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

www.thepresidentpost.comDisplay until March 12, 2012 /// N0. 32

IDR 20,000

AUTOMOTIvE

PAGE A5

ThE ECONOMY INTERNATIONALBUSINESS

Non-oil/gas Manufacturing Industries Grow 6.% in 2011 The growth of all the non-oil/non-gas industrial sectors was expected to remain high this year. The industry minister expressed hope the growth of the non-oil/gas industries would exceed 7% this year.

PAGE B2

Minister to Scrap State-owned Firms The number of state-owned enterprises (BUMNs) in the country is to be cut by about 20 so that only 120 will be left this year, State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said here Wednesday.

PAGE B7

Indonesia-Russia Relati ons Bolstered Through Real cooperati on Agreement Russia-Indonesia relati ons have gained a new momentum and become an important issue on the internati onal agenda.

PAGE C1

“Resolve Industrial Disputes Through Musyawarah, Mufakat”

JAKARTA (TPP) – In late January massive labor protests took place in Bekasi, West Java, when thousands of workers from about 300 companies blocked the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road for several hours. They did so after a court ruled in favor of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), which had challenged a gubernatorial decree increasing the minimum wage.

RI Races to Produce Own Cars as Germany Steps in With AidA car producti on fever is gripping Indonesia these days with students, government offi cials, politi cians, and business leaders alike impati ently moving to manufacture what they call “Mobil Nasional" or “nati onal cars.”

prices," said economist Kazutoshi Chatani at the International La-bor Organization. "This means that most of the workers are ac-tually struggling to pay for basic needs."

Indonesia, the largest econo-my in Southeast Asia, is among the top 20 economies in the world, with growth this year of around 6%. The ratings agency Fitch last year upgraded the country to in-vestment-grade status. More than half of its 240 million inhabitants have entered the middle class, ac-cording to the World Bank, which

Indonesian factory workers still remain some of the lowest-paid in Asia, usually making between $100 to $200 a month. Similar workers in China now earn just over $300 a month, according to a 2010 survey by Japan External Trade Organisation, followed by Malaysia ($298), India ($269) and Thailand ($263).

The original gu-bernatorial ruling raised the minimum monthly wage in Bekasi district from Rp 1. 29 million to

Rp 1.49 million ($144 to $167). But the Court ordered the provin-cial governor to issue a new decree based on the earlier agreement between the employers’ associa-tion and workers. In the end Apin-do and the labor unions reached a deal, as the government had asked Apindo to accept the work-ers’ demands and drop its lawsuit, which it agreed.

The government has been crit-icized by both sides, with busi-nessmen saying officials should have taken a stronger stance against the workers. The business world also complained that row-dy unions will make foreign inves-tors think twice about bringing their money into the country. On the other hand, labor leaders have berated the government for doing nothing to improve the welfare of the working class.

SD Darmono, the president di-rector of PT Jababeka, which owns and manages the largest industri-al estate in Southeast Asia, told President Post that “musyawarah (deliberation) and mufakat (con-sensus) are the best ways to re-solve labor disputes, as they are part and parcel of Pancasila.”

[Pancasila is the official philo-sophical foundation of the Indone-sian state. It comprises five insep-arable and interrelated principles and were formulated by one of the state’s founding fathers and first president, Soekarno.

They are Belief in the one and only God; Just and civilized hu-manity; The unity of Indonesia; Democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst rep-resentatives; and Social justice for all of the people of Indonesia.]

“Workers should not always be repressed, they should be engaged in dialogs. Musyawarah and mu-fakat, which are the spirit of Pan-casila, have proven to be effective in putting an end to the demo in January,” he added.

In a warning that echoed the

concerns of many businessmen and investors, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said that the laws some-times favor workers at the expense of employers, and risk putting off investors just as Indonesia is on the path to economic growth. The government, celebrating a record $20 billion in foreign investment last year, is keen to keep a lid on industrial action that could scare away investors.

Darmono, however, disagrees, saying that “cheap labor should not be our selling point in attract-ing investors to Indonesia. Our selling points should be security, legal certainty, ease in doing busi-ness, a huge and growing market, sound infrastructure and reliable human resources.”

“In our industrial estate the number of Apindo members is small and does not represent the interests of the majority of com-panies that are foreign and non-Apindo members. Foreign compa-nies put a premium on security and harmony with workers. How-ever, a 30% rise is a bit too high and can set a bad precedent,” added Darmono.

According to the Central Statis-tics Agency (BPS), food prices rose by nearly 16% in 2010, while the wages of factory workers grew by less than 7%.

"Wage increases have not kept up with inflation, especially food

defines that as those who spend $2 to $20 a day. Still, many of them toil for barely a living wage, offering some of the cheapest la-bor in Asia.

Affordable labor is a main rea-son investors are attracted to In-donesia, in part to offset wage in-creases in China, said Minister Wirjawan, who is also head of the investment coordinating board BKPM. But recent strikes for high-er wages by mine workers and su-permarket clerks, as well as pilots of the state-owned airline, Garu-da, have disrupted business oper-ations — and could potentially de-ter foreign investment.

Indonesian factory workers still remain some of the lowest-paid in Asia, usually making between $100 to $200 a month. Similar workers in China now earn just over $300 a month, according to a 2010 survey by Japan External Trade Organisation, followed by Malaysia ($298), India ($269) and Thailand ($263).

Minimum workers’ wages are determined by the Law on the Council of Wages comprising AP-INDO (seven members), the Con-federation of Workers Union (sev-en members) and representatives of province (14 members). Wages are divided into three types of in-dustries, namely heavy, medium and light.

Says Darmono: “Bad commu-nications within the Council of Wages and late intervention by the government is a bitter lesson we all must learn from to prevent a recurrence of the case in the re-gions.”

“The way I see it, in the short term minimum wages must be determined on a national basis to prevent possible disputes in the future in regencies and provinc-es. This could be done with the help of the state-run statistics

body BPS. A regional or city index system should be applied, for ex-ample Jakarta 120% of the mini-mum wages, Bekasi 110% and so forth,” added Darmono.

“A similar index could also be put to effect on the basis of sec-tors, for example manufacturing 110% and service 100%, or by the size of the company in question.”

“As a mid-term solution, Ja-botabek in conjunction with the government should be designated as a high-tech industry area with higher wages so that labor-inten-

sive companies can be relocated to regions with abundant of work-ers. The government can assist by building infrastructure so that companies would find it attractive to relocate to the regions.”

The West Java provincial gov-ernment plans to have workers earn Rp 5 million a month with-in 10 years so that they will be able to enjoy a reasonable stan-dard of living. A significant and systemized salary raise will boost the purchasing power of Indone-sians raise their level of productiv-ity, and attract more foreign inves-tors to Indonesia.

The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry and the Min-istry of Industry should prepare 100 new tourist and industri-al destinations and new cities in a bid to create employment, says Darmono.

“Regional governments should make their provinces look nice and attractive, be and active in promoting human resources. They should manage natural re-sources in a proper manner. This will gradually create better distri-bution of wealth,” says Darmono, who is also chairman of PATA In-donesia.

Workers should not always be repressed, they should be engaged in dialogs. Musyawarah and mufakat, which are the spirit of Pancasila, have proven to be effective in putting an end to the demo in January."

SD DarmonoPresident Director of PT Jababeka

Australia s foreign aid agency AusAID has agreed to help improve the English-language proficiency of civil servants in West Nusateng-gara (NTB), a local official said.

"We proposed that AusAID help raise the TOEFL scores of civil servants in NTB and they agreed," said Rosiady Sayuti, head of NTB`s De-velopment Planning Agency (Bappeda) after accompany-ing Vice Governor H Badrul Munir at a meeting with a team from the Australian embassy in Jakarta here on Thursday.

The Australian Embassy team had come to Mataram

AusAID to Help Improve NTB Civil Servants’ English Proficiency

to familiarize relevant provincial NTB officials with an extended program to provide scholarships for NTB civil servants.

“Our target is to have 50 civil servants at provincial, district or city level government offices im-prove their TOEFL score," he said.

The average TOEFL score of civ-il servants in NTB now, accord-ing to Rosiady, was 450 whereas to receive a scholarship for stud-ies abroad one had to have a min-imum TOEFL score of 500.

Australia hails Indonesia`s First Street Football Tournament

The Australian Embassy con-gratulated on Tuesday the League of Change, Indonesia s first na-tional street football tournament, for using sport to give opportuni-ties for marginalised communi-ties around the country.

Eight provinces were represent-ed at the three-day tournament organised by Rumah Cemara, a Bandung-based organisation that works to increase the quality of life and reduce stigma towards people living with HIV, the Austra-lian said in its official website here on Tuesday.

The Australian Embas-sy awarded Rumah Cemara with a A$10,000 Allan Tay-lor Sports Grant to help run the event.

"Football is a sport close to the hearts of many Indone-sians and a great way to ed-ucate people about complex social issues," said Ambassa-dor Greg Moriarty.

The Allan Taylor Sports Grant is sponsored through the Australia-Indonesia In-stitute and is designed to fur-ther develop sports in Indo-nesia. The late Allan Taylor (a former Australian Ambassa-dor to Indonesia) was a keen sportsperson.

www.infogres.com

The Australian Embassy team had come to Mataram to familiarize relevant provincial NTB officials with an extended program to provide scholarships for NTB civil servants.

Our target is to have 50 civil servants at provincial, district or city level government offices improve their TOEFL score."

OpinionThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012A2

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

PUBLIShED BYPT Sarana Pratama Pengembangan Kota

econ-o m y , and boost-ing Indone-sia’s international image and drawing in-vestments to the sector.

In the Strategic Plan to be imple-mented until 2014, contribution of creative economy and industries to national GDP is targeted to in-

crease from 7.5% in 2011 to 8% in 2014, with contribution to em-ployment during this period rising from 8% to 8.75%.

BOOSTINGCREATIVEECONOMY

By Tuti W. Sunario

ADvISORAli Basyah Suryo

CEO & EDITOR IN ChIEFRachmat Wirasena Suryo

CONTRIBUTORSAtmono SuryoCyrillus Harinowo HadiwerdoyoThomas W. ShreveJeannifer Filly SumaykuEka Putri

EDITORIAL & CIRCULATION DEPARTMENTSrimay Noviani

LAYOUT & DESIGNMohamad Akmal

PhOTOGRAPhERHeros Barasakti

hEAD OF SALES & MARKETINGDetia H. Rais

WEB DEPARTMENTReza Ganesha Partakusuma

On the other hand, UNDP and UNCTAD, in “The Creative Econo-my Report (2008)” stated that: “In the contemporary world, a new development paradigm is emerg-ing that links the economy and culture, embracing economic, cul-tural, technological and social as-pects of development at both the macro and micro levels. Central to the new paradigm is the fact that creativity, knowledge and access to information are increasingly recognized as powerful engines driving economic growth and promoting development in a glo-balizing world. There is thus an economic aspect to creativity, ob-servable in the way it contributes to enterprenuership, fosters inno-vation, enhances productivity and promotes economic growth”

Based on the above, therefore, it is clear that at the heart of the matter is the human mind and his or her creativity. But the mind’s products, whether they are tangi-ble or intangible, have an econom-ic value only when these are trad-ed. As such, I believe Indonesia needs to make a paradigm shift to be able to become a competitive player on the global scene in this era of the creative economy.

Our creative human assets are abundant, but to adjust them to meet the criteria drawn up by the international world to compete in today’s global world needs mas-sive re-education. Thus “the cre-ative economy” should not only be seen solely as an administrative function of government to bene-fit industry, but should ideally be made into a powerful drive to de-velop the nation to meet the chal-lenges in this fast changing glob-al world.

the directorates for electronic and print media, digital media and de-sign and architecture. The Minis-try will also have four Expert Ad-visors, in the protection of diverse creative expressions, service econ-omy, inter-institutional relations, and in research and technology.

What is Creative Economy? While everyone knows what

creativity is, it is however not so clear when it comes to what is actually meant by Cre-ative Economy. “Creativity”, says John Howkins, in his book The Creative Econo-my, “is not in itself an eco-nomic good, but in its ap-plication it can become so”. Talent and innova-tions are the productive elements in the creative process and the mag-ic ingredients in the cre-ative economy. Howkins includes individual intel-lectual property rights, patents, trademarks and

design rights.

On its side, the United King-dom Creative Industries Task

Force (1998) defined “Creative industries as those industries which have their origin in individ-ual creativity, skill and talent, and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the gen-eration and exploitation of intel-lectual property and content”

The Indonesian Trade Minis-try defined Creative Economy as “a new economic era which inten-sifies information and creativi-ty that rely on the stock of knowl-edge of human resources as main production ingredients in its eco-nomic activities.”

T o imple-

ment the program, the

Ministry will have two new Director Gen-

erals. One is in charge of arts and culture by leading three di-rectorates on films, performanc-es and music, and the second is in charge of media, design and re-search and technology overseeing

The President Post - Circulation DepartmentsMenara Batavia 25th Floor

Jl. K.H. Mas Mansyur Kav. 126Jakarta 10220, Indonesia

Phone: +62 21 572 7337 Fax.: +62 21 572 7338Email: circulation@thepresidentpost.com

SUBSCRIBENOW

Fax

Phone

Mobile

Email

What other business newspaper do you read?

Please start my subscription from

YES! I WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBEThe President Post

6 Issues

12 Issues

18 Issues

24 Issues

Rp. 120,000

Rp. 216,000

Rp. 306,000

Rp. 384,000

-

10%

15%

20%

Jabodetabek SAVE

Name Mr Mrs Ms

Address Home Office

Date of Birth

Company Position

Renew

Postal Code

PERSONAL INFORMATION

PLEASE FAX THIS FORM AND PAYMENT RECEIPT TO +62 21 572 7338FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CALL +62 21 572 7337

PAYMENT METHODSPlease transfer to:Bank OCBC NISP Capitol Cikarang Branch 101.010.00016.5Account Name PT. Sarana Pratama Pengembangan Kota

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

In October 2011, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reshuffled the cabinet, Creative Econo-my was moved from the

Trade Ministry and placed in tan-dem with Tourism, while Culture in the former Ministry for Tour-ism and Culture was returned to the (present) Ministry for Educa-tion and Culture. The appointed minister entrusted to lead the new Ministry for Tourism and Creative Economy was no less than DR. Mari Elka Pangestu, former Min-ister for Trade, who, nota bene pi-oneered Creative Economy at the Trade Ministry of Indonesia.

This appointment was enthu-siastically welcomed, especial-ly by the creative world, from re-mote villages to renowned artists, who viewed this as a political rec-ognition of their work. They hope, of course, this sector will receive a boost in the coming years. In-deed, to develop Creative Econo-my, President Yudhoyono had is-sued Presidential Instruction No. 6/2009, instructing 27 ministries and state institutions together with local governments to jointly develop Creative Economy.

The Presidential Instruction de-fines Creative Economy as com-prising 14 creative industries con-sidered as its main pillars, namely advertising, architecture, art and antique marts, handicrafts, de-sign, fashion, film, videos and photography, interactive games, music, art performances, pub-lishing and printing, computer services and software, radio and television, and research and tech-

In the Strategic Plan to be implemented until 2014, contribution of creative economy and

industries to national GDP is targeted to increase from 7.5% in 2011 to 8% in 2014,

with contribution to employment during this period rising from 8% to 8.75%.

nology. In order to develop them, a special Coordinating Team was set up chaired by Coordinating Minister for Public Welfare with Coordinating Minister for the Economy as co-chair. Appointed as Executive Chair is Minister for Trade with co-chair the Minister for Industry.

On January 4, 2012, Minister Mari Pangestu explained that the Creative Economy Sec-tor has the vision to raise the quality of life of the people, boost tolerance, and cre-ate added value. Actions following this vision in-clude raising competitive-ness and added value, in-stitutional development, appreciation and im-plementation of the law, joint and sustainable promotion, development of human and capital re-sources, development of technology, as well as ac-cess to funding.

“I realize that the two main challenges facing Cre-ative Economy are property rights and access to funding”, said Minister Pangestu.

“We will undertake coordina-tion and cooperation to strength-en the protection and implemen-tation of property rights to be more effective, and facilitate ac-cess to funding through match-making.”

Through such actions it is ex-pected that Creative Economy will not only increase the country’s foreign currency income, but also domestic consumption of creative products and services, thereby raising employment and contrib-uting added value to the national

The Presidential Instruction defines Creative Economy as comprising 14 creative industries considered as its main pillars, namely advertising, architecture, art and antique marts, handicrafts, design, fashion, film, videos and photography, interactive games, music, art performances, publishing and printing, computer services and software, radio and television, and research and technology.

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 A3

Perspective

GLOBAL TRENDS

The economic and fi-nancial crisis has an adverse effect on global capital flows, particularly during 2008-09. But as of

2010, the situation had begun to change. According to UNCTAD, global foreign direct investment flows rose by 5% in 2010 albe-it still below the 2007 pre-crisis level.

In the area of global investment there are a number of fundamen-tal developments which are of great importance for Indonesia, which is in the process of promot-ing greater investment flows:

Notwithstanding the econom-•ic financial crisis, FDI has not disappeared completely as was happening with other sources of global finance;It may have gone down as hap-•pened during the crisis, but it is still available and will return as soon as possible when condi-tions are better; In a relatively short time global •FDI rose by 17% in 2011 com-pared to 2010. It shows that FDI has a great deal of flexibili-ty—the area of FDI is still an at-tractive business undertaking; An important point to note is •that there is now a shift on the side of the recipient countries. It

a number of years (before 2010) Indonesia had difficulties to at-tract FDI. As they often said at that time “Investors continue to sit on the fence waiting for better times to come”. Many years were just lost at that time on account of the non-conducive investment cli-mate in the country. The situation has now changed for Indonesia.

Among the emerging countries, about nine are within the top 20 recipients, namely China, Hong Kong, China, Brazil. Singapore, Saudi Arabia, India, Mexico, Chile and Indonesia (with $13 bln). Dur-ing 2009-2010 Indonesia was still at the bottom of the list of the top 20 recipient countries. This situa-

tion is now beginning to change in the right direction.

IMPORTANCE OF FDI In terms of attracting foreign

FDI’s, Indonesia is being consid-ered as a remarkable potential and investment destination. In practice, however, the country is often considered as a risky. As in-vestors often say, “Nothing is cer-tain in this country.”

FDI has its positive sides but also its weaknesses and political risks. As is the case with trade, the area of Investment Flows is also an area of fierce competition. Developing countries are at pres-ent very keen to attract FDI’s, as

Indonesia is not the only country in need of FDI.

