strap into the top wing of a vintage biplane and get swept through the skies at 220 kph. Originally a functional role during war time to aid in-air re-fueling or to transfer fuel tanks from plane to plane, wing walk-ing is now purely a thrill seeker’s pursuit.

www.wingwalking.co.uk

Drive the Himalayas, India

You have to drive above an altitude of 4,572 me-

ters for two days of the five-day adventure. That turns this ral-ly from one of pure driving skill, to one of intense endurance and physical and mental toughness as you battle oxygen depletion and icy cold temperatures.

www.raid-de-himalaya.com

Go cliff diving, Mexico

This extreme form of getting into the water started in Hawaii and has now spread across the world. But it’s the div-ers in Acapulco, Mexico, that are most famed. Watch them from the safety of your restaurant.

www.whdf.com

Rescue a hostage, United Kingdom

From the comfort zone of your couch in the liv-

Experiences to Try Before You Die

ing room to the danger zone of a live hostage extraction -- witness how negotiations, in-telligence gathering and final-ly rescue attempts take place with ex-U.K. Special Forces troops.

Picked up by armored luxu-ry car from your chosen meet-ing point, you’ll learn about real-life events including the successful assault on the be-seiged Iranian embassy in London.

www.quintessentiallyes-cape.com

(CNN)

There’s no excuse for being bored with so many adrenaline-pumping adventures out there. Here are 25 heart-pounding, life-affirming things to try before you die – just don’t do them all in the same week or they may be the very thing that kills you.

Thrill Seekers:

25www.channels.com

www.tipakan.com

www.ibtimes.com

HealthThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comSeptember 12, 2011C8

Agatston says rela-tively new imaging tests give real-time pictures showing whether plaque is building up in key

blood vessels, alerting doctor and patient to an increased risk of a potentially deadly heart attack. “Unless you do the imaging, you are really playing Russian rou-lette with your life,” he said.

Agatston invented one of the imaging tests, the coronary calci-um scan, which looks at plaque in the arteries leading to the heart. Plaque in these arteries is a red flag for a potential heart attack. (Agatston does not make any money from the coronary calci-um scan.)

The other imaging test Agat-ston recommends is an ultra-sound of the carotid artery, look-ing at plaque in the main blood vessel leading to the brain. Plaque in the carotid artery is a sign of increased risk for a heart attack and stroke. Both tests are non-in-vasive and outpatient, although the calcium scan does expose the patient to the equivalent of sever-al months of normal background radiation.

Agatston consults with Judy Willner about her checkup in his Miami office. One large federal-ly funded study found the coro-nary calcium score a better pre-dictor of coronary events like a heart attack than the traditional Framingham Risk Score, which considers age, cigarette smoking, blood pressure, total cholesterol and HDL, the “good” cholesterol.

Agatston thinks the coronary calcium scan should be routine-ly scheduled at age 50, like a colonoscopy, or earlier for people with family histories of heart dis-ease. Most hospitals now offer the imaging tests, some at less than $100 for both, and they are often covered by insurance.

Cardiologists now generally use the calcium scan only for patients considered at intermediate risk for heart disease, determined by tra-ditional measures such as choles-terol, blood pressure, lifestyle and family history.

High-risk patients already re-ceive such aggressive treatment as cholesterol-lowering statin medication, but many doctors don’t think low-risk patients need to incur the expense or small dose

of radiation that comes with a cor-onary calcium scan.

“There is a large group in the middle called in-termediate risk, which may be as much as 50% of the population,” said Dr. Erin Michos, a cardi-ologist at the Cic-carone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at Johns Hopkins University.

A good can-didate for a cor-onary calcium scan, she says, would be a 50-year-old man with slightly elevated cholesterol and a father who had a heart attack. “Do you put this 50-year-old who has this family history on a statin medication with potential expense (and) side effects for the next four decades of his life, or do you fur-ther refine how far at risk he is?” she asked. A calcium score would answer that question, she says.