Looking from the positive side of FDI, one can identify a number of positive points such as:

FDI is a source of economic de-•velopment and modernization; in addition to exports, this is now recognized by most of the developing countries;FDI provides capital on top of •domestic investment, which is often in short supply in develop-ing countries—it also ensures income growth; Importantly, FDI brings tech-•nology and productivity gains, which are needed by the emerg-ing countries; lt also provides high-level job •creation for many developing countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico and many other countries in East Asia and Lat-in America.FDI is an asset to the host coun-•tries. It forms a part and enlarg-es the country’s total GDP.

It is well recognized that FDI has its weaknesses. For one, FDI may push aside or even squeeze out the weak domestic investors. But every country has its own way to protect its interests.

CURRENT TRENDSIt is quite amazing to see how

Indonesia’s position has changed since around 2010. This is a re-markable achievement on the side of the investment coordinat-ing body, BKPM. According to UNCTAD, a number of countries are considered to be top ponten-tial recipients, which include In-donesia.

Investment realization The following BKPM data (Fig-

ure 2) show that the cummula-tive investment realization Janu-ary-December 2011 has reached Rp 251.3 trillion, consisting of Rp 76.0 trillion in domestic direct in-vestments (PMDN) and Rp 175.3 trillion in foreign direct invest-ments (PMA).

The data confirm that Indone-sia has been catching up quite significantly in 2011. Investors were no more sitting on the fence as happened before. It is now up to Indonesia to make it possible for this upward trend to continue in the future.

The writer is former ambassador to the EU

Global Investment Flows: Indonesia Catching Up

By Atmono Suryo

Indonesia has been catching up quite significantly in 2011. Investors were no more sitting on the fence as happened before. It is now up to Indonesia to make it possible for this upward trend to continue in the future.

is no more the advanced coun-tries which dominate the mar-ket.It is now the turn of the devel-•oping countries, which are now the ones that have a greater say. In fact, developing countries be-gin to absorb half of global FDI flows in 2010.Some emerging countries have •now become good suppliers of FDI; they are coming from Asia as well as from Latin America and the Gulf region. This will give Indonesia a greater choice in attracting FDI’s.

Despite the economic and fi-nancial crisis global FDI rose by 17% in 2011 compared to the year 2010. It is estimated that FDI flows will continue to increase in 2012 to around $1.6-1.7 trillion and $1.9 trillion in 2013.

An important trend to be not-ed by Indonesia is that developing and transition economies start to absorb half of global FDI inflows in 2010. South-East Asian coun-tries are rated to be the best per-formers after experiencing a slide in 2010. The largest portion went to developing countries in Asia, which rose by 11% in 2011. Sharp increases took place in 2011 in a number of ASEAN countries, in particular Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Indonesia’s position in 2009-10One would recall that for quite

PMDN realization in five largest sectors

Food Crops and Plantation Rp 9.4 trillion

Paper and Printing Industry Rp 9.3 trillion

Electricity, Gas and Water Supply Rp 9.1 trillion

Transport, Storage and Communication Rp 8.1 trillion

Food Industry Rp 8.0 trillion

PMA realization based on countries (five biggest)

Singapore $5.1 billion

Japan $1.5 billion

USA $1.5 billion

The Netherlands $1.4 billion

South Korea $1.2 billion

Source: BKPM

Realization of PMA based on the sector (five biggest) :

Transport, Storage and Communication $3.8 billion

Mining $3.6 billion

Electricity, Gas and Water Supply $1.9 billion

Metal, Machinery and Electronic Industry $1.8 billion

Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry $1.5 billion

ChinaUnited States

IndiaBrazil

Russian FederationPoland

IndonesiaAustraliaGermany

MexicoVietnamThailand

United KingdomSingapore

Taiwan Province of ChinaPeru

Czech RepublicChile

ColombiaFrance

Malaysia

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

FIGURE 1: Top HosT EconomIEs FoR FDI In 2011-2013

Source: UNCTAD

FIGURE 2: ThE CUMMULATIvE INvESTMENT REALIzATION(January-December 2011)

In terms of attracting foreign FDI’s, Indonesia is being considered as a remarkable potential and investment destination. In practice, however, the country is often considered as a risky. As investors often say, “Nothing is certain in this country.”

The EconomyThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012A4

Govt to Offered Five Series ofSharia State BondsThe government has offered five series of sharia state bonds (sukuk) worth Rp1

trillion in an auction on February 14 to meet part of financing target in the 2012 state budget.

Director General of Debt Management at the Finance Ministry Rahmat Waluy-anto said on Tuesday four of the five series of sharia state bonds would be proj-ect-based. They are PBS002 and PBS004 which are new issues and PBS002 and PBS003 which are the reopening of the existing issues. The other sharia state bond is series SPN-S 15082012 which is also new issue, he said.

The sharia state bonds series PBS001 due on February 15, 2018 and series PBS002 due on January 15, 2022 will be issued at a yield of 5.45%, he said. Mean-while, the sharia state bonds series PBS003 due on January 15, 2027 will be issued at a yield of 6% and series PBS004 would mature on January 15, 2037, he said.

The underlying assets of the four series of sharia state bonds are projects or activities in the 2012 state budget, he said. The sharia state bonds series SPN-S 15082012 due on August 15, 2012 will be issued at discount yield and the un-derlying assets of the sharia state bonds are state assets in the form of land and building, he said.

Domestic Consumption Expected to increase 9.1%

Domestic consumption is pre-dicted to grow 9.1% to Rp4,124 trillion in 2012 with the trade, hotel and restaurant sectors as the main engine, Trade Minister Gita Irawan Wirjawan said.

Business agents could take ad-vantage of strong domestic con-sumption to increase the supply of their products to and the share of their products in the domestic mar-ket, he said at a working meeting

with the House of Representatives Commission VI here on Monday.The government was trying to encourage the public to have better apprecia-

tion for domestic products as part of efforts to increase the use of locally-made goods, he said.

The effort to improve the public`s appreciation for domestic products had been made by among others launching "I Love Indonesia" (ACI) movement and improving Indonesian image at home and abroad, he said.

The government also had begun implementing a program designed to in-crease the use of domestic products among others by encouraging state agencies to use more domestic products in the procurement of government goods and services, he said. In addition, he added the government was also trying to control the import of goods that had the potential to lower the competitive edge of local products.

ECONOMIC UPDATES

On a quarterly basis, Indonesia`s payments balance showed positive performance in the first and second quarters of 2011 among other things because export commodity prices were still rising and foreign portfolio investments flowing in briskly.

Indonesia's balance of pay-ments in 2011 recorded a surplus of $11.9 billion consisting of current, cap-ital and financial trans-

actions, a Bank Indonesia (BI) or central bank official said.

The current transactions surplus was supported by the country s export performance which remained fairly high de-

spite weakened world demand, said Dyah NK Makhijani, a BI of-ficial in charge of strategic poli-cies.

The capital and financial trans-actions surplus stemmed from in-creases in direct foreign invest-ment flows and in disbursement of the private sector s foreign loans in conjunction with a con-ducive investment climate and a well preserved macroeconomic stability, she said.

As a result of those conditions, the amount of Indonesia s for-eign exchange reserves rose from $96.2 billion at the end of 2010 to $110.1 billion or the equivalent of 6.4 months of imports and sover-eign debt repayments a year later.

On a quarterly basis, Indonesia s payments balance showed posi-tive performance in the first and second quarters of 2011 among other things because export com-

BI: 2011 Payments Balance Posts $11.9b Surplus

modity prices were still rising and foreign portfolio investments flow-ing in briskly.

In the third quarter, the pay-ments balance showed a deficit , especially as a consequence of the financial crisis in Europe which triggered a reverse flow in foreign portfolio investments. Negative pressure on the payments balance diminished in the fourth quarter after foreign portfolio investors re-turned and disbursement of pri-vate sector foreign loans rose sig-nificantly.

Allthough as a whole, the pay-ments balance performed better in the fourth quarter, there was a deficit in current transactions. The deficit of about 0.4% of Gross Domestic Product happened be-cause imports continued to rise on strong domestic demand and exports declined on weakened world demand for the country s export commodities.

Indonesia s foreign exchange reserves as of January 31, 2012 stood at $112 billion, enough to finance imports and foreign debt repayments for 6.2 months, ac-cording to the central bank.

This figure represents an in-crease of about $2 billion, com-pared to $110.123 billion in the year ended December 31, 2011, head of Bank Indonesia s Public Relations Bureau Difi A Johan-syah said here on Thursday.

Quoting the results of a meet-ing of the bank`s board of gov-ernors, Difi said the country s balance of payment in the first quarter of 2012 was expected to record a surplus, though reveal-ing a lower trend.

However, current transactions were expected to suffer a defi-cit, along with declining export growth, though imports would re-main high thanks to strong do-mestic demand.

RI Forex Reserves Reach $112b in JanuaryThe surplus of the first-quar-

ter balance of payment would be fueled by capital and financial transactions owing to foreign di-rect investment (FDI) inflows and an investment portfolio which were expected to increase as a re-sult of strong fundamentals of the domestic economy amidst glob-al economic uncertainty, Johan-syah said. Also, the attainment of the investment grade was ex-pected to strengthen positive sen-

timent towards the Indonesian economy, he said.

On the domestic side, the cen-tral bank`s board of governors believes the Indonesian economy still has strong resistance to the global crisis, though it would grow at a slower pace amidst the de-clining prospects within the glob-al economy.

He noted that the Indonesian economy was projected to ex-pand 6.5% in the first quarter of

Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan

www.antaranews.com

2012. In 2012, domestic econom-ic growth was expected to hit the lower level of the economic growth forecast of 6.3-6.7%.

The 2012 economic growth would be fueled by strong house-hold consumption and invest-ment. This strong household con-sumption would be driven by high purchasing power thanks to the government s effort to control the inflation rate, Johansyah said.

www.infobanknews.com

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 A5

The Economy

Indonesia s non-oil/gas manufacturing industry grew 6.8% last year com-pared to 5.1% a year ear-lier, Industry Minister MS

Hidayat said."No negative growth is record-

ed today. I think 6.8% is the max-imum average growth of the man-ufacturing industry," he said here on Tuesday.

Data from the Industry Minis-try show all non-oil/gas industrial sectors recorded positive growth last year, with the base metal, iron and steel industry taking the lead with 13.06%, followed by food, drink and tobacco indus-try 9.19%, textile, leather product and footwear industry 7.52%.

The growth of all the non-oil/non-gas industrial sectors was expected to remain high this year.

Non-oil/gas Manufacturing Industries Grow 6.8% in 2011

The industry minister expressed hope the growth of the non-oil/gas industries would exceed 7% this year.

The government would focus on encouraging the growth of domes-tic industries, particularly small-and medium-sized industries as well as supporting industries. "What is the most suitable now is that if large-sized industries have been well established they must be connected to supporting in-

The growth of all the non-oil/non-gas industrial sectors was expected to remain high this year. The industry minister expressed hope the growth of the non-oil/gas industries would exceed 7% this year.

Finance Minister Agus Mar-towardojo said he firmly believed Indonesia s economic growth in 2011 would reach 6.5% as as-sumed by the government.

"We have good reason to be-lieve it will be 6.5%. It will show our quality in 2011," he said here Thursday. Therefore, he said, he hoped the growth figure for the fourth quarter of 2011 to be an-nounced by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) soon would be the same as for the previous three quarters, namely 6.5%. After all, he added, in the third quarter of 2011 Indonesia was not yet directly affected by the crisis in Europe.

About growth in 2012, Agus said he hoped it would reach 6.7% as assumed in the State

Budget due to efforts to improve infrastructure and the bureau-cracy. "As a consequence of the crisis, global growth was lastly corrected to 3.3%. We stick to our

Minister Confident 2011 Growth Reaches 6.5%

target of 6.7% but we must solve our problems regarding infra-structure, bureaucracy and cor-ruption," he said.

Meanwhile, economist Chat-ib Basri said the global econom-ic recession had had little impact on Indonesia because its economy was backed up by a vast domes-tic market that had contributed to an increase in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"If our economic growth in 2012 ranges between 5.5- 6.5% and the inflation rate is 4-5%, we will still have a stable economy," Chat-ib said. He said the increase in Indonesia s GDP was due to an ex-panding middle class which had boosted consumption and initiat-ed new businesses that helped to fuel economic growth.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said the government would op-timize its spending to boost the country s economic growth in 2012.

"I think we must admit that the Indonesian economy would grow more than 6.5% last year if the government spending could be optimized. We lost 0.1-0.2% of the remainder. This is one of things we have to improve," he said following a coordination meeting at his office here on Monday.

The Central Statistics Agen-cy (BPS) said earlier in the day the Indonesian economy grew 6.5% last year, fueled by ex-ports which grew 6.3%, house-hold consumption 2.7%, govern-ment spending 0.3%, physical investment 2.1%, exports 6.3% and imports 4.8%. "If the gov-ernment spending could be op-timized our economy might ex-

pand at a range of 6.6 to 6.7% last year. I think both investment and exports had played an optimum role in the economic growth," Hat-ta said.

Earlier, the Investment Coordi-nating Board (BKPM) announced foreign investment reached Rp175.3 trillion, domestic in-vestment Rp76 trillion, bring-ing to Rp251.3 trillion the overall amount of investment in Indone-sia last year.

Govt to Optimize Spending To Boost Growth: Official

Meanwhile, Indonesia s exports last year were valued at $203.62 billion. He said investment, ex-ports, public consumption and government spending remained the engine of the domestic eco-nomic growth last year.

National Development Planning Minister Armida Alisjahbana who is also chief of the National Devel-opment Planning Agency (Bappe-nas) said to boost the economic growth the government must en-courage more investment flows.

"If we want to see our econ-omy growing more than 6.5% there must be a special strategy to boost investment. The invest-ment inflows reached the high-est record last year. If we want our economy to expand 6.7%, in-vestment must grow 11%, exports 10%, and domestic consumption more than 5%. Therefore, there must be special focus on invest-ment," she said.

super Luxury Apartments still on Demand. Current prices of super luxury apartments in Jakarta are in the range of Rp 26-35 million per square meter or Rp 7 billion up to Rp 17 billion per unit. The size of this segment until the end of 2011 is 6%, or about 4,829 units from the total supply of 82,000 units of apartments in Jakarta. Super luxury apartments are rich crisis-immune buyers.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

Industry Minister MS Hidayat

Coordinating Minister forEconomic Affairs Hatta Rajasa

Indonesian consumer busi-ness and economic conditions increased in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the previ-ous quarter, the Central Statis-tics Agency (BPS) said.

Business tendency index in the fourth quarter of 2011 was recorded at 106.92, meaning that the business condition im-proved with the business play-ers optimism lower than the previous quarter, acting BPS chief Suryamin said here on Monday.

The business condition im-proved in all sectors, except agri-cultural, husbandry, forestry and fishery sectors with business ten-dency index score 98.14, he said. "The highest increase in business condition was found in the con-struction sector with business tendency index score 111.51," he said.

The business condition also im-proved as a result of an increase in business income with business tendency index score 108.27, use

BPS: Consumers' Business,Economic Conditions Improving

of production capacity 105.53 and average working hours 106.32, he said.

Suryamin predicted the agri-cultural, husbandry, forestry and fishery sectors would record the highest business tendency index score in the first quarter of 2012 with the service sector recording the lowest score.

He said consumer tendency in-dex in the fourth quarter of 2011 reached 108.44, suggesting an in-crease with consumer s optimism lower than the previous quarter.

No negative growth is recorded today. I think 6.8% is the maximum average growth of the manufacturing industry."

www.antaranews.com

dustries. If we want to build an automotive plant it must be connected with compo-nent industries and other in-dustries," he said.

The connectivity between large industries and sup-porting industries must be applied to all industrial sec-tors, he said. "Only by doing so can they grow together," he said. He said the govern-ment would not tolerate any large investor which did not involve local entrepreneurs to support its business activ-ities. "They must involve lo-cal companies. That is my re-quest," he said.

Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (Kadin) for Research and Technology Bambang Sujagad said the government should main-tain the existing conducive business climate to allow the growth of non-oil/non-gas manufacturing industries to remain high. "Wage prob-lems must be settled proper-ly, otherwise they will affect the industrial growth this year, particularly the growth of labor-intensive industries," he said.

Companies in Asia that are looking to expand globally will now have a new platform to net-work and learn from their more successful counterparts.

This platform is called Future Global 100 Initiative (FG100) and aims to bring together corporate movers in Asia and globally so that smaller Asian companies are able to tap on their expertise.

The FG100 Initiative features an initial series of roundtables in seven locations, bringing more than 300 leaders of corporations and governments from around the world together to discuss glob-al growth issues and define the characteristics of a FG100 Com-pany.

Jakarta is the sixth city that has hosted the Future Global 100 (FG100) Initiative. Singapore was the first to host the FG100 Initia-tive roundtable on 4 July last year, followed by Mumbai on 4 August 2011, Shanghai on 7 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur on 5 Octo-

ber 2011, Hong Kong on 3 Novem-ber 2011 and now Jakarta.

It is now the exclusive Initiative on the Future of a country’s econ-omy, business and industry from a global and national perspective. It is also a recognized milestone in international business, estab-lishing the world’s first authorita-tive agenda and documented ref-erence on the future of the global economy, future global markets and future global businesses what we simply term the Future Global Agenda.

The findings and consensus from each roundtable is encapsu-lated in a white paper. The find-ings will be published and dis-tributed with policy makers in each market to better support the growth of the FG100.

Lionel Lee, Chairman of Plati-num Circle, said “The strong sup-port for the FG100 Initiative from industry and government leaders around the world reflects the de-sire among them to play a role in the making of the Future Global Agenda. We want to increase the

Future Global 100 Initiative: Business Platform for Leading Asia Companies

voice of Indonesia in the Initiative and Agenda by including more In-donesian corporations and the government. Some of these cor-porations involved in the FG100 Initiative are on track to become global giants by as early as 2014. Together, our business and gov-ernment leaders can have a neu-tral platform to address global is-sues, deliberate and define the route forward for the future”.

Platinum Circle, a leading glob-al business group involving cor-porations with annual revenues exceeding $100 million, govern-ments and intergovernmental or-ganizations, is gathering more than 350 global and nation-al business leaders and govern-ment representatives from over 35 countries to address the future of the global economy, markets and business in 7 cities. Collective-ly, these corporations from more than 20 industries/sectors repre-sent a combined annual revenue exceeding $3 trillion.

Sam Ang, CEO, South East Asia, DHL Global Forwarding,

said “As ‘Future Global’ compa-nies take their products and ser-vices to the international mar-ketplace, they will experience a completely different set of logis-tics challenges. This is where DHL comes in – with dedicated support and innovative supply chain solu-tions customized to meet the spe-cific needs of local companies go-ing global, DHL is able to support these companies to overcome the challenges of internationaliza-tion.”

DHL is the Strategic Partner of the FG100 initiative, a platform the company agrees is ideal for building an international com-munity of new and potentially high-flying companies. Firmly be-lieving that these ‘Future Global’ companies will form the next gen-eration of market leaders, DHL re-cently established a team focused on developing and maintaining strategic partnerships with such companies.

The growing number of organi-zations participating in this glob-al Initiative include the World

Trade Organisation, Asian Devel-opment Bank, DHL, Bin Zayed Group, Silah Gulf, Coats, CCIC, Melewar Group, The Bank of East Asia, Singapore Technologies En-gineering, PT Ilthabi Rekatama, Talent2, SAP, Neusoft Corpora-tion, Development Bank of Sin-gapore, Texas Instruments, Ex-perian, Electrolux, ANZ, Karcher, Quintiles, Philips Electronics, Sie-mens Medical Instruments, Di-

mension Data, Hertz, Mastercard, Essar Group, Dalmia Group, Zy-dus Cadila, Tata Motors, Jubilant Lifesciences, JSW Ispat Indus-tries, Tata Consultancy Services, Vendanta Aluminium, Bombay Stock Exchange, Lanco Infratech, Broad Group, Lenovo, Huawei Technologies, China Chamber of International Commerce, nation-al parliaments and governments from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina,

Peru, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Qatar, Zambia, UK, Portugal, Germany, Serbia, Italy, Spain, USA and Canada.

After Jakarta, the next FG100 roundtable will be held in Aus-tralia (April 2012). Another group of 50 business and government leaders will attend to discuss the Future Global Agenda.

From Left to Right:Chairman of Platinum Circle Lionel Lee, CEO South East Asia DHL Global Forwarding Sam Ang, and Ilham A. Habibie.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

ASEANThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012A6

Rising East Asia

East Asia, which in-cludes South East Asian countries (ASE-AN), is a key region to watch. In terms of eco-

nomics and business, East Asia is a very fast moving region—a re-gion in transformation, from an underdeveloped region on its way to become a modernized and dy-namic region.

There is in East Asia the rap-id growth of industrialization and the growth of services in many key areas, followed by changing trade structures and growth of trade in manufactures. In addi-tion, there is the emergence of re-gional production networks oper-ating in various industrial areas.

New Challenges and Opportunities

It is expected that the region will continue to be known as the Rising East Asia. This will un-doubtedly bring new challenges but also new economic and busi-ness opportunities for Indonesia. The question is: will Indonesia be able to take advantage of the fast rising Asia?

Statistics show that presently Indonesia”s position in East Asia

was the wake-up call for East Asia to start up with its economic and business actions, and to be count-ed as an active player in the world economy.

Economic Reform—The third stage was the !997-98 Asian fi-nancial crisis which was a set-back in East Asia’s economic rise. But it was followed by the intro-duction of firm economic reform measures to cope with the crisis and to strengthen the economies of the region with success.

Regional Cooperation—Since the years 2000, early steps were taken to forge East Asia’s finan-cial cooperation followed by the strengthening of regional cooper-ation – it was the time of the for-mation of the ASEAN Communi-ty 2009–2015.

Current Developments—The last stage concerns current devel-opments in East Asia character-ized by China’s reforms policies

and its access to WTO. Presently, China is taking the lead in East Asia’s spectacular rise to become the center and the driving force of the global economy

In all those stages ASEAN (with Indonesia as a key player) has played an important political-eco-nomic role. ASEAN until today has always been at center stage of the developments. It should con-tinue to play such a role as ASE-AN is accepted and respected by all concerned in the area.

East Asian MiracleAt one time East Asia was

called “the East Asian Miracle”. In the area of economics, the flying-geese era with Japan in the lead was the start-up of East Asia’s profound emergence in the glob-al economic and business are-na. East Asia’s policies for rap-id growth in “a Changing World Economy” was considered as “the making of a miracle” not antici-pated by the world community.

This was explained in the World Bank policy research re-port of August 1993. The report states that from 1965 to 1990, 23 economies of East Asia al-ready grew faster than all oth-er regions of the world. Most of the achievements were attribut-ed by eight economies, namely Japan and the four tigers: South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, China. And the three NIE’s (newly industrializ-ing economies: Indonesia, Ma-laysia and Thailand). East Asia has grown three times as fast as Latin America and South Asia, and five times faster than Sub-Sahara Africa.

The Making of a MiracleThe question is, what has

made the eight economies to be in a position to gain such achievements? In making the miracle these countries achieved high growth by getting the ba-sics right. Investment, rapid-ly growing human capital and

sound development policies were the major ingredients of their ba-sic strategy.

The eight countries are high-ly diverse in natural resources, population, culture and economic policies. Yet these countries were able to stimulate high growth in the region. It is a formation of economies with similar goals, ob-jectives and basic policies, with Japan taking the lead.

Present Challenge

East Asia is a very large but a very diverse region. It is a region composed of countries with dif-ferent backgrounds, different cul-tures and different stages of devel-opment. With such a composition, it is important for East Asia to have some common views and objectives; to have the same ba-sic strategy and the right develop-ment policies; to identify the ma-jor ingredients needed in support of their basic policies.

East Asia presently contin-ues with a number of basic poli-cies underpinned by a number of supporting elements such as trade and export growth policies, investment inflows, human de-velopment, openness to foreign technology, infrastructure devel-opment and promoting specific industries.

The Need for a “Grand Design”To achieve another miracle in

East Asia there seems to be the need for another “unifying for-mation” with China taking the lead and India on its side but with ASEAN still at center stage as a unifying force, all flying in the same direction with the same goals in sight.

But not much is known where

The ASEAN-EAST ASIA Linkage

By Atmono Suryo

East Asia has become a dynamic region, with all the risks involved. Hence, it becomes urgent for the leading countries in the region (particularly in the ASEAN+3 formation – ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea) to come up with a “grand design for East Asia”, to chart the road map and the rules of the game to be adhered to by all stake-holders.

Asia will be heading. “Quo Vadis East Asia?” is often being asked by many observers.

As economies in the region move in formation it does not mean that they must be direct-ly linked to each other. But it is important that they follow sim-ilar paths and to have the same goals and objectives. The market forces are the ones which have to be on the move to grasp the busi-ness opportunities open to them, but they must know where the re-gion is heading to.

With Asia’s economies growing fast and becoming more prosper-ous, interdependence is deepen-ing in this part of the world. But also countries outside the region are increasingly interested to be-come part of East Asia’s dynam-ic growth.

East Asia has become a dy-namic region, with all the risks in-volved. Hence, it becomes urgent for the leading countries in the re-gion (particularly in the ASEAN+3 formation – ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea) to come up with a “grand design for East Asia”, to chart the road map and the rules of the game to be ad-hered to by all stake-holders.

Indonesia (with the support of ASEAN) is on the right track by announcing the need for a “Dy-namic Equilibrium” policy. East Asia is a dynamic region, but it needs peace and prosperity with balanced growth to avoid frictions and growing disparities which are happening today in the glob-al economy.

The writer is former ambassador to the EU.

is rather weak, in particular in the area of competition and devel-oping intra-East Asia trade and production networks.

Stages of DevelopmentsLooking into East Asia’s ex-

perience in the past (especial-ly after WW II), we would observe that East Asia’s present econom-ic achievement has not come out of the blue. It went through a pro-cess which started some decades ago. An important point to men-tion is that there has always been close linkages between the coun-tries in South East Asia (ASEAN) and East Asia.

After World War II, East Asia

has gone through various stages of developments, as follows:

ASEAN—The formation of ASEAN in August 1967 was the very beginning of the process of change – it was the triggering of a new political-security stage for the Eastern part of Asia. It is rec-ognized by the world communi-ty that in that regard Indonesia played a prominent role.

Flying Geese Formation—The “flying geese formation” of 1965-1990, with Japan in the lead, was considered as the making of the East Asian economic miracle. It

EAST ASIA TRADE

East Asia with: Trade Partner 2009

Total trade, US$B East Asia 1834.5

Total trade, US$B ASEAN 556.2

Total trade, US$B SAARC 104.8

Total trade, US$B PRC 767.2

Trade share % East Asia 36.07

Trade share % AEAN 10.94

Trade share % SAARC 2.06

Trade share % PRC 15.08

Source: Dr. Chia Siow Yue

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 A7

Around Jababeka

nurture memories of World War II through the historical tourism ac-tivities.

At the same time, the develop-ment of Morotai Island also has the full support of the central gov-ernment, which considers the de-velopment of the region as the driving force of the local econo-my and a prime source of foreign exchange earnings. The support is seen with the signing of an in-scription marking the building of

Jababeka Entrusted toBuild Morotai IslandPT Jababeka Tbk, Taipei Economic & Trade Officer (TETO), and the local government of Morotai have officially signed a cooperation agreement regarding the development of Morotai Island on mid-February in Daruba city, Morotai, North Maluku.

The cooperation agree-ment between three in-stitutions was signed by President Director of PT Jababeka Tbk

S.D. Darmono, Representative of TETO Andrew Hsia, and Regent of Morotai Rusli Sibua.

Coordinating Minister for Eco-nomic Affairs M. Hatta Raja-sa and Vice Chairman of DPR RI Taufik Kurniawan witnessed the signing.

With the signing of the agree-ment, PT Jababeka Tbk, a prop-erty company established in 1989 with 'Beyond Property" and "City Developer" as its taglines, has been taking part in building the country. Now, it is entrusted to de-velop an area of 50,000 hectares in Morotai Island.

Regional development will be done gradually. In the first stage, Jababeka will develop 15,000 acres into a new tourism destina-tion in Indonesia. With its natural wealth that is still unspoiled, Mo-rotai Island is set to attract local and foreign tourists.

A wide range of marine, fishing, and tourism potentials in Morotai

Morotai University by Hatta Raja-sa.

For its development, Moro-tai University is in collaboration with President University, a pri-vate university with international standards and built by Jababeka. Jababeka is convinced that the development of quality Morotai human resources (HR) will accel-erate its sustainable development.

The acceleration of Moro-tai’s development coincides with

the revival momentum of Moro-tai tourism through Sail Moro-tai 2012, themed “Toward a New Era of Pacific Regional Economy”, which is a continuation of the previous three activities, name-ly Sail Bunaken (2009), Sail Ban-da (2010) and Sail Wakatobi-Beli-tung (2011).

Sail Morotai in 2012 will hold several events, including the Oper-ation of Social Service and Health, Bhakti Kesra Nusantara & BUMN

Peduli Morotai, the Yacht Rally, National and International Semi-nar, Lintas Nusantara Remaja Pe-muda Bahari, Local Region Po-tential Exhibition, RI Anniversary Celebration in the Outer Islands, Marine Sports, International Re-search Ship Expedition and Out-er Islands Scientific Expedition, Cultural Performance and Tour-ism Attraction, Wawasan Kebang-saan and Bela Negara Campaign.

The peak of the event will be held on 15 September 2012.

HALMAHERA

MOROTAI

Island are being eyed by Taiwan-ese investors.

Andrew Hsia stated that in the view of Taiwan investors, Moro-tai Island is a very strategic region and has the potential to be devel-oped into the largest economic center in North Maluku and East Indonesia.

Morotai Island, which is one of the most eastern islands in Indo-nesia, is targeted, like Batam Is-land, to be a developing area for tourism and industry, where both industries can synergize in build-ing a national and regional econ-omy.

Supported by its strategic loca-tion and adequate infrastructure, Jababeka believes it will be able to attract investors.

Morotai Island is also record-ed in world history because it was once a battleground between Ja-pan against United States and Australia (allied forces) during World War II. In 1943-1944, there were approximately 200,000 al-lied troops on Morotai.

Numerous objects of World War II can now still be seen at Moro-tai, either on the land or deeply immersed in the ocean. The Mo-rotai local government intends to

Coordinati ng Minister for Economic Aff airs M. Hatt a Rajasa (second from left ), President Director of PT Jababeka Tbk. S.D. Darmono (third from left ), Representati ve of TETO Andrew Hsia (right), and Regent of Morotai Rusli Sibua (left ) during the signing ceremony of cooperati on agreement on the development of Morotai, North Maluku.

Morotai Island, which is one of the most eastern islands in Indonesia, is targeted, like Batam Island, to be a

developing area for tourism and industry, where both industries can synergize

in building a national and regional economy.

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

EducationThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012A8

Sampoerna Academy has announced that it is now opening wid-er opportunities for ev-eryone who wishes to

study in this international-stan-dard boarding high school and those who wish to be the next high-caliber future leaders with good moral fiber.

The payable system is applied to answer the demand for better quality of education in Indonesia.

“Payable system students will also follow the selection proce-dures just like all scholars based on academic achievement, good character, and leadership quali-ties,” said Elan Merdy, Senior Di-rector of Sampoerna Foundation.

The education system in Sam-poerna Academy not only requires students to achieve high academic ranking, but also personal skills and abilities that show productiv-ity, creativity, leadership and en-trepreneurship.

It implements boarding school system for its students. The advan-tage of the system is that it opti-mizes academic learning, charac-ter development and social values, such as integrity, mutual respect, empathy, innovation, courageous-ness, open-minded and national-ism. These values are important elements needed to build prospec-tive future leaders.

Sampoerna Academy educa-tion system is supported by a strong academic environment

SAMPOERNA ACADEMY: Comprehensive Education for Everyone

that gives access to higher educa-tion, foreign and domestic, includ-ing career plan and strong alum-ni network. Sampoerna Academy also created relevant education, active, and is recognized inter-nationally. The system also edu-cates students to be responsible for their actions and to contribute to society.

Sampoerna Academy is part of the realization of Sampoerna Foundation’s vision, which was launched in 2009. Up to now, the program has been implemented in four cities, namely Malang (af-

The education system in Sampoerna Academy

not only requires students to achieve

high academic ranking, but also personal

skills and abilities that show productivity,

creativity, leadership and entrepreneurship.

The EducationUSA centers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thai-land, and Cambodia have planned a great tour for you to meet with students in their countries from March 25 to April 8, 2012. In coordination with the 2012 East Asia Pacific Triennial Conference, the tour will take place in Jakarta (In-donesia), Surabaya (Indone-sia), Medan (Indonesia), Kua-la Lumpur (Malaysia), Penang (Malaysia), Chiang Mai (Thai-land), Bangkok (Thailand), and Phnom Penh (Cambodia). A college fair will be conduct-ed in each of these cities, along with school visits where pos-sible, and will also include a country briefing for tour par-ticipants.

The “2012 Spring Educatio-nUSA Fair” will take place at the following three cities:

JAKARTA•Sunday, March 25, 2012 (2:00pm-6:00pm)SURABAYA•Tuesday, March 27, 2012 (4:00pm-8:00pm)MEDAN•Thursday, March 29, 2012 (4:00pm-8:00pm)

As part of the widespread commitment, EducationUSA Fair committee will also ar-range a Radio Talkshow in a major Radio Station within the Fairs City: Jakarta, Surabaya & Medan.

To participate in this fair, please email to infoeas@ami-nef.or.id and request for the registration form.

EducationUSA is a glob-

al network of almost 400 advis-ing centers supported by the Bu-reau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. The Bureau of Education-al and Cultural Affairs (ECA) fos-ters mutual understanding be-tween the United States and other countries by promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and orga-nizations in the United States and abroad, as well as by presenting U.S. history, society, art and cul-ture in all of its diversity to over-seas audiences. The foreign stu-dents of yesterday are becoming the world leaders today.

EducationUSA centers actively

2012 SPRINGEducationUSA Fair

promote U.S. higher education around the world by offering accurate, unbiased, compre-hensive, objective and timely information about education-al institutions in the United States and guidance to qual-ified individuals on how best to access those opportunities. Millions of prospective stu-dents learn about U.S. study opportunities through Edu-cationUSA centers each year. Centers are staffed by profes-sional advisers, many of whom have first-hand experience having studied in the United States themselves, adhere to ethical standards, abide by the policy to refrain from working with commercial recruitment agents, and/or have received State Department-approved training about U.S. higher ed-ucation and the advising pro-cess.

EducationUSA advisers work in a variety of host in-stitutions, such as Fulbright Commissions, IIE offices, AMIDEAST offices, American Councils, U.S. embassies and consulates, bi-national cen-ters, universities, and pub-lic libraries who share a com-mon goal: assisting students from their country in access-ing U.S. higher education op-portunities.

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

filiated with SMAN 10 Malang), Palembang (affiliation with SMAN South Sumatra), Bali (Sampoer-na Academy) and Bogor (Sampo-erna Academy).

Sampoerna Academy is equipped with qualified teach-ers and high quality curriculum, which combines national curric-ulum and International Gener-al Certificate for Secondary Edu-cation (IGCSE) accredited by the University of Cambridge Interna-tional Examinations, and Eng-lish proficiency that enables grad-uates to qualify for entry into any

leading university in any English-speaking country.

In 2011, Sampoerna Acade-my students achieved remarkable success in the international cer-tification exam conducted by the University of Cambridge, IGCSE. Based on the cumulative percent-age mark, Sampoerna Academy students managed to surpass the results of the world average mark for several subjects: Mathemat-ics, Art & Design, Biology, Chem-istry, Information Technology and Communication, Additional Mathematics and Physics.

That was the first IGCSE exam for Sampoerna Academy and they showed very satisfactory results. In fact, three students from Sam-poerna Academy scored 100 (Per-centage Uniform Mark), which means they are the best group in the world for the field test.

Similar to most internation-al schools, Sampoerna Academy also implements Student Centered Learning methodology which en-courages students to be more ac-tive, stimulate creativity and cre-ate fun learning atmosphere for both teachers and students. This method facilitates students to at-tain the ability of independent learning equipped with science skills, process skills which sup-port life skills.

Students will undergo academ-ic education in class for 8-9 hours with 45 minutes duration per les-son. Outside the classroom, stu-dents are encouraged to join stu-dent clubs activities such as music activities, Science Club, English Club, Community Service and other student clubs which suit students’ interest.

As an extracurricular activity, Sampoerna Academy also imple-ments the Youth Entepreneurship program to help students develop their interest and entrepreneur-ial spirit. In this program, stu-dents are given the opportunity to choose any business that they are interested in and get the chance to have first-hand experience in working there. Other supporting program is Learning to Live (L2L), a program designed to foster the

sense of curiosity, improve stu-dents’ confidence, and encourage them to become a good citizens. There are four pillars embodied in L2L program: Well Being, Creativ-ity and Art, Community Service and Global Citizenship.