There’s a third test Agatston likes: a $65 blood test that looks

Will You Havea Heart Attack? These Tests Might TellMost heart attacks strike with no warning, but doctors now have a clearer picture than ever before of who is most likely to have one, says Dr. Arthur Agatston, a Miami cardiologist and author of the best-selling South Beach diet books.

at a patient’s LDL, or bad choles-terol. LDL particles come in differ-ent sizes, and patients with a lot of small-particle LDL are more like-ly to build up plaque in their blood vessels, Agatston says. Alternately, patients with large LDL particles do not tend to accumulate plaque. “There are a lot of little old ladies in their 80s with very high cho-lesterol who have squeaky clean vessels. They have very large par-ticles, and they don’t get into the vessel wall,” Agatston says.

Hair Can Indicate Your Risk of a Heart Attack

Many of us have felt that stress was causing us to lose our hair, but a recent study shows that the amount of stress one has experi-enced can actually be measured in our hair and can be correlated with heart attack risk.

Lead researcher Gideon Koran, professor of pediatric medicine and toxicology at University of Western Ontario, had been study-ing hair samples of children whose mothers had used cocaine and heroin while pregnant. Fellow researchers measured cortisone levels in the hair samples of body builders who used steroids. Koran began to think that if cortisone from drug use could be measured in hair, then couldn’t cortisone from the results of stress be de-tected the same way.

The study, printed in the online issue of Stress magazine, tested 56 males who were admitted to Meir Medical Center in Israel for acute myocardial infarctions (heart at-tacks) and 56 control patients admitted for other medical condi-tions.

Hair grows approximately 1 cm a month so the researchers tested the 3 cm of hair that had grown closest to the scalp to correlate with the most recent 3 months of stress exposure. Gideon says, “Hair (can) tell me what happened to you in the last 10 months.”

After controlling statistically for other risk factors, such as choles-terol levels, “We demonstrated that elevated hair cortisone con-centrations in patients with AMI (acute myocardial infarction). This suggests that chronic stress, as as-sessed by increased hair cortisol in the 3 months prior to the event,

may be a contributing factor for AMI.”

Only men were tested in this study because it was felt that hormone difference in men and women could affect the results. While cortisol levels are not the only factor that may predict risk of heart attacks, “it could be an non-invasive way to measure stress over time,” Kideon said.

Another study reported on sci-encedaily.com also showed that cortisone levels can be useful in diagnosis. Dr Laura Manenschijn and her team in The Netherlands collected hair samples of patients with Cushings syndrome, a dis-ease where the adrenals in the body produce too much cortisone causing long term chronic health problems. In their study, they also found they could accurately track higher levels of cortisol in the hair of the Cushings syndrome patients as compared against the hair samples of those without the disease.

Researcher Dr Laura Manen-schijn said: “We have suspected for a while that cortisol may be implicated in the development of many common conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and depression. However, until now, doctors have not been able to accurately measure cortisol expo-sure over the long-term and so re-search into this has been limited.”

Since cortisol levels have tradi-tionally been tested using saliva and blood the fact that it could be accurately monitored using this new, non-invasive technique might provide a new way to increase early detection and monitoring of many medical conditions. (CNN)

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. didn’t become a doctor to change the way America eats. He was a general surgeon. But researching cancer, he stumbled on a fact that changed his career: Certain cul-tures around the world do not suf-fer from heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the Western world.

Esselstyn’s practice took a dra-matic turn – from performing sur-gery to promoting nutrition. For more than 20 years, the Cleve-land Clinic doctor has tried to get Americans to eat like the Papua New Guinea highlanders, rural Chinese, central Africans and the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico.

Follow his dietary prescrip-tion, the 77-year-old Esselstyn says, and you will be “heart at-tack proof” – regardless of your family history. “It’s a foodborne ill-ness, and we’re never going to end the epidemic with stents, with by-passes, with the drugs, because none of it is treating causation of the illness,” Esselstyn says. The Esselstyn diet is tough for most Americans to swallow: no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no added oils.