Teachers in the Sampoerna Academy are well-selected per-sons who have passed the re-quired qualification standards. The main requirement is able to teach in English so that the learn-ing materials based on IGCSE curriculum can be properly de-livered. Currently, some of the teachers already have Cambridge certification. In the future, all Sampoerna Academy’s teachers will hold the Cambridge certifica-tion through professional devel-opment programs. Teachers also participated in educational extra-curricular activities.

Teachers in the Sampoerna Academy are well-selected persons who have passed the required qualification standards. The main requirement is able to teach in English so that the learning materials based on IGCSE curriculum can be properly delivered.

AMINEF EducationUSA Fair in Surabaya, October, 2011.

In 2011, Sampoerna Academy students achieved remarkable success in the international certification exam conducted by the University of Cambridge, IGCSE. Based on the cumulative percentage mark, Sampoerna Academy students managed to surpass the results of the world average mark for several subjects: Mathematics, Art & Design, Biology, Chemistry, Information Technology and Communication, Additional Mathematics and Physics.

The President Post/Heros Barasakti

EducationUSA centers actively promote U.S. higher education around the world by offering accurate, unbiased, comprehensive, objective and timely information about educational institutions in the United States and guidance to qualified individuals on how best to access those opportunities.

www.educationusa.or.id

EducationUSA is a global network of almost 400 advising centers supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com

Display until March 12, 2012 /// N0. 32Business B

HIPMI Endorses Esemka,Plans to Open 33 Outlets

BNI Wins IFR Asia Award

State-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has received an award from the International Financing Review (IFR) Asia for capital market category.

BNI was the only Indonesian bank receiving the award as the other recipients of the award were leading financial institutions and banks in Asia, the bank said in a press statement released on Thursday.

The award was given to BNI in recognition of its corporate action through rights issue in which the bank managed to raise Rp10.4 trillion in funds at the end of 2010, the statement said. It was received by BNI chief financial officer Yap Tjay Soen at a function held at The Grand Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Yap said the award was a manifestation of Asian market players` appreciation for the bank`s success in choosing strategy and convincing the financial market when the bank made the rights issue. “Thanks to hard work and close cooperation among all BNI personnel as well as support from all external stakeholders including market players and investors confidence, the rights issue made by BNI has yielded optimum fruit,” he said.

IFR Asia is an influential capital market media which has wide circulation with Asia banking and investment community as its audience target.

Pertamina’s Profit Hits Record High of Rp24.6 t

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina said its unaudited net profit reached an all time high of Rp24.6 trillion last year compared to Rp16.7 trillion in 2010.

“The significant increase in the profit was fueled among others by an increase in global crude oil prices,” Pertamina Director of Investment Planning and Risk Management M. Afdal Bahaudin said after a hearing with the House

of Representatives (DPR) Commission VII here on Tuesday. He said the increase in unaudited net profit was also driven by oil and gas production hike.

According to data from Pertamina, the company`s income in 2011 reached Rp553.5 trillion compared to Rp417.9 trillion the year before. The 2011 income accounted for 231.45% of the target set by the company, he said.

Earlier, Pertamina President Director Karen Agustiawan said the company applied aggressive strategy in the upstream oil and gas industry and profit strategy in the downstream oil and gas industry.

Pertamina is planning to spend Rp52.8 trillion on investment this year. Nearly 80% of the funds will be used to develop the upstream oil and gas industry and 20% for the downstream oil and gas industry. The company is expected to produce 532,700 barrels equivalent to oil per day (boed), up from the realization of 465,300 boed.

Baturaja to Make IPO of Shares in Q3State cement maker PT Semen Baturaja plans to make an initial public

offering of its shares in the third quarter of 2012.“The number of shares to be floated is still being discussed. But it

may be about 30% of our shares. We will try to make the IPO in the third quarter, the sooner the better,” PT Semen Baturaja President Director Pamudji Raharjo said on the sidelines of a meeting between 141 boards of directors and commissioners of state-owned companies and the State Audit Board (BPK) here on Tuesday.

PT Semen Baturaja was in the process of appointing stock issue underwriters, he said. Proceeds from the IPO would be used to build a new plant to increase the company`s production capacity, he said, without elaborating on the amount of funds the company would receive from the IPO.

He said the company would need around Rp2.5 trillion in funds this year to build a new plant in South Sumatra, among others. “The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons. Preparations for the construction of the plant will be started next year and the plant will hopefully start operating in 2015,” he said.

With the operation of the new plant, the total production capacity of the cement maker would increase to 3.5 million tons per year in 2014, he said. The company has set the target of cement production for 2012 at 1.3 million tons compared to 1.25 million tons last year.

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Plans to mass-pro-duce the student-made Kiat Esemka car has received a thumbs-up from the Association of Young

Indonesian Businessmen (HIPMI) as they prepare for the opening of 33 dealerships across the country this year.

The Kiat Esemka refers to the SUV assembled by students at the state vocational high school (SMKN 2) in Solo, in cooperation with the owner of KIAT auto body shop in Klaten, both in Central Java. The students achievement gained much attention after Solo Mayor Joko Widodo told the media he had acquired one Kiat Esemka and would use it as his official car. Nearly 80% of the materials and components used in the assembly of the 1,500cc vehicle were locally manufactured, while only 20% of the parts were imported.

Jokowi, as the mayor is pop-ularly called, said the Kiat Es-emka car could be produced en masse this year at a total invest-ment of Rp90 billion. “We will de-velop the Esemka car as a small-holder industry. If all the permits have been secured, we will only need Rp50 billion in investment to expand the plant and buy more

HIPMI wanted to invest in the Esemka car by setting up the dealerships across Indonesia. To realize its plan, the association would use its nation-wide network.

in terms of after-sales service, re-pairs, and availability of spare parts. “We hope the quality of the home-made car will always be maintained beyond the moment it is sold,” Raja said, adding he still did not know how much mon-ey will be needed to open the 33 dealerships.

He said HIPMI`s initiative was a reflection of its appreciation for a product made entirely in the spirit of the nation reaching eco-nomic independence. “We want the euphoria of the Esemka car making achievement not to be just momentary, but to continue,” he said. HIPMI also wanted to en-courage all elements of the com-munity, young businessmen in particular, to become enthusias-tic about domestic autos.

Since the first model of the car was launched a few months ago, orders for the low-cost auto have poured in and now reached about 5,000 units, Jokowi said. The or-ders include 20 units by Com-mander of the Army s Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), Lt. Gen. Azmyn Yusri Nasution.

“We hope the order for the 20 units of the car could be met by March 6, 2012. At least some of them, though not all, could be de-livered during the commemora-tion of the Kostrad`s anniversary on that date,” he said when in-specting the car s assembly plant in Solo early this month.

Jokowi, who claimed to be the brand ambassador for the Esem-

ka car promotion, said all orders for Kiat Esemka car would be met in stages, according to the list of orders. Despite the influx of or-ders, the Kiat Esemka car man-ufacturer would not find it hard to meet them, he said. “The sup-ply of components is enough and even larger than what is needed,” he said.

The components for the Kiat Es-emka car are produced by small and medium scale industries in several parts of the country, in-cluding Gombong, Magelang, Tegal, Purbalingga and Jakarta.

Further, Representatives of the government, state-owned compa-nies and the House of Representa-tives Commission VI at the hear-ing threw their weight behind the mass production of the Esem-ka car. “Political support from all parties is needed to develop a na-tional car like this. We will find it hard to struggle alone,” Depu-ty Chairman of the House Com-mission VI Aria Bima said at the hearing.

Deputy State Enterprises Min-ister for Strategic and Manufac-turing Industries, Inranda Lak-sanawan, said the government was ready to support the develop-ment of a national car, including the Kiat Esemka car. Also, several state companies, such as PT Inka, PT Dirgantara Indonesia and PT Pindad, joined in supporting the development of Kiat Esemka car by providing training facilities for its future employees.

cars across the country this year. “Our target for 2012 is opening one Esemka car dealership in each of Indonesia s 33 provinces,” he said.

He added that HIPMI wanted to invest in the Esemka car by set-ting up the dealerships across In-donesia. To realize its plan, the association would use its nation-wide network. “We will empower the networks of our members re-siding in all 33 provinces.”

The association s aim in open-ing the dealership was to help maintain consistent standards in the Esemka car s production

equipment, and another Rp40 bil-lion to finance its operating ex-penses,” he said after attending a hearing at the House of Represen-tatives Commission VI in Jakar-ta recently.

To date, seven local and nation-al investors have expressed keen interest in investing in the mass production of the Kiat Esemka car, he said. “We give a chance to both local and national investors. We will first choose which of the interested investors is the best,” he said.

The mass production of the car made by PT Solo Manufak-tur Kreasi and Solo Technopark would begin on a small scale and only after the car passes emission and road-worthiness tests and re-ceives an identification registra-tion number from the authorized agency.

“If all matters related to the li-censing could be resolved in Feb-ruary and March, we can produce 200 to 300 units,” he said, not-ing that nearly 200 to 300 units of the Kiat Esemka car could be produced per month.

HIPMI chairman Raja Sap-ta Oktohari recently said that the association was preparing to open 33 dealerships to sell the

MONEY TRANSFER SERvICE

The public’s high demand for fast money transfer service has made the number of remittance companies rising. Remittance companies are required to be Indonesian legal entities and must obtain a license from the Central Bank of Indonesia.The President Post/Nandi Nanti

HIPMI chairman Raja Sapta Oktohari

Our target for 2012 is opening one Esemka car dealership in each of Indonesia`s 33 provinces.”

www.matanews.com

BusinessThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012B2

Speaking to report-ers after attending a limited cabinet meet-ing at the presiden-tial office to discuss efforts to streamline

state-owned companies, Dahl-an said “their number will be re-duced by at least 20.” The reduc-tion would be effected mainly by merging companies engaged in the same line of business, he said. For example, PT Perkebunan Nu-santara (PTPN), which now con-sists of 15 separate business enti-ties, would be united into a single state-owned holding company.

BUMNs engaged in forestry would also be merged into one state-owned company, he said, adding he hoped the process-

es could be completed in one month`s time. The state enter-prises ministry had already fin-ished its preparations to conduct the mergers but the various min-istries technically involved in the BUMNs operations might need more time, he said.

At Wednesday`s limited cabinet meeting, President Susilo Bam-bang Yudhoyono had emphasized the need to conduct the streamlin-ing carefully, gradually and only to companies that were ready for it. He also asked that the stream-lining effort be made through the most appropriate mechanism and not necessarily through mergers or acquisitions only.

Five State-owned Firms To Go Public in 2012

Chief economic minister Hat-ta Rajasa said five state-owned companies were ready to go pub-lic this year. “Out of nine proposed and after being discussed five would conduct an IPO and right issue with some notes,” he said af-ter a coordination meeting to dis-cuss privatization of state-owned companies here on Tuesday.

Hatta said the five state-owned

Minister to Scrap20 State-owned Firms

companies to go public are PT In-dustri Telekomunikasi Indone-sia, PT Industri Sandang Nusan-tara, PT Industri Gelas, PT Semen Baturaja and PT Bank Tabungan Negara.

He said PT Industri Telekomu-nikasi Indonesia has been agreed to issue new shares through stra-

The number of state-owned enterprises (BUMNs) in the country is to be cut by about 20 so that only 120 will be left this year, State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said here Wednesday.

A consortium of finan-cial institutions led by state-owned Bank Mandiri has agreed to extend $650 mil-lion in syndicated loans to mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) under a project finance scheme.

PT Antam is expected to use the loans to build the fourth unit of its feronick-el processing plants with an annual production capacity of 27 thousand tons of nick-el in East Halmahera, North Maluku province.

Bank Mandiri Vice Presi-dent Director Riswinandi in his capacity as the coordina-tor of the consortium signed a mandate letter for the fi-nancing of the project with Antam President Director Al-winsyah Lubis. The letter was later signed by representa-tives of other members of the consortium, namely Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumi-tomo Mitsui Banking Corpo-ration at the Antam building

here on Tuesday.Riswandi said Bank

Mandiri`s support for the project would hopefully as-sist Antam in increasing pro-duction capacity to meet the rising domestic need for nick-el due to the steady growth of national manufacturing in-dustries. “Mining is one of the sectors which give the greatest contribution to the national economic growth. Therefore, Bank Mandiri has committed itself to support-ing any effort to strengthen the sector,” he said.

In 2011 Antam issued the first phase of senior bonds worth Rp3 trillion for routine investment and business ex-pansion. The company ap-pointed Mandiri Sekuritas, Deutche Securities Indone-sia and Standard Chartered Securities as bond issue un-derwriters. Bank Mandiri, along with BRI, Standchard and Deutsche Bank acted as standby buyers for the bonds in question.

Bank MandiriLeads SyndicatedLoans to Antam

tegic sales or acquisition of coop-eration partners. “We hope this, along with our other strategic state-owned companies, will help develop our national telecommu-nication industry,” he said.

Hatta said PT Industri San-dang Nusantara and PT Indus-tri Gelas have also been agreed to sell shares through strategic sales. “Strategic sales are prior-itized for state-owned compa-nies that could manage the as-sets of PT Industri Sandang and PT Industri Gelas well and it will also be linked to a state-owned company s subsidiary considered right for the acquisition scheme,” he said.

He said PT Bank Tabungan Negara is also agreed to conduct a right issue of between 12 and 24% shares. Hatta said the gov-ernment postponed the offering of shares of PT Perkebunan Nusan-tara (PTPN) VII because an IPO would only be agreed after the holding company is already run-ning. “The essence is PTPN will offer maximally 30% shares after the holding company is running,” he said.

He said the government has also

decided to postpone the IPO of PT Pegadaian because the pawnshop operator still has strong capital structure. “We have other consid-erations in view of the business. There are things that the govern-ment is concerned of. The compa-ny does not only have a mission of making profit but also other mis-sion that we have to pay attention to. So we will postpone it until the right solution is found,” he said.

With regard to PT Kimia Far-ma, he said it conduct a right is-sue after conducting a swap with PT Indo Farma so that the value of its shares would be stronger. “There are shares that they can swap based on our recommen-dations. Only after that a right is-sue could be done. In essence we agree it may conduct a right issue but only after a swap is done,” he said.

Hatta said there were now two of three state-owned companies that would soon go public. “The President wishes more state-owned companies could go public so that the capital market would be motivated and we will find sev-eral state-owned companies that are feasible to conduct an IPO,” he said.

State-owned Bank Tabun-gan Negara (BTN) is process-ing a plan to conduct a rights issue of its shares this year, its president director Iqbal Latanro said.

“In relation to the plan for rights issue we still have to take a number of corporate actions, including holding another coordination meet-ing with the State Enterpris-es Ministry,” he said on the sidelines of a function mark-ing the bank`s 62nd anniver-sary here on Sunday.

The bank had yet to ap-point financial adviser to con-duct the rights issue, he said. “Only after we have received the green light from the gov-ernment will we ask for ap-proval from the House of Representatives, after which we can discuss the technical matters,” he said.

He said rights issue was part of the bank`s strategic plan to increase the amount of credits channeled. “We will use proceeds from the rights issue to strengthen capital in distributing credits. We pre-dict the rights issue will take place early in the second quarter of 2012,” he said.

BTN Plans forRights Issue

PT Transnusa Air Services will soon open routes from Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara to Dili in East Timor, and from Kupang to Dar-win, Australia, a company execu-tive said.

“To serve the Kupang-Dili and Kupang-Darwin routes starting in the fourth quarter of this year, we will purchase six Fokker air-craft,” Budhy Syahroni Karsidin, the airline’s business development manager, said here Saturday.

Since getting the air operator certificate (AOC) in the past year the government requires Trans-nusa to operate at least ten units of aircraft for flight routes in the eastern region of Indonesia. Un-til now Transnusa has four types of Fokker and two British Aero Space.

“We use this AOC to welcome the competition in air transport business in ASEAN Open Sky,” Budhy noted.

The business license states has 37 air routes in the eastern region of Indonesia. Up to now the air-lines based in Kupang is already serving 50 percent of its routes as

mentioned in the business license especially in East Nusa Tenggara such as Flores, Ruteng, Labuan Bajo (Komodo Island), Maumere, Waingapu and Alor.

Transnusa to Open Routes to Dili, Darwin

Regarding the routes which are often constrained by the weath-er, TransNusa recruited an expert from the Netherlands, Mike Bin-en, who has had experience for 25

PT. ACE INA Insurance is part of the ACE Group of Companies, one of the world’s largest providers of property and casualty in-surance and reinsurance. Since its commencement in 1985, the ACE Group has focused on building glob-al operations diversified by line of business and geogra-phy. It offers specialty prod-ucts and services to clients in over 50 countries around the world.

The ACE Group has grown rapidly by building long-term partnerships with its brokers, corporate cli-ents and consumers in each of the world’s major insur-ance markets. In Indonesia, PT. ACE INA Insurance ad-dresses the needs of the cor-porate, commercial and con-sumer segments through a wide range of products and

services which includes Proper-ty, Casualty, Marine Cargo, Fi-nancial Lines, Energy & Utilities, Accident & Health and Commer-cial lines. Along with other ACE offices in the Asia Pacific region, PT. ACE INA Insurance has been growing rapidly since its inception in 1999.

With a product offering as di-verse as PT. ACE INA Insurance’s customer base, the company prides itself on its ability to meet varying client needs. PT. ACE INA Insurance creates and stands by its insurance for businesses and consumers.

According to Peter van Ratin-gen, President Director of PT. ACE INA Insurance, one of the chal-lenges for insurance companies in Indonesia, particularly in the area of microinsurance, is the distribu-tion of insurance to the people be-cause the cost of distribution can be more than the cost of insur-ance itself.

“ACE’s primary goal is to continue developing its posi-tion as a trustworthy brand which fosters consumer confidence although it has been around for more than 40 years. We are working closely with our clients to understand their risk man-agement needs; adding val-ue with our underwriting expertise and creating prod-ucts tailored to the Indone-sian market,” he said.

“We strongly believe in the growth potential of Indone-sia. The increasingly sta-ble environment and steady growth of Indonesia give us cause for optimism,” Peter added.

Currently, ACE Indone-sia has 100 full-time per-manent employees and 200 telemarketers and call-cen-ter staff.

ACE Insurance:Leading the Domestic Insurance Industry

Peter van Rati ngen, President Director of PT. ACE INA Insurance.

We are working closely with our clients to understand their risk management needs; adding value with our underwriting expertise and creating products tailored to the Indonesian market,”

years at Fokker factory, as Tech-nical Director of TransNusa. “The purpose of recruiting an expert from the Netherlands is because we give priority to safety, securi-

www.airnieuws.nl

ty and passenger comfort,” Bud-hy explained.

Since December 2011, TransNu-sa also has opened a direct flight route from Kupang to Makas-sar. “If during this the passen-gers from Kupang destination to Makassar (South Sulawesi) must first transit in Denpasar (Bali) or Surabaya (East Java) then we can do a direct flight from Kupang to Makassar,” he said.

Meanwhile, for the route flight from Kupang to the big cities in Java, TransNusa is working with Sriwijaya Air. Transnusa was es-tablished in August 2005 to serve flights in East Nusa Tengga-ra by operating chartered planes owned by Trigana and Pelita Air Services.

In 2007 TransNusa was trust-ed to handle ticket reservations of Mandala Air, while in 2009-2010, Transnusa took in five airlines, namely Riau Air, Avia Star, Man-dala, Sriwijaya and Indonesia Air Transport. Transnusa daily flight routes also serve Denpasar-Ma-taram, Denpasar-Kupang and Makassar-Kupang.

The reduction would be effected mainly by merging companies engaged in the same line of business.”

State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan

Transnusa was established in August 2005 to serve fl ights in East Nusa Tenggara by operati ng chartered planes owned by Trigana and Pelita Air Services.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 B3

Investment

According to the data obtained from the Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO) in Indonesia the trade surplus for Indone-

sia had reached 106.67% by July 2011. The figure was obtained af-ter in 2009 the surplus reached $1.9 billion, then the figure in-creased in 2010 to $1.5 billion or up 22.83%.

Taiwan s representative to In-donesia Andrew Hsia said in an interview earlier this week with ANTARA that Indonesia is a “wonderful destination for invest-ment” in terms of resources and the huge domestic market. Hsia claimed that Indonesia is now ex-periencing surplus from Taiwan, because Taiwan is buying a lot of natural resources such as gas and coal.

Due to its lack of natural re-sources, Taiwan had to purchase several top commodities from In-donesia which is considered as having abundant resources. “Indonesia s economy is perform-

Indonesian Migrant Workers in Taiwan

In the manpower field, Taiwan and Indonesia on January 24, 2001 signed an MoU on place-ment of manpower which result-ed in an increasing number of In-donesian migrant workers going to Taiwan. By August 2011, some 168,000 Indonesian migrant workers were working in Taiwan. The figure was the largest among Southeast Asian countries.

“Taiwan Investment in Indonesia Improving”

Investment relations between Taiwan and Indonesia have shown an improvement within the last two years but continue to be enhanced while they have already led to a trade surplus in Indonesia`s favor.

Within two years, the number of Indonesian migrant workers in-creased by 35,000 from 140,000 in 2009 to 175,000 in 2011. Ap-proximately 40% of the migrant workers in Taiwan are Indone-sian and some of them working as fishermen. According to Hsia, In-donesian migrant workers in Tai-wan are divided in two categories, namely care givers and fisher-men. Most of the care givers were very happy with the way they are treated, enjoying Taiwanese mini-mum wages, covered by national health insurance so they can see doctors free of charge, and have a very good working time so they can spend time with their fami-lies, said Hsia.

Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan were the third largest group currency makers to Indo-nesia after Saudi Arabia and Ma-laysia, where Indonesian migrant workers are representing 45% of migrant workers in Taiwan apart from Malaysia, Philippines, Viet-nam and Thailand.

Hsia said the government of Taiwan is looking forward to dis-cussing the matter with the In-donesian Maritime and Fisher-ies Ministry to sign an agreement for protection of Indonesian fish-ing crews who are working on Taiwanese fishing boats. “This MoU is important to provide prop-er training, regular employment channels which can lead to lower wages due to improper legal docu-ments. Then the protection would be better,” he said.

Bank Indonesia (BI) said Indonesia s investment grade status has attracted the in-terest of Japanese investors.

“The Japanese investors believed that the Indone-sian economy is better than those of the Philippines and Vietnam,” head of BI`s pub-lic relations division Difi A Djohansyah said at the BI of-fice in Jakarta, Wednesday. But he added the investment grade status only recently ob-tained from two rating insti-

the confidence of foreign investors to the global economic situation,” Difi said.

Difi added that the interest of the foreign investors is also de-pendent on the increasing Indo-nesian economic fundamentals which have now reached the lev-el of the BRIC member countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China.) “Actually prior to the global cri-sis, Indonesia already deserved to enjoy a investment grade status,” Difi said.

Indonesia’s Investment Grade Interests Japanese Investors

tutions, namely Moody s Inves-tors Service and Fitch Ratings, did not automatically produced foreign funds in Indonesia.

“The investment grade status did not automatically increase foreign funds. But at least it in-creased our self-confidence,” Difi said. Difi said some other as-pects have affected the interest of the Japanese investors, especial-ly those improving the Indonesian economy. “Specifically, the impact of Indonesia s investment grade is still unknown. Still depending on

Taiwan`s representative to Indonesia Andrew Hsia

Indonesia`s economy is performing so well, everybody knows that, so we are one of the countries interested in investing more in Indonesia.”

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

ing so well, everybody knows that, so we are one of the countries in-terested in investing more in Indo-nesia,” said Hsia.

Improving Trade and Investment Prospects

Based on the data, Indonesian exports to Taiwan had also shown an improvement since 2009 val-ued at $5.1 billion then increased to $6.0 billion in 2010 and by July 2011 the figure reached $4.3 bil-lion. Meanwhile, Taiwan exports to Indonesia also improved from 2009 valued $3.2 billion, then in-creased to $4.5 billion in 2010 and by July 2011 the figure reached $3.0 billion. The total trade val-ue between Indonesia and Taiwan also increased from $8.4 billion in 2009 to $10.5 billion in 2010, and by July 2011 it was recorded at $7.3 billion.

According to the data from the Indonesian investment coordinat-ing board (BKPM) , by March 2011, Taiwan s total investment had reached $14.0 billion. For 2011, Taiwan s investment amounted to $5.11 million, the figure has shown an increase by 120% com-pared to the same period in the previous year of 2010. Taiwan also considered to be Indonesia s number 9 foreign direct invest-ment sources creating about one million job opportunity in Indo-nesia. Taiwanese companies now operating in Indonesia are namely Pao-chen Shoes co., ACER, Bank Chinatrust, President Food, PT Indo Tai-Chen Textile, Evergreen group and Na Ya Plastic Corp.

Investment is likely to re-main the main engine of Indonesia s economic growth in 2012 which is projected to reach 6.7%, a Finance Minis-try official said.

“Our focus in 2012 will be on spurring investment growth, either in the private or public sector by optimiz-ing capital spending,” acting chief of the ministry s fiscal policy board Bambang Brod-jonegoro said here on Mon-day.

To encourage private in-vestment, the government must maintain the condu-cive investment climate by improving industrial rela-tions between employers and employees, assisting inves-

now that the country s exports were expected to fall this year, he said. The other engine of the eco-nomic growth in 2012 would be domestic consumption, he said.

Finance Minister Agus Mar-towardojo said earlier in the day the domestic economic growth in 2011 was mostly driven by in-vestment which grew by 8.0%. Therefore, he said the government would continue to increase invest-ment growth up to around 10% to achieve the target of economic growth target of 6.7% for 2012.

The minister said “it is more im-portant for us now to ensure that government can increase private investment in view of its role in the economy.” The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Monday the Indonesian economy expand-ed 6.5% in 2011.

Investment Expected to Remain Growth Engine in 2012

tors in clearing land and ensuring business certainty, he said.

“What we must pay attention to are industrial relations, invest-ment climate in general, and legal certainty from local governments. If investment permits have been issued, then local governments should not do something harm-ful,” he said.

He said the government must take advantage of the momen-tum of investment grade to attract more investment. In addition, he said the government would make an optimum effort to grant fiscal incentives to investors wishing to engage in the downstream indus-try and provide fiscal stimulus to boost the economy. Investment would play a greater role in boost-ing the economic growth in 2012

Toyota Motor Corp , through PT Toyota Astra Motor (TAM), will soon realize its plan to beef up its investment in Indonesia by about Rp5 trillion, the country s top in-vestment official said.

“The company s plan is a man-ifestation of its commitment to in-crease its production capacity in Indonesia,” Gita Wiryawan, head of the Capital Investment Coordi-nating Agency (BKPM), said here Tuesday.

Gita who is concurrently the trade minister said he and In-dustry Minister MS Hidayat would on Wednesday meet the vice chairman of Toyota Cor-poration, Katsuaki Watanabe. At the meeting they would dis-cuss Toyota s plan to increase its investment and produc-tion capacity and export of the company`s products. “They will not only supply the domestic market which continues to wid-

Toyota to Boost Investment in RIen but also overseas markets,” he said.

Toyota would initially expand the production capacity of its plant in Karawang, West Java, although it also wants to build a plant outside Java. “The addition-al investment is expected not only to result in hike in car produc-tion but also to stimulate indus-tries producing automotive com-ponents,” Gita said.

Spanish company Repsol is in-terested in exploring the mineral potentials of Rani island in Aururi Islands subdistrict, Supirori dis-trict, Papua province, a local offi-cial said here Saturday.

Rani island is one of three re-gions in Papua that had drawn the interest of the Spanish mining in-vestor, a special staff for commu-nications and development of Su-piori district Yohanes Koroh said. He said the interest of the Spanish investor in Rani island`s minerral deposits was expressed by its rep-resentative in Indonesia, Rommy, and Papua Promotion House of-ficial Wekners Chips to Supirori District Chief Fredrick Menufan-du and the Secretary of Supiori district Dairi Manulang.

“The interest of the Spanish in-vestor in exploring Rani island`s mineral resources was positively responded to by the Supiori dis-trict administration which was ready to give it a licensing rec-ommendation,” Yohanes Koroh said. According to the Spanish company s representative, Supio-ri district administration s read-iness to give a licensing was the fastest in all districts/cities in In-donesia.

Yohenes Koroh said although Repsol would initially only ex-plore Rani Island`s mineral re-sources, the activity was expected to improve the local people s wel-fare. To benefit from its natural resources, Supiori district needed

Spanish Company Eyes Rani Island’s Minerals

both domestic and foreign compa-nies to invest in projects to devel-op them, he said.

Supiori District Chief Fredrick Menufandu s program to invite foreign investors to develop the reggion s marine potential was expected to get support from var-ious elements of the community, Yohanes Koroh said, adding that besides the Spanish investor the administration had also received offers from foreign businessmen to invest in a mineral water proj-ect.

Supiori district was formerly part of Biak Numfor district and Sorindiweri is now its regional capital.

PT Toyota Astra Motor (TAM), will soon realize its plan to beef up its investment in Indonesia by about Rp5 trillion.

www.kompas.com

Pictorial Events

The President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012B4

PEC–NUS Key Principles and Experience in Infrastructure Practice and Policies in Emerging Markets Workshop

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The focus of the work-shop was to aid in de-veloping public-private sector cooperation in infrastructure for af-

fluent members of the Indonesian business community and prom-inent government officials from the prestigious President Execu-tive Club.

The high-level two–day work-shop was attended by 19 mem-bers from PEC and was aptly giv-en its due recognition by one of Singapore’s ex-ministers and cur-rent chairman of Temasek Hold-ings, Mr. S. Dhanabalan, who opened the workshop.

The workshop itself was de-signed and facilitated by Dr. Mar-leen Dieleman, and Dr. Ivan Png, who left no stone unturned in en-suring that the team of speakers and facilitators engaged were ex-perts in their fields, came large-ly from multi-disciplinary back-grounds with current know-how and vast industry experience, to complement their lectures as well as to engage with the participants in a highly interactive and open sharing of views, ideas and expe-riences.

Global and Asia-Pacific busi-ness examples and case studies from various industries were used to create awareness, inspire and challenge participants to think strategically and out-of-the-box with regards to strengthening and enhancing the participant’s views on developing public-private sec-tor cooperation in infrastructure.

The topics covered included pri-vate sector participation in in-frastructure development (the Brazilian experience), energy, de-veloping quality infrastructure, de-bottlenecking, key imperatives

for Indonesia in the financing of infrastructure projects, winning infrastructure project develop-ments, optimizing funding op-tions and funding successful im-plementation and the importance of institutions & governance.

The presence of a conducive class-room environment, coupled with the workshop style design of the sessions, complete with panel discussions, allowed for the par-ticipants to engage in a free, un-obtrusive manner that helped ac-celerate and achieve their main purpose of learning from, and sharing their best practices and experiences with, each other as well as from the facilitators.

The panelists themselves con-sisted of senior management who came from companies/sec-tors such as Ministry of Finance, Open Net, Singapore Investment Development Corporation, Japan Bank for International Coopera-tion, Changi Airport Internation-al, PWC, KPMG & HSBC.

The workshop was deemed a success and participants gained useful insights and take-aways on the various strategic & con-ceptual frameworks, which they hoped to utilize and implement in their businesses/government functions, or respective business unit strategy upon their return.

The inaugural run of the PEC–NUS Key Principles and Experience in infrastructure practice and policies in emerging markets workshop took place on the NUS campus at the Mochtar Riady Building, NUS Business School, 2–3 February 2012.

The high-level two–day workshop was attended by 19 members from PEC and was aptly given its

due recognition by one of Singapore’s ex-ministers and current chairman of Temasek Holdings, Mr. S.

Dhanabalan, who opened the workshop.

The event was participated by national business leaders, among others SD Darmono, Paulus Bambang WS, Nur Pamudji, RJ Lino, Tonny Warsono, Cipto Pramono, Utama Gondokusumo, Danny Rusli Utama, Ismanto Puspiworoko, Cristianto Wibisono, Djefri Cantono, Justin Colling, Dessy Aryani, Edy Korompis.

Pictorial Events

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 B5

High School musical star Monique Coleman (center) with the contestants of @america Idol. She was a member of the jury on the event, which was held at @america Pacific Place Mall, Jakarta (4 February 2012).

@america Idol

Oxford Business Group launched a review of Indonesia Economy 2012 at The Four Seasons Jakarta. The launching was done by Minister of Trade Gita Wirjawan and attended by among others businessmen Peter F. Gontha, Paulius Kuncinas, Andrew Jeffrey and professionals.

The Launch of THE REPORT Indonesia 2012The President Post/Nandi Nanti

DR. Roger Beachy a staff member of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture gave a public lecture at the Southeast Asian Food & Agricultural Science Technology Center (SEAFAST) at Bogor Agricultural University (February 9, 2012).

Public Lecture by DR. Roger Beachy Deputy U.S. Secretary of State for Political-Security Affairs Andrew Shapiro (left), and U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel (second from left) and two representatives of the TNI marked the start of the building of barracks funded by the United States at Santi Dharma Center, the center of the Indonesia Peacekeeping Mission at Sentul, Bogor.

The President Post/Heros The President Post/Heros The President Post/Heros

IABC Board members, business people and government officials attended this event. The idea of the program is to have a small group of IABC members and guests engaged in a social game of golf as well as to create networking. The event was held

at Jababeka Golf & Country Club, Cikarang.IABC President’s Golf Day

PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk (BNI) provided a loan facility of Rp 4.36 trillion to PT Waskita Karya (Persero).

The loan facility consisted of working capital credit amounting to Rp1 trillion, issuance of bank guarantee as an assurance of project implementation of Rp 3 billion, issuance of letters of credit (L/C) profit in capital goods import approximately $40 million or roughly Rp 360 billion.

BNI and Waskita MOU Signing

The President Post/Heros

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

TNI Barracks Ground Breakingat Santi Dharma Center, Sentul, Bogor

ICCC (Indonesia Canada Chambers of Commerce) held ‘Biztro’ business networking event at Mercantile Athletic Club, Jakarta. The event was attended by Alan Merten, President of ICCC (President PT. AJ Manulife Indonesia), Gary Plant, secretary gener-al of ICCC, Robin Martin (Talisman), and other prominent figures. The event was spon-sored by Talisman Energy.

Next ICCC BIZTRO will be held on Thursday, March 15, 2012 06.00-08.30PMVenue: TBATo register, email to secretariat.iccc@gmail.com

ICCC Biztro atMercantile Athletic Club

Breakfast DialogueThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012B6

“Under a new mandate, the BPJS for work-ers is required to provide pen-

sion benefits for both formal and informal workers, and this will take full effect on July 1, 2015,” said Hotbonar Sinaga, CEO of Jamsostek, at a breakfast dia-

Social Security OrganizationPT. Jamsostek will

be transformed into a social security organizing body

(BPJS) for workers and PT Askes will

become the BPJS for health according to Law No. 24/2011.

logue held by The President Post at The Financial Club Jakarta (15/02/2012).

Jamsostek currently provides Health Care Benefit, Retirement Security Program, Death Insur-ance, and Work-Related Accident Insurance.

Meanwhile, BPJS Health will focus on providing health care services for all Indonesian citi-zens, including those who had

applied for Health Care Benefit with PT Jamsostek. BPJS Health is expected to operate in Janu-ary 2014. BPJS Health will take over several health care programs such as Jamkesmas (community health insurance) and Jamkesda (regional health insurance).

Anyone is welcome to become BPJS members as long as they pay contributions, including for-eigners who have worked in Indo-nesia for more than six months,

employees and employers, indi-viduals, and government institu-tions that employ civil servants.

PT Jamsostek will still run its existing Jamsostek programs as mandated in Government De-cree No. 36/1995 and Law No. 3/1992, until the BPJS for work-ers is working in full swing.

To date, there are 34 million workers registered as Jamsostek members, yet only 10.6 million have active status.

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

JOIN THE INDUSTRY LEADERS AT ASIA’S MOST IMPORTANTSECURITY AND DEFENSE EVENT IN 2012

Accelerating G2G, G2B and B2B bilateral and multilateral cooperationPromoting product development and technology advancement in defense, security and safety industriesCreating a comprehensive platform for technology and services exchangeIntroducing your company, product and services to foreign governments and international delegations from 45 countriesOver 10,000 qualified regional and Indonesian visitors

APSDEX is dedicated to:

APSDEX’12/JIDD’12 Event SecretariatPT Infrastructure Asia, Jl. Teluk Betung #43A, Jakarta Pusat 10230 IndonesiaT +62 21 391 3037 | F +62 21 391 3349 | www.jidd.org | www.apsdex.com | info@apsdex.comREGISTER NOW

The Government of theRepublic of Indonesia

Hosted by

The 2nd Annual Asia Pacific Security and Defense Expoheld in conjunction with

The Jakarta International Defense Dialogue.The Marketplace for Security, Safety and Defense Technology Exchange.