Esselstyn has written a book to spread the word, “Prevent and Re-verse Heart Disease – The Revolu-tionary, Scientifically Proven, Nu-trition-Based Cure,” and he has given talks around the world. He is also a focus of the new doc-umentary “Forks Over Knives.” Esselstyn has won some high-profile allies – such as Dr. T. Co-lin Campbell, co-author of “The China Study,” and Dr. Terry Ma-son, chief medical officer at Cook County Hospitals in Chicago and the city’s former health commis-sioner.

“We’ve eaten ourselves into a problem, and we can eat ourselves out of it,” Mason says. But Essel-styn’s prescription goes against conventional wisdom, which con-siders diet only one factor in pre-venting heart disease.

“Diet alone is not going to be the reason that heart attacks are eliminated,” says Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart As-sociation. Other key factors in-clude physical activity, choles-terol, blood pressure and weight, she says. The meat, dairy and egg industries defend the bene-fits of their protein-rich foods, all of which remain on the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture’s MyPlate dietary guidelines for healthy eat-ing.

A ‘Heart Attack Proof’ Diet?

Esselstyn’s plant-based pre-scription also runs up against a culture where meat is served at most meals. “Most doctors eat meat because most Americans eat meat, and if they don’t really see for themselves or for their fam-ily why it might be a good idea to cut down or even cut meat out of their diet altogether, they might not be so inclined to recommend it to their patients,” says Michele Si-mon, author of “Appetite for Prof-it.”

Even doctors who see the bene-fits of Esselstyn’s diet may not pre-scribe it for their patients. “Anyone who is able to do that diet can have dramatic success. The problem is that many people are unable or unwilling to make these chang-es so in my practice, I try to take baby steps -- one step at a time,” says Dr. Erin Michos, a cardiol-ogist at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at Johns Hopkins University.

To help heart patients and oth-ers make the leap to his diet, Es-selstyn holds a monthly, five-hour seminar at the Cleveland Clin-ic Wellness Institute to explain the science behind “plant-based” nutrition. Esselstyn’s wife, Ann, offers practical advice on how to prepare kale, bok choy, col-lard greens and other foods that may not be on the typical family’s shopping list.

Esselstyn began recruiting patients in 1985 and says his diet has worked even on people deemed too sick for surgery. Essel-styn has published results from a small group of patients showing how his diet either halted the pro-gression of heart disease or re-duced the blockages in the blood vessels leading to the heart. “We

know if people are eating this way they are not going to have a heart attack,” says Esselstyn, whose fa-ther had a heart attack at 43.

Anthony Yen, an entrepreneur who emigrated from China and came to love the fried foods, meat and desserts of the American diet, adopted the Esselstyn program in 1987 after undergoing bypass surgery. “I’m still alive because of this diet,” Yen says, now 78.

Esselstyn says people shouldn’t hold off on starting his diet until after they develop symptoms of heart disease because most heart attacks strike with no warning. “The reason you don’t wait until you have heart disease to eat this way is often, sadly, the first symp-tom of your heart disease may be your sudden death,” he says.

Esselstyn says his diet works because it keeps the lining of the blood vessels free of the dangerous blisters or bubbles or cholester-ol-laden plaque that causes heart attacks. Two decades after Essel-styn started trying to spread the gospel of his plant-based diet, the American Heart Association says 83 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease and many of the traditional risk factors for heart disease, such as obesity, are at all time highs. The association says the cost of treat-ing heart disease tops $270 billion and is expected to more than dou-ble by 2025.

Esselstyn, a member of the U.S. gold medal rowing team at the 1956 Olympics, is not someone who gives up easily. “We are on the cusp of what could be an ab-solute revolution in health -- not dependent on pills, procedures or operations, but on lifestyle,” Essel-styn says. (CNN)

These new tests give pa-tients a chance to make ma-jor changes in their diet and lifestyle, and give doctors an opportunity to treat them with medication. “One of the best-kept secrets in the coun-try in medicine is the doctors who are practicing aggres-sive prevention are really see-ing heart attacks and strokes disappear from their practic-es. It’s doable,” Agatston says. (CNN)

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The Esselstyn diet is tough for most Americans to swallow: no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no added oils.

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