Jakarta Convention Center, Jakarta, Indonesia

Jakarta InternationalDefense Dialogue

In conjunction with the:Supported by:

Indonesia Fire ServiceAssociation

IndonesianArmed Forces

IndonesianNational Police

National Search andRescue Agency

IndonesianDefense University

Ministry of DefenseRepublic of Indonesia

In cooperation with the:

Media Partners:Official Media Sponsor:Official Sponsor:

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 B7

International

Russian Ambassador Alexander A. Ivanov stated that Russian-Indonesia relations proved to be highly

potential. The ambassador spoke the outcome of the Russian diplo-macy activities in 2011 and the Russian Embassy in Jakarta on a press conference devoted to the Russia’s Day of Diplomatic Ser-vice which was held at the Rus-sian Ambassador’s residence in Jakarta.

Russia-Indonesia relations have gained a new momentum and become an important issue on the international agenda. It is seen through active political con-tacts at the high and the highest level – bilateral meeting between D. A. Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation and Dr. Susi-lo Bambang Yudhoyono, Presi-dent of the Republic of Indonesia which was conducted on the side-lines of the APEC summit in Ho-nolulu, USA (November 12), a visit of Sergey B. Ivanov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federa-tion to Indonesia (27 - 28 October), in the framework of which at the high-level meeting he discussed trade, economic and technical co-

the province of East Kalimantan for the construction of the railway and associated infrastructure on the Kalimantan Island in Jakar-ta on February 7, 2012, should lead to creation of the largest in-vestment project (More than $2), aimed to assist Indonesian part-ners to cope with the actual prob-lems of the transport infrastruc-ture development.

The fact is both countries know

very well that thousands miles separate them and the road that connects the two countries has constructed more than 60 years ago. In the early 1990s, this road started to be repaired, until it was completed in 2003 when the two country leaders signed the Dec-laration on Principles of Friendly and Partnership Relations for the 21st century.

In tourism, 100,000 Russians

Russians maintained their own views about each other rooted in the Cold War. Second, both coun-tries are happy enough to main-tain good trade relations with traditional partners like Japan, China, the United States and Western Europe, and they haven’t yet explored new opportunities beyond these established ones.

Touching upon current issues of the international agenda, Am-bassador paid special attention to the difficult situation in the Middle East and North Africa. Regarding situation in Syria, where Sergey V. Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, was on a visit on February 7, 2012, he said that Russia strongly opposes any violence against civilians and against military intervention by external forces to support one of the parties of the internal conflict, in order to avoid recurrence of the Libyan scenario.

Indonesia-Russia Relations Bolstered Through Real Cooperation Agreement

Russia-Indonesia relations have gained a new momentum and become an important issue on the international agenda.

Besides, the Head of the Rus-sian diplomatic Mission under-scored prospects of increasing cooperation within ASEAN and APEC, especially in view of Rus-sia’s chairmanship in APEC in the current year and the coming Summit of the Forum in Vladi-vostok in September.

A. A. Ivanov noted that Asia is one of the key foreign policy pri-orities of Russia, which is an in-tegral part of the Asia Pacific re-gion. The major task in this area is to be actively involved in shap-ing the regional security and co-operation architecture, as well as further embedding of Russia in the unfolding processes in the re-gion’s political and economic co-operation and integration.

In conclusion, Russian Am-bassador answered the journal-ists’ questions pertaining to var-ious aspects of international and regional agenda, Russian-Indo-nesian cooperation in energy, transport and peaceful space ex-ploration and the current politi-cal situation in Russia in the view of the presidential elections to be held on March 4, 2012.

The Embassy also organized a photo exhibition that featured the most memorable moments and achievements in the Russian-In-donesian cooperation in 2011, in-cluding the highest and high level meetings, exchanges between the Muslim communities, and fur-ther development of military-tech-nical ties.

operation with Hatta Radjasa, Co-ordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indone-sia. Participation of Sergey V. Lav-rov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in the 6th East Asia Summit held in Bali (November 19) became truly his-torical as Russia for the first time took part in the work of the EAS as its full member.

Practical realization of agree-ments made last year gave pos-itive results. Trade volume be-tween Russia and Indonesia in 2011 was 2.2 billion USD. Com-pared to Russia’s trade with some of Indonesia’s smaller neighbor-ing countries, this figure does not represent the true potential of the countries’ economic cooperation. The Russia-Malaysian trade vol-ume reached $4 billion in 2011.

Signing of the contract between the Ministry of Defense of Indone-sia and the JSC “Rosoboronex-port” for the delivery of six more jets Su-30MK2 (December 29, 2011) considered to be a new step in the military-technical coopera-tion.

Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between “Ka-limantan Rail PTE Ltd.” (a sub-sidiary of JSC “Russian Rail-ways”) and the administration of

enjoyed the beauty of Indonesia last year, compared with 80,000 in 2010. But this figure is minor compared with Thailand, where about 300,000 Russians en-joyed its sunny tropical beaches in 2011.

What has kept the Russian-In-donesian relationship from reach-ing its full potential?

First, both Indonesians and

Bilateral meeti ng between D. A. Medvedev, President of the Russian Federati on and Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia which was conducted on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Honolulu, USA (November 12)

www.presidensby.info/Muchlis

Alexander A. IvanovRussian Ambassador

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

TechnologyThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012B8

Samsung Galaxy Nexus:This is Still Android

manufacturers. They’re intend-ed to be the purest version of An-droid of their generation.

The Galaxy Nexus is the first with Android 4.0, called “Ice Cream Sandwich,” or ICS (An-droid code names use alphabet-ical dessert names—Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, etc). More phones with ICS will come, and

soon—and they will have skins, like HTC’s Sense UI. But this is the phone Google wants us to think of when we think of ICS.

The look of Android is quite dif-ferent from before: it’s now cool and blue, with spare lines and black backgrounds. There’s a new, custom-made font. There are friendly animations. The buttons

The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android

phone, heads and tails above anything else

on the market. The speed, the new sleek

blue-and-grayscale look, the new Google

apps, the new and easier ways to manage

what’s happening on your phone—there’s

no contest.

have been moved to the screen it-self, and shrunk to three: Home, Back, and Recent Apps. The cam-era app has been overhauled. All of the first-party apps, like Gmail and Maps, are new. Icons and folders are more three-dimension-al. The keyboard is new. Google Plus is heavily integrated.

Just about everything list-ed in the section above is a good change. But more importantly, Ice Cream Sandwich comes very close, dangerously close, to the ethereal goal of “just working.” It is fast and responsive as all hell. That is impressive technologically, but for humans, it’s more impor-tant as an element of a phone that feels like it’s working with you, not against you. There’s no lag: when you swipe, it moves. This is not as easy as it sounds; Android had a distinct lag between your finger and what was happening on screen, and throughout most of the Galaxy Nexus, that’s now gone.

The new buttons are great; they save space, but they’re also very functional, rotating when you want to rotate the screen, adding a menu button when you’re using an app that needs one, disappear-ing when you’re playing a game or watching a video.

it’s because the phone has a pret-ty small bezel. The extra space is nice for watching videos or read-ing Kindle books (suddenly a pleasant experience on a phone), and the screen itself is great: ICS mandates a true 720p resolution, and the Super AMOLED display is very clear.

The camera’s speed is unpar-alleled—it’s very fast to shoot and then ready itself for the next shot. But the sensor in the Galaxy Nex-us itself is surprisingly bad. It’s a 5MP shooter, and compared to photos from other Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Nexus’s shots washed out, fuzzy, and without detail.

The Galaxy Nexus will be re-leased on Verizon’s network in the States, and it’ll boast 4G LTE, which is pretty killer. It won’t have a slot for expandable memory and rumors indicate it’ll probably have 32GB of internal storage on Veri-zon.

Android is still not as stream-lined as iOS or Windows Phone. Perhaps Android phone fans don’t want it to be. Ice Cream Sandwich is a big step forward, but there are still elements that feel redundant or messy. Having three ways to do something doesn’t make it easier to use; it makes it harder to learn the rules of the operating system, harder to understand why certain things work certain ways and thus harder to perform new ac-tions for the first time. Some apps require a menu button, which will pop up next to the Recent Apps button at the bottom right of the screen.

The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone, heads and tails above anything else on the mar-ket. The speed, the new sleek blue-and-grayscale look, the new Google apps, the new and easi-er ways to manage what’s hap-pening on your phone—there’s no contest. With Verizon’s 4G, pre-suming the 4G doesn’t reduce the Nexus’s battery life to zero in a few hours, it’ll be a fine phone, and not just for dedicated Androiders.

Apple stole Android’s swipe-down notifications shade in iOS5, and while Apple’s is prettier, Ice Cream Sandwich seems to say “oh yeah? Enjoy the first generation. Here’s what we’ve done with years of practice.” There’s an embedded settings button in the shade, so you can jump in there and turn Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on and off, or change your brightness, or what-ever, in one tap. You can swipe no-tifications away one by one—just tap and toss them off the phone.

Maps on Android are in a dif-ferent league than anywhere else, as is Gmail. The browser has been redesigned, smartly. Tabs can be swiped-to-close, just like notifica-tions or open apps. There’s a mode to request the desktop, rather than mobile, version of a site—ideal for the sites that, frustratingly, don’t provide such links for you. There’s a “save for offline reading” mode so you can read longer stories lat-er, even when you’ve got no wire-less signal. Mobile Flash, recently shuttered by Adobe, is not cur-rently available on ICS—it may come later.

The keyboard is great. It’s the right amount of sensitive, auto-correct is unobtrusive and help-ful, and it gets what you’re trying to say.

There are lots of nice little fea-tures, which you’ll discover as you go, ranging from NFC to a new unlock mode that recognizes your face to a new People app that col-lects info from all your friends. There are tons of goodies in here which you’ll discover as you use it.

The Galaxy Nexus is made by Samsung, and feels like the Gal-axy S, or the Focus, or any oth-er modern Samsung phone. It’s wildly thin but it’s still light and plastic-y.

The screen warrants some talk. It’s sized at 4.65-inches, which is just insanity. 4.3 inches has be-come the accepted size of a “big” phone. Partly that’s because a portion of the screen is devoted to the new “buttons,” and partly

There are lots of nice little features, which you’ll discover as you go, ranging from NFC to a new unlock mode that recognizes your face to a new People app that collects info from all your friends. There are tons of goodies in here which you’ll discover as you use it.

www.digitaltrends.com

W hen Nikon an-nounced the D4 DSLR a while back,

they made it very clear that they wanted it to be a full-fledged multi-media ma-chine. That sentiment has been carried down a level with the new D800, which boasts many of the same vid-eo capture features in addi-tion to its massive megapix-el count.

Nikon has tweaked just about everything that could be tweaked in its predeces-sor, D700. At the heart of it is a 36.3-megapixel full-frame (FX format) CMOS sensor. That’s coupled with the Ex-peed 3 image processor. As a result, it has a maximum resolution of 7360 x 4912. That’s roughly 150% the pix-el count of Nikon’s flagship D3X DSLR. To help accom-modate all that data, is has both an SD and a CF card slot. It doesn’t, however, ac-cept the new XQD cards like the D4.

But, the revamp doesn’t stop at the sensor and pro-cessor. It has a new 91,000-pixel 3D Color Matrix Meter-ing III system with an added emphasis on facial detection, so they claim it will perform better, even in tricky lighting situations like strong back-light.

“Whatever the project, vi-sionaries need a tool that is going to help them stay on-time and on-task. The Nikon

D800 re-imagines what is possible from this level of D-SLR, to address the needs of an emerging and ever changing mar-ket; this is the camera that is going to bridge the gap for the most de-manding imaging pro-fessionals, and provide never before seen levels of SLR image and video quali-ty,” said Bo Kajiwara, director of marketing, Nikon Inc.

“The D800 is the right tool for today’s creative image makers, af-fording photographers, filmmak-ers and videographers a versatile option for capturing the ultimate in still image quality or full HD content, with maximum control.”

It has a 51-pount AF system, 15 of which are cross-type on a 3500FX autofocus center mod-ule. That promises to provide an improvement over the D700, but likely won’t be quite as snappy as its big brother, the D4. Nikon does promise that it will be able to fo-cus in situations as dark as -2 EV, which we’ll gladly check out in our test lab. The native ISO range goes from 100 up to 6400, but it’s ex-pandable down to 50 and up to 25,600.

Unlike one of its other main competitors, the aging Canon 5D Mark II, the D800 has a built-in flash that works with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, which means it can be used to control other Nikon speed lights wireless-ly. That’s something we’re defi-nitely glad to see.

But, in addition to all of the still photography stuff, there’s also the video capture. You can get 1920 x 1080 at 30p, 25p, and 24p. Drop down to 1280 x 720 and you can add 60p and 50p to the equation. It has full, uncompressed digital output via HDMI, which means serious film makers can use it with a capture device instead of going to a card and it even has the headphone jack film makers were so happy to hear about on the D4. Ultimately, it’s an extremely capa-ble video machine.

Because it has so much resolu-tion and a full-frame sensor, the D800 offers several crop modes, including a 1.2x setting and a 1.5x DX setting, which still main-tains a 15.4-megapixel resolution. It may not get a ton of use from the photo side, but with HD vid-eo not requiring the full sensor, it could come in very handy for mo-tion picture shooting.

In the end, the D800 really does seem to keep the focus on maxi-mizing image quality. The new AF

system should prove quick, but with a burst rate that caps off at 4 FPS, it still leaves plenty of room to re-member why the D4 is the top dog.

The D800 will start ship-ping in late march for $2,999. That’s slightly more expensive than the D700’s $2,700 price, but you get a lot more resolution and the multimedia comparison isn’t even close.

As a note, there’s also an-other version known as the D800E, which is the ex-act same camera, only the low pass filter has been re-moved. While the filter does combat aliasing, which is a distracting effect found in areas of repeating detail, it also slightly reduces the camera’s maximum fideli-ty. This is primarily some-thing requested by studio or landscape shooters, but it also works to the benefit of some video shooters. The D800E will cost $3,299 and will ship in mid April.

Nikon Introduces D800 36.3-Megapixel Full-Frame DSLR in March

tant as an element of a phone that feels like it’s working with you, not against you. There’s no lag: when you swipe, it moves. This is not as easy as it sounds; Android had a distinct lag between your finger and what was happening on screen, and throughout most of the Galaxy Nexus, that’s now gone.

save space, but they’re also very functional, rotating when you want to rotate the screen, adding a menu button when you’re using an app that needs one, disappear-ing when you’re playing a game or watching a video.

D800 re-imagines what is

fessionals, and provide never before seen levels of SLR image and video quali-ty,” said Bo Kajiwara, director

system should prove quick, but with a burst rate that

Full-Frame DSLR in March

T he Nexus line is Google’s “reference line” of Android phones—each one (this is the third) is the first phone to carry the new ver-

sion of Android, completely un-encumbered by the custom in-terfaces tacked on by most other

Nikon has tweaked just about everything that could be tweaked in its predecessor, D700. At the heart of it is a 36.3-megapixel full-frame (FX format) CMOS sensor.

www.outletphotography.com

The President Post

Automotive CSECTION

www.thepresidentpost.comDisplay until March 12, 2012 /// N0. 32

T he enthusiasm – it be-gan to grow following the introduction of a Kiat Esemka sedan by Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the mayor of Solo – re-

ceived a powerful boost recent-ly when German Ambassador to Indonesia Nobert Baas promoted the car by driving it during a visit to the Central Java city.

Ambassador Baas was re-portedly impressed by the car, especially its engine and inte-rior which were designed and pro-duced by students of a Solo voca-tional school.

The car’s production site is at Solo Techno Park (STP), which has for a few yeas cooperated with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter-nationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) or German Agency for Interna-tional Cooperation.

The German government has pledged 28 million euros (Rp336 billion) in a combined package of soft loan and grant to boost Kiat Esemka’s Rp50 billion start-up capital for manufacturing what is expected to be Indonesia’s most successful national car.

Even with a Rp50-billion start-up capital, Jokowi says, Solo can produce 300 Kiat Esemka sedans a month, so the German capital injection is sure to bolster produc-tion by some 600%.

The mayor says the production center has received more than 5,000 orders and a number of lo-cal investors will participate once the prototype has been certified by the Ministry of Industry, Min-istry of Environment, and Minis-try of Transportation.

Apart from Kiat Esemka, a number of domestically made cars have actually been introduced but they were less popular because of poor promotion strategy. Kiat Es-emka became a hit in the mar-ket because it was promoted by Jokowi, Indonesia’s “Mayor of the Year” in 2011, who is a potential candidate from Indonesian De-mocracy Party-Struggle (PDI-P) for the Jakarta governorship.

The most popular version is Es-emka Rajawali, a 1,500cc engine car that has now become the offi-cial car of the Solo mayoralty.

Following are some of the do-

mestically assembled cars pro-duced in different parts of Indo-nesia.

Marlip

This is an electricity-fed car de-veloped by the Indonesian Insti-tute of Science (LIPI) and distrib-uted by PT Marlip Indo Mandiri.

This small car is used for spe-cial purposes. Marlip Mosen Standard was made for trans-porting hospital patients, Marlip R410 and Marlip Smart for hous-ing complexes, and Marlip City Car for use in the city.

Meanwhile, Marlip LE 320 & LE 330 are for golf courses and patrol purposes, Marlip Hercules for hotel and airport areas while Marlip Pick Up for transporting goods.

The four-seat vehicle has a speed limit of 50km per hour and can travel 120km when fully fu-eled. It costs Rp80 million.

MaleoThis car was first developed in

1993 when then President Soe-harto’s administration launched a campaign to promote the use of domestic products.

Indonesia’s aircraft manufac-turer IPTN was appointed to re-alize the plan and it cooperated

with Britain’s Rover and Austra-lia’s Millard Design center.

By 1997 IPTN had produced 11 prototypes but the project was grounded due to a total change of regime that brought a noisy end to the dictatorial rule of Soeharto.

Gea

This one was produced by state-owned railway company PT Inka. The engine was the result of an intensive research project called Riset Unggulan Strategis Nasion-al (Rusnas).

It was a 640cc vehicle meant to socialize government fuel efficien-cy drive amidst global energy cri-sis of that time. The car traveled 10,000 kilometers at a maximum speed of 90km per hour.

TawonTawon is the Indonesian word

for “bee.” And the car does look like a bee. The tiny vehicle is meant to replace the three-wheel-er bajaj produced by PT Super Gasindo Indonesia Jaya (GIJ). The provincial government of Banten, where the car is produced, has for some time been using it as its of-ficial car.

The 650cc vehicle costs Rp28 million and can travel 100km per hour.

Mobira This tiny car was produced by

PT Sarimas Ahmadi Pratama in Depok, West Java.

The car was designed and pro-duced by Dasep Ahmadi, a local entrepreneur who graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technol-ogy (ITB) in 1984.

Mobira, which stands for Mo-

bil Rakyat (people’s car), has been cited by State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan as a poten-tial car of the future.

KomodoKomodo is not just the name

of the giant lizard in East Nusa Tenggara province that recent-ly won New Seven Wonders of the World contest; it is also the brand name of a locally-made car.

The chief designer of Komodo car is Ibnu Susilo, who designed the CN-250 propeller aircraft and Malelo.

This car is very fuel-efficient; it only needs 5 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers for seven hours through forest areas.

This car is very suitable for mountain expeditions because it has what is called a self-recovery system that enables it to return to normal position even if it should overturn.

TimorThe word sounds like the name

of the island on which Indonesia shares land border with Ramos Horta’s country. But Timor is ac-tually an acronym for Teknologi Industri Mobil Rakyat.

This car was once very popular and was produced by PT Timor Putra Nasional, which belonged to Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Pu-tra, son of former President Soe-harto.

In essence this car was a meta-morphosis of KIA Sephia, which used local content in the assem-bling process mixed with import-ed components.

Tommy’s brother Bambang Tri-hatmodjo also produced his own

RI Races to ProduceOwn Cars as GermanySteps in With Aid

A car production fever is gripping Indonesia these

days with students, government officials,

politicians, and business leaders alike

impatiently moving to manufacture what

they call “Mobil Nasional (Mobnas) or

“national cars.”

car to compete with his brother’s. Bambang’s car was Bimantara Cakra. Both cars failed to survive following the fall of Soeharto.

Esemka DigdayaThis one was produced by stu-

dents of SMK 1 Singosari, Malang, East Java. This double-cabin car has a 1,500cc engine modified from Timor’s remains. The car sells at Rp175 million each.

MR 90This was converted from Maz-

da 323 Hatchback by PT Indomo-bil. The latest version was Mazda Van Trend of 1994. It however did not continue for lack of market ab-sorption.

Kalla MotorThe Kalla Motor company,

which is associated with former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, once created a 500cc car but failed to continue the project that had been expected to produce a na-tional car.

Bakrie Beta 97 MPvBakrie Brothers designed a

minibus prototype in 1994 called Bakrie Beta 97 MPV. It was mod-elled after British Sado cars. In April 1995 the design work was completed and presented to the Bakrie management. The pro-totype was made in 1997. But a monetary crisis that hit the coun-try in 1998 stalled the project.

Kancil

Kancil stands for Kendaraan Niaga Cilik Irit Lincah, meaning a small commercial car that is ef-ficient and lively. This was pro-duced by PT KANCIL (abbrevi-ated from Karunia Abadi Niaga Citra Indah Lestari).

This was once prepared to re-place three-wheeler bajaj for use in Jakarta. But the project failed due to a lack of support from the municipal government and lack of market absorption.

Texmaco MacanPT Texmaco once produced this

MPV minibus with an engine ca-pacity of 1800cc. Texmaco coop-erated with Mercedes Benz when it put one prototype on display in 2001. But this project also col-lapsed due to financial crisis.

Gang CarPT Dirgantara Indonesia pro-

duced this two-seater with an en-gine capacity of 125-200cc. This

car was intentionally made for use in smaller alleys and that’s why it is called Gang Car. The project was halted, however, due to finan-cial crisis that hit the company in 2003.

Arina

This was produced by Universi-tas Negeri Semarang (Unnes) stu-dents with its engine converted from that of 150-250cc motorcy-cles. This also was a four-seat ve-hicle.

Texmaco Perkasa

This was the only truck ever produced by an Indonesian com-pany. Up to 90% of its compo-nents were made locally.

The engine was built in Indone-sia under license from Cummin of America, while the gear was made under license from Germany. Oth-er components were made locally also under license from Eston of the USA and Leyland of Britain.

The Indonesian military or-dered 1,000 such trucks from PT Texmaco up to 2009 but the com-pany has now been closed down.

NuriThis one was produced by PT

Super Gasindo Jaya in July 2010. It has an engine capacity of 80cc and is a five-door car with dual fueling system where you can use gasoline and LPG alternatingly. It costs Rp50 million.

WakabaThis one was produced by the

automotive community and in-dustry office of West Java prov-ince. It is a mutli-purpose vehi-cle for use in farm areas, villages, and traditional markets.

By Nelly Angelina

Apart from Kiat Esemka, a number of domestically made cars have actually been introduced but they were less popular because of poor promotion strategy. Kiat Esemka became a hit in the market because it was promoted by Jokowi, Indonesia’s “Mayor of the Year” in 2011.

Marlip

MaleoGea

Tawon

Mobira

Komodo

Timor

Esemka Digdaya

MR 90

Bakrie Beta 97 MPV

Arina

AutomotiveThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012C2

T he Association of In-donesian Automo-tive Producers (Asian-usa) has complained about what they per-ceived as discrimina-

tion in government treatment to-ward automotive distributors. They claim that the government has been generous with distribu-tors of foreign brands but has ex-hibited the opposite attitude to-ward distributors of domestic automotive brands. One simple example, they say, is that the gov-ernment slaps a 10% import duty on automobile engines meant for domestic production but reduces to zero the import duty on the en-gines brought in by distributors of foreign brands.

Responding to this, Industry Minister MS Hidayat says that one needs to look carefully at the details of such imports before making any judgment. He told members of Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR) recently that the main engines of several domestically built car pro-totypes were imported intact from the People’s Republic of China.

“When the import duty for com-pletely built-up engines is zero percent, what actually happens is that it is the engine produc-er in the country of origin that takes the benefit,” the minister explains.

The minister says he uses the Customs and Excise Tariff Guide Book of 2012 which stipulates a 10% import duty on completely built-up car engines. To go about this situation, the minister pro-poses that domestic manufac-turers import components and sub-components using the In-completely Knocked-Down (IKD) scheme which is in conformi-ty with Decree Number 59/M-IND/5/2010 of the Minister of In-dustry. This particular decree stipulates a 2.5% import duty in-stead. This stipulation applies to all automotive brands be they dis-tributed by foreign or local agents, he says.

mayor of Solo, bought one and used it as his official car to re-place his Toyota Camry. Since then many government officials and public figures—including State-Owned Enterprises Min-ister Dahlan Iskan—have pur-chased the car. At least 5,000 peo-ple have lined up to buy the car, according to news reports as of early February.

The Esemka car is produced at Solo Technology Park (STP), which is developed in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter-nationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) or German Agency for Interna-tional Cooperation. The German government has pledged at least 28 million euros or equivalent to Rp336 billion in a combined pack-age of soft loan and grant to aug-ment Kiat Esemka’s start-up cap-ital of Rp50 billion.

Strangely, despite being a na-tional pride, the entry of Kiat Es-

In Automobile Market, Government Isn’t Taking Sides

The government slaps a 10% import duty on automobile engines meant for domestic production but reduces to zero the import duty on the engines brought in by distributors of foreign brands.

BERLANGGANANSEKARANG!

Industrial Post - Departemen SirkulasiMenara Batavia 25th Floor

Jl. K.H. Mas Mansyur Kav. 126Jakarta 10220, Indonesia

Telp.: +62 21 572 7337 Faks.: +62 21 572 7338Email: sirkulasi@theindustrialpost.com

Kirim form ini dan bukti pembayaran melalui fax: +62 21 572 7338Untuk info lebih lanjut, hubungi: +62 21 572 7337

Metode PembayaranTransfer ke:

Bank OCBC NISP Capitol Cabang Cikarang 101.010.00016.5Atas nama PT. Sarana Pratama Pengembangan Kota

Industrial Post

6 Edisi

12 Edisi

18 Edisi

24 Edisi

Rp. 60,000

Rp. 108,000

Rp. 153,000

Rp. 192,000

-

10%

15%

20%

Jabodetabek HEMAT

Ya! Saya ingin berlangganan

Faks.

Telp.

HP

Email

Surat kabar bisnis lain yang anda baca?

Nama Tn. Ny.

Alamat Rumah Kantor

Tanggal lahir

Nama Perusahaan Jabatan

Kode Pos

Data Pribadi

MENANGKAN VOUCHER MENGINAPDI HOTEL MEWAHUntuk berlangganan minimal 24 edisi

emka in the domestic market does not please certain high-ranking government officials. One such people is Bibit Waluyo, the gover-nor of Central Java, who is hierar-chically the boss of Jokowi. When Jokowi replaced his official Toyo-ta sedan with Kiat Esemka, the governor mocked him and said the mayor had made “a careless blunder.”

The governor said that as a state official, Jokowi should not have been so careless riding on a car that has yet to pass certifi-cation tests. “What if the car runs into a buffalo or break down on the road?” he wondered cynically. In spite of such criticism, Jokowi is determined to push ahead with facilitation efforts to make sure that Esemka be officially acknowl-edged as a national car.

Unlike the Central Java gover-nor, President Director of PT Toy-ota Astra Motor (TAM) Johnny

What I mean is that we are actually facilitating domestic industries to grow and not blocking their growth in any manner,”

By Nelly Angelina

SMK students assemble Kiat Esemka car at Solo Technopark, Solo. The car is expected to be the embryo of nati onal car that could be mass produced at an inexpensive price.

ANTARA/Akbar Nugroho Gumay

Darmawan says that his compa-ny welcomes wholeheartedly all efforts to have a national brand. He has called on all private and government institutions to sup-port the Solo students’ endeav-or and do whatever is possible to make Esemka a success story. “Nationalism must be preserved through this Esemka car,” Dar-mawan notes, adding that “there must never be any attempt to kill this spirit of nationalism.”

Reacting to Darmawan’s re-mark, the CEO of another sub-sidiary of the Astra Group has welcomed Esemka’s entry in the domestic market and called for quality upgrading of the new car and fulfillment of free-market re-quirements. President Direc-tor of PT Astra Sedaya Finance (ASF) Djony Bunarto Tjondro says that any national car (Mob-nas) must have the ability attract the free market. The product must

be of high quality in the eyes of the market, the availability of its spare parts must not be a prob-lem, and it must have satisfacto-ry after-sales service, Djony says. “If it is true that the product meets all those requirements, we cer-tainly will step into it for financing (leasing) purposes.”

“80% of our financing activities is dedicated to non-Astra prod-ucts. This shows that we are open to other or new brands, includ-ing Mobnas brands, so long as those requirements are fulfilled,” Djony says. “We do not look at the brands; we look at the quality and those requirements, be they Esemka or European or Amer-ican cars, no problem.” He con-cluded that for Astra, the issue is not whether it is a national car or not. Instead, the issue is payment guarantee. Therefore, fulfillment of those requirements is highly important, he emphasizes.

The purpose of that 2.5% im-port duty is to encourage the growth of domestic automotive industries. With that the minis-ter wishes to explain that there is no discrimination in government treatment toward local or automo-tive foreign brands. “What I mean is that we are actually facilitating domestic industries to grow and not blocking their growth in any manner,” he adds.

As Minister Hidayat sees it, it is good if Indonesia could have its own car as a source of national pride. Over the past two decades, many local companies have pro-duced their own cars but not in a big scale. They only produced prototypes and put them on dis-play during several industrial ex-hibitions. Only last year did Kiat Esemka, the masterpiece of high school students in Solo, Central Java, drew nation-wide attention when Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the

Industry Minister MS Hidayat

Kiat Esemka, the masterpiece of high school students in Solo, Central Java, drew nation-wide attention when Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the mayor of Solo, bought one and used it as his official car to replace his Toyota Camry. Since then many government officials and public figures—including State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan—have purchased the car. At least 5,000 people have lined up to buy the car, according to news reports as of early February.

TourismThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012C4

Martin Craigs, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Asso-ciation (PATA), has worked in aerospace/airline-related businesses around Asia Pa-cific for over 30 years. His ex-perience and expertise will bring PATA to reach new pro-ductive era, as the Executive Board expected him to con-vey fast track progress.

Craigs effectively started his position as PATA’s CEO since October 2011. The As-sociation’s headquarters is located in Bangkok. PATA also maintains regional of-fices in Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco, Beijing and Sydney.

“Managing an association like PATA is bound to have some pain. It involves orches-trating the outcries of thou-sands of people from dozens of countries with multiple functional experiences. How-ever, this type of contention is trumped by the pleasure of interacting with the many positive people that the trav-el industry attracts, not least the proactive PATA staff,” stated Craigs.

An aviation industry spe-cialist, Craigs has held im-portant and senior positions at companies such as British Aerospace company Short Brothers and Saab Scania Group, rising to become ex-ecutive vice president of BAE Systems, a multinational de-fense, security and aerospace company based in the UK.

Since 1986, because of his experience, advocacy skills and network of contacts, Craigs has retained leader-ship of the pan-Asian non-profit advocacy group AFA. Its current members include Airbus, Boeing and Cathay Pacific.

Over the past few years, Craigs has been asked to lob-by for or advise diverse or-ganizations such as AirAsia, the Hong Kong government,

Martin Craigs:At the Helm of PATA

bers and partners; advoca-cy and support on behalf of the region and the industry in times of crisis; the con-vening of travel trade shows that provide a unique plat-form for buyers and sellers of Asia Pacific travel products to conduct business; the or-ganization of local or region-al workshops, seminars or conferences to enhance the professionalism of our sec-tor; and the timely commu-nication of relevant industry news and opportunities to its members. Thus, PATA assists its members to remain com-petitive in the global market-place.

PATA also actively works to protect and preserve the region’s unique natural and cultural resources and maintains a strong focus on environmental and industry sustainability. To this end, it works closely with the PATA Foundation, the Associa-tion’s charitable arm.

In partnership with private and public sector members, PATA enhances the sustain-able growth, value and qual-ity of travel and tourism to-from-and-within, the region. The Association provides leadership and counsel on an individual and collective basis to over 80 government, state and city tourism bod-ies; nearly 50 international airlines, airports and cruise lines and many hundreds of travel industry companies across the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

Thousands of travel pro-fessionals belong to 39 active PATA chapters worldwide and participate in a wide range of PATA and industry events. PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Centre (SIC) offers unrivalled data and insights includ-ing Asia Pacific inbound and outbound statistics, analy-ses and forecasts as well as in-depth reports on strategic tourism markets.

publisher and information provid-er Reed Elsevier, The Economist, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Pacific Basin Economic Council.

He has been a guest of IATA at the last 10 annual general meet-ings/world transport summits, and has attended Asia-Pacif-ic Economic Cooperation (APEC) summits in Asia and Latin Amer-ica.

The Pacific Asia Travel Associ-ation (PATA) was founded in 1951 and is the recognized authority on Asia Pacific travel-and-tourism. Its mission is to enhance the sus-tainable growth, value and quali-ty of Pacific Asia travel and tour-ism for the benefit of the region, the industry and the members.

Its main activities include the provision of cutting-edge strate-gic intelligence; timely research and industry analysis to its mem-

An official of Borobudur Temple Garden Tour (TWCB) targeted 2.5 million tourists in 2012.

“We are optimistic the tar-get could be achieved under the good condition in this early year,” said the Head of TWCB Units Pujo Suwar-no in Magelang, Wednesday. He said the target of 2012 has been increased 15.3%. Last year the number of vis-itors stood at 2,116,116, com-prising 1,949,592 domestic tourists and 166.524 foreign tourists.

Suwarno said although the target of 2011 had been reached, the number de-creased from that of 2010’s 2,436,817 tourists due to the Mount Merapi eruption that caused a huge damage

Borobudur Templeto Be Visited by2.5m Tourists

on roads. “Also, the Pabelan Bridge (bridging Yogyakarta and Magelang region) which was struck by cold lava,” said Suwarno. “Many tour-ists changed the destinations to other objects,” he said fur-ther.

According to Suwarno, when the bridge was broken, the tourists had to be picked up from Yogyakarta in west-ern area of the Pabelan Bridge. “But now, the bridge has been fixed, and we do not have any problems going to Borobudur Temple, both by main and alternative roads,” he said. Suwarno said, tour-ism infrastructure should be improved so that tourists would be able stay longer in Magelang, Central Java.

Martin Craigs, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)

His experience and expertise will bring PATA to reach new productive era, as the Executive Board expected him to convey fast track progress.

Tourism and Creative Econom-ic Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said Europe remains a potential market for Indonesian tourism.

“Although an economic cri-sis is taking place there, Eu-rope is still a potential market for Indonesia s tourism. Tourism is a sector which remains strong even during a crisis,” the minister said here on Wednesday.

She noted that economic tur-moil was taking place in a num-ber of European countries, yet the tourism sector there is growing. Spain and Greece, for example, experienced an 8 to 9% growth in their tourism sector, the min-ister said. “Even inbound tourism in the United States grew by 5%,” she added.

The World Economic Forum in

www.pamitrantours.comT he number of tourists to South Sumatra in 2012 may increase by 20% from last year s.

“We will try to in-crease the number of tourists here by holding and organizing various activities and programs,” head of the South Sumatra culture and tourism agency Toni Panggarbesi said in Palembang Thursday.

He said to reach the number of tourists he will cooperate with the relevant authorities in the area. He added Indonesia last year had 7.6 million tourists, and was planned to reach eight million, but the ac-tual figures stood at 7.8 million.

Tourists to South Sumatra came from Malaysia, Jakarta, Bali, Yogyakarta, and Batam, and that he will try to increase their number by 20% this year, he said. He said while in 2011 the

number of Indonesian tourists to the province reached 2.7 million, foreign tourists reached 36-40 thousand.

“This year we need to cooperate with tourism players and stake-holders. We make souvenirs, but the readiness of the regencies and cities are also expected in the de-velopment and arrangements of tourism objects and destinations,” he said.

He said it is also necessary to hold activities such as a festival like the recent “cap go meh” (end of Chinese new year), for instance. He will also invite the South Su-matra Arts Council to hold re-gional dances on Saturdays and Sundays, especially to entertain tourists. The cultural and tour-ism agency will also cooperate with tourist operators in Malay-sia, and hotels in the province, he said.

Number of Tourists to S. Sumatra Projected up 20%In 2011 the number of Indonesian tourists to the province reached 2.7 million, foreign tourists reached 36-40 thousand.

AMPERA BRIDGE. Tourists to South Sumatra came from Malaysia, Jakarta, Bali, Yogyakarta, and Batam

www.wisatapalembang.com

Davos late last month conclud-ed that the highest growth of the tourism sector would take place in Asia, Mari said. “Growth will take place in Asia so we will continue to increase promotional efforts and seek the way to build more ef-fective connectivity,” the tourism minister said. Marie said that the connectivity factor included infra-structure, flight quotas and oth-er supporting facilities which still

faced constraints at home.

Until now, Indonesia has been focusing its tourism mar-ket on a number of countries in Europe. These countries still experienced positive growth in 2011. Those European coun-tries include Britain (grew by 3.73%), The Netherlands (2.88%), Germany (2.29%) and Russia (14.92%).

Europe Still Potential

Market for Indonesian

Tourism

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 C5

Travel

Bengkulu Showcases Rafflesia Flowers

The visit to Ambon by American cruise ship MV Discovery on Sunday, Janu-ary 29, 2012, would restore the image the Maluku pro-vincial capital in the eyes of international communi-ty, Ambon Mayor Richard Louhenapessy said here on Sunday.

MV Discovery started its Voyages of Discovery from Manila to Sandakan, Bi-tung, Ambon, and then on to Darwin, Booby Islands, Cairns, Port Doglas, Bris-bane, New Castle, and Syd-ney. “It is expected that the visit to Ambon by the Amer-ican cruise ship will restore the image of Ambon city that was hit by communal con-flict on September 11, 2011,” Louhenapessy said.

MS Discovery Cruise Ship Brings in Tourists to Ambon

He said that after con-flict in September last year, the number of both domestic and foreign tourist visit de-creased dramatically but the Sunday s arrival of MV Dis-covery would restore the im-age of Ambon city.

“The Ambon city govern-ment and the people feel proud of the arrival of MV Discovery with 440 tourists from the United States, Can-ada, Australia, and New Zea-land because it will prove that Ambon can be visited again by tourists from various countries,” Louhenapessy said.

He expressed hope that the tourists upon returning to their respective countries would promote the natural beauty of Ambon and its con-ducive security situation.

T he habitats of Raffle-sia Arnoldii are spread evenly in forest areas of Bengkulu province, a Rafflesia researcher

from the University of Bengkulu, Agus Susatya, said here Monday.

“Based on records we have col-lected, raflesia is not found just in one forest area but also in nine districts and not in cities that have no forest area,” he added.

Agus said the unique flowers were found in the Bukit Barisan mountains in northern Bengku-lu, namely Mukomuko district, the eastern area of Lebong district up the southern part of Kaur dis-trict.

He said there are 21 locations where the rare flower blooms, in nine districts, namely Muko-muko, North Bengkulu, Central Bengkulu , Kepahiang, Lebong, Rejang Lebong, South Bengku-lu, Seluma and Kaur. However, the majority of the forest areas which are the habitat of the pro-

tected flower has been changed into gardens that threaten its sus-tainability.

“During 2011, the flower bloomed 14 times in various loca-tions, namely in Central Bengku-lu, Kepahiang, Mukomuko and Kaur,” Agus added.

He noted the location of pro-tected forest along the highway of Kepahiang and Taba Penan-

Indonesia has the most variety rafflesia species in the world. Of the 25 species recorded so far, 12 are found in Indonesia and four of them are found in Bengkulu.

MV Discovery

jung were the common locations for the blooming rafflesia. These locations are located in natu-ral reserves of Taba Penanjung I and II and protected forests which border with Tebat Monok village, Kepahiang district.

Unfortunately the blooming flowers are often not managed well. As they frequently bloom and access to them is easy, these flow-ers are potentially a strong appeal

for the community and econom-ic development through eco-tour-ism.

Indonesia has the most variety rafflesia species in the world. Of the 25 species recorded so far, 12 are found in Indonesia and four of them are found in Bengkulu.

In Malaysia and Sabah, which only has six species, the ecologi-cal research and conservation for

Rafflesia os relatively more in-tense and advanced. Similarly in the Philippines, which in the past five years have discovered five new species of rafflesia.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has only found two to three new species in the last 20 years. It shows that research in the species is still behind from Malaysia and the Philippines although these species firstly appeared in Indonesia, Agus explained. The lack of atten-tion is very alarming because most of the rafflesia species are classified in the endan-gered category, he said.

Rafflesia Arnoldii. The unique flowers were found in the Bukit Barisan mountains in northern Bengkulu, namely Mukomuko district, the eastern area of Lebong district up the southern part of Kaur district.

www.panoramio.com

Indonesia has only found two to three new species in the last 20 years. It shows that research in the species is still behind from Malaysia and the Philippines although these species firstly appeared in Indonesia.

LivingThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012C6

Mindful Eating asFood for Thought

T RY this: place a fork-ful of food in your mouth. It doesn’t mat-ter what the food is, but make it something you love — let’s say it’s

that first nibble from three hot, fragrant, perfectly cooked ravio-li. Now comes the hard part. Put the fork down. This could be a lot more challenging than you imag-ine, because that first bite was very good and another immedi-ately beckons. You’re hungry.

Today’s experiment in eating, however, involves becoming aware of that reflexive urge to plow through your meal like Cook-ie Monster on a shortbread bend-er. Resist it. Leave the fork on the table. Chew slowly. Stop talking. Tune in to the texture of the pasta, the flavor of the cheese, the bright color of the sauce in the bowl, the aroma of the rising steam.

Continue this way throughout the course of a meal, and you’ll experience the third-eye-open-ing pleasures and frustrations of a practice known as mindful eat-ing.

Is it just because I’m so sad and stressed out?’ ”

The topic has even found its way into culinary circles that tend to be more focused on Ra-belaisian excess than monas-tic restraint. In January, Dr. Michael Finkelstein, a holistic physician who oversees Sun-Raven, a holistic-living center in Bedford, N.Y., gave a talk about mindful gardening and eating at the smorgasbord-friendly head-quarters of the James Beard Foundation in New York City.

“The question isn’t what are the foods to eat, in my mind,” he said in an interview. “Most peo-ple have a general sense of what the healthy foods are, but they’re not eating them. What’s on your mind when you’re eating: that’s mindful eating to me.”

For many people, eating fast means eating more. Mindful eating is meant to nudge us be-yond what we’re craving so that we wake up to why we’re crav-ing it and what factors might be stoking the habit of belly-stuff-ing.

“As we practice this regularly, we become aware that we don’t need to eat as much,” said Phap Khoi, 43, a robed monk who has been stationed at Blue Cliff since it opened in 2007. “Where-as when people just gulp down food, they can eat a lot and not feel full.”

It’s this byproduct of mindful eating — its potential as a psy-chological barrier to overeat-ing — that has generated excite-ment among nutritionists like Dr. Cheung.

The average American doesn’t have the luxury of ruminating on the intense tang of sriracha sauce at a monastery. “Most of us are not going to be Buddhist monks,” said Dr. Finkelstein, the holistic physician. “What I’ve learned is that it has to work at home.”

To that end, he and others suggest that people start with a few baby steps. “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Dr. Cheung said. “You’re not supposed to be able to switch on your mindful-ness button and be able to do it 100 percent. It’s a practice you keep working toward.”

Dr. Bays, the pediatrician, has recommendations that can sound like a return to the sim-ple rhythms of Mayberry, if not “Little House on the Prairie.” If it’s impossible to eat mindful-ly every day, consider planning one special repast a week. Click off the TV. Sit at the table with loved ones.

“How about the first five min-utes we eat, we just eat in silence and really enjoy our food?” she said. “It happens step by step.”

Sometimes, even she is too busy to contemplate a chickpea. So there are days when Dr. Bays will take three mindful sips of tea, “and then, O.K., I’ve got to go do my work,” she said. “Any-body can do that. Anywhere.”

Even scarfing down a burri-to in the car offers an opportu-nity for insight. “Mindful eating includes mindless eating,” she said. “ ‘I am aware that I am eat-ing and driving.’ ”

“So many people now have found themselves in an adver-sarial relationship with food, which is very tragic,” Dr. Bays said. “Eating should be a plea-surable activity.” NYT

Mindful eating is not a diet, or about giving up anything at all. It’s about experiencing

food more intensely — especially the pleasure of it. You can eat a cheeseburger

mindfully, if you wish. You might enjoy it a lot more. Or you might decide, halfway through,

that your body has had enough. Or that it really needs some salad.

www.huffingtonpost.com

That’s why mindful eating is becoming more important. We need to be coming back to ourselves and saying: ‘Does my body need this? Why am I eating this? Is it just because I’m so sad and stressed out?’ ”

Dr. Lilian CheungHarvard Nutriti onist

The concept has roots in Bud-dhist teachings. Just as there are forms of meditation that involve sitting, breathing, standing and walking, many Buddhist teachers encourage their students to med-itate with food, expanding con-sciousness by paying close atten-tion to the sensation and purpose of each morsel. In one common exercise, a student is given three raisins, or a tangerine, to spend 10 or 20 minutes gazing at, mus-ing on, holding and patiently mas-ticating.

Lately, though, such experi-ments of the mouth and mind have begun to seep into a secular arena, from the Harvard School of Public Health to the Califor-nia campus of Google. In the eyes of some experts, what seems like the simplest of acts — eating slow-ly and genuinely relishing each bite — could be the remedy for a fast-paced Paula Deen Nation in which an endless parade of new diets never seems to slow a stam-pede toward obesity.

Mindful eating is not a diet, or about giving up anything at all. It’s about experiencing food more intensely — especially the plea-sure of it. You can eat a cheese-burger mindfully, if you wish. You might enjoy it a lot more. Or you might decide, halfway through, that your body has had enough. Or that it really needs some sal-ad.

“This is anti-diet,” said Dr. Jan Chozen Bays, a pediatrician and meditation teacher in Oregon and the author of “Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food.” “I think the fundamen-tal problem is that we go uncon-scious when we eat.”

The last few years have brought a spate of books, blogs and vid-eos about hyper-conscious eat-ing. A Harvard nutritionist, Dr. Lilian Cheung, has devoted her-self to studying its benefits, and is passionately encouraging cor-porations and health care provid-ers to try it.

At the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, Prof. Brian Wansink, the author of “Mind-less Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” has conducted scores of experiments on the psy-chological factors that lead to our bottomless bingeing. A mindful lunch hour recently became part of the schedule at Google, and self-help gurus like Oprah Win-frey and Kathy Freston have be-come cheerleaders for the prac-tice.

Could a discipline pioneered by Buddhist monks and nuns help teach us how to get healthy, re-lieve stress and shed many of the neuroses that we’ve come to asso-ciate with food?

Dr. Cheung is convinced that it can. Last week, she met with team members at Harvard Pil-grim Health Care and asked them to spend quality time with a choc-olate-covered almond.

“The rhythm of life is becom-ing faster and faster, so we real-ly don’t have the same awareness and the same ability to check into ourselves,” said Dr. Cheung, who, with the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, co-wrote “Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life.” “That’s why mindful eating is becoming more important. We need to be coming back to our-selves and saying: ‘Does my body need this? Why am I eating this?

www.thesecretingredientblog.com

ww

w.w

ineh

ardw

are.

com

The President Postwww.thepresidentpost.com February 12, 2012 C7

Health

W hat does your doctor’s body language say to you? I recently read through a study published

in The Journal of General Inter-nal Medicine on the different ways that African-American and white doctors communicate nonverbal-ly with older patients, and I was reminded of a former colleague, a specialist in brain tumors who stood out from the rest of us young doctors for two reasons.

First, though a relative new-comer to the hospital, he had di-agnostic skills equal to those of physicians many years his se-nior. Second, and not unusual for over a decade ago, he was one of the few African-American physi-cians there.

One day I asked him to see one of my patients who had recent-ly been given a cancer diagnosis. The patient, who was older and white, was sitting upright in his bed, surrounded by his wife and children, when we entered the room. But by the time we left, the patient, along with his relatives, was doing exactly what I was — leaning over and politely strain-ing to hear what my colleague was saying.

This brilliant doctor’s soft bari-tone voice was rendered even less comprehensible because he tilt-ed his head down and spoke not toward us but at the door. Every so often he looked up and shared a radiant, even reassuring smile. But then he would look down again, shift his weight and contin-ue speaking too softly to be intel-ligible.

More recently, many schools have broadened their courses to include “cultural competency,” or the ability to communicate with those from different racial, ethnic and social backgrounds. Studies have shown that while a patient’s race and ethnicity can be linked to sharply different treatment courses and quality, better com-munication between doctors and patients of different backgrounds can reduce the disparities.

Despite these tremendous ef-forts, there is one area of com-munication to which few schools have devoted significant time or resources: body language and fa-cial expressions.

Now a small but growing body of research is revealing that the nonverbal component of the pa-tient-doctor interaction — the subtle gestures, body positions, eye contact, touch and expres-sions that pass between individu-

What Doctors are Telling Us Even When They’re Not Talking

What puzzled me was that I didn’t normally think of this col-league as being that self-effacing. But when I described his visit a couple of days later to another col-league, a mutual friend, she im-mediately recounted a similar epi-sode. “It’s weird, isn’t it?” she said. “He’s the smartest doctor in the hospital, but when he starts talk-ing to some patients, it’s like he’s trying to disappear.”

For nearly two decades, teach-ing good communication skills has been mandatory for medical schools because of research show-ing that good patient-doctor com-munication can lead to improved patient satisfaction and better health care outcomes. To this end, medical educators have de-veloped a host of communication courses and workshops that com-bine lectures, self-assessments, video recordings and “standard-ized patients,” or actors in the role of patients.

By Pauline W. Chen, M.D.

Teaching good communication skills has been mandatory for medical schools because of research showing that good patient-doctor communication can lead to improved patient satisfaction and better health care outcomes.

Now a small but growing body of research is revealing that the nonverbal component of the patient-doctor interaction — the subtle gestures, body positions, eye contact, touch and expressions that pass between individuals — is as critical a part of communication as verbal expressions. And nonverbal cues may, in fact, be more reflective of the biases faced by doctors and patients.

Can tai chi, the ancient martial art, help alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms? Tai chi, an ancient martial art characterized by slow, flowing movement and medi-tation, helps improve balance and movement control for people with Parkinson’s disease.

The finding, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the latest study to show the benefits of tai chi for people with chronic health problems. Past studies have shown that tai chi reduces falls and depression among the elderly, and lessens pain for patients with arthritis and fibromyalgia.

In Parkinson’s disease, nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine begin to die. Lower dopamine production can lead to tremors, balance problems, stiff facial expressions and muffled speech, among other problems.

An estimated one million people in the United States have the disease, and another 60,000 receive the diagnosis each year. Although the condition usu-ally develops after the age of 60, 15 percent of those who learn of the diagnosis are under 50.

In the latest research, 195 people with movement and balance problems caused by Parkinson’s disease were recruited from four Oregon cities. The patients were divided into three exercise classes that met for an hour a day, twice a week. One group took part in an extensive stretching class, another was taught re-sistance training, and the third group performed tai chi.

After six months, patients in the tai chi group per-formed better on a number of measures related to strength, movement control, balance, stride length and reach. Resistance training also offered some benefits, and both the tai chi and resistance training groups had fewer falls than the stretching group.

The findings are good news for people with Par-kinson’s, who often lose the ability to maintain stand-ing balance and have difficulty walking and are at risk for frequent falls. Although some symptoms of Parkinson’s, like tremors, can be relieved by drug therapy, balance and walking problems are typically not helped by drug treatment.

“Current medications do not work well in terms of providing relief for impaired balance or postural insta-bility,” said Fuzhong Li, a research scientist at Oregon Research Institute in Eugene and the study’s lead au-thor. “In fact, patients suffer a great deal of medica-tion side effects which may lead to further deteriora-tion in balance control.”

Why tai chi helps people with Parkinson’s isn’t en-tirely clear. Even for a healthy person it can be hard to maintain balance and stability while performing the continuous, rhythmical, weight-shifting movements of tai chi. It may be that practicing tai chi trains the parts of the brain that control balance and move-ment to adapt more quickly in response to the motor control challenges of Parkinson’s. NYT

Tai Chi Benefits Patients With Parkinson’s

www.1dental.com

als — is as critical a part of com-munication as verbal expressions. And nonverbal cues may, in fact, be more reflective of the biases faced by doctors and patients.

In this recent study, for exam-ple, a group of medical sociolo-gists analyzed the interactions between 30 primary care doc-

tors and more than 200 patients over age 65 and found that white physicians tended to treat old-er patients similarly, regardless of race. Black physicians, on the other hand, often gave white pa-tients contradictory signals, mix-ing positive nonverbal behaviors, like prolonged smiling or eye con-tact, with negative ones, like cre-ating physical barriers by cross-ing the arms or legs.

The finding was reminiscent of earlier studies on interactions between female doctors and male patients, in which the doctors tended to give the patients con-flicting nonverbal cues, combin-ing, for example, smiles with a negative or anxious tone of voice. These mixed signals, said Irena Stepanikova, the lead author of the recent study and an assis-tant professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, are a result of dealing with “a status in our society that is devalued.” Rather than being expressed explicitly, biases re-garding race and gender tend to be expressed “in behaviors not consciously controlled,” she said.

The researchers also found that despite the contradicto-ry cues, the black doctors were generally more skillful in us-ing positive nonverbal behaviors than their white colleagues. They were, for example, better able to use prolonged eye contact, more

open body positions, facial ex-pressions and even light touch to encourage patients and convey re-spect, understanding, availability and attention. “Patients feel vul-nerable and search for nonverbal cues,” Dr. Stepanikova noted. “If the doctor nods when the patient is talking but keeps looking at the chart, the patient will wonder if the doctor is really taking her se-riously.”

Dr. Stepanikova and her col-leagues believe that greater em-phasis on nonverbal communica-tion can help medical educators address some of the social biases that affect patient care. But they acknowledge that the process will be challenging. Research in this area is still relatively sparse, and few medical educators are well versed in this topic. Moreover, even experts like Dr. Stepaniko-va, who needed to devote several hours to analyzing just portions of a single patient-doctor visit, are unsure of how researchers and educators can measure the nu-ances and complexities of non-verbal communication accurately, consistently and efficiently.

“We all want to be as egalitar-ian as possible,” Dr. Stepanik-ova said. “But what is difficult is knowing what and when to change, because so much of non-verbal communication happens outside of our conscious aware-ness.” NYT

Photo EssayThe President Post www.thepresidentpost.comFebruary 12, 2012C8

A modification workshop that provides headlight parts and body kits named Balu Oto Work (BOW). It is located at Jalan Pramuka, No. 53 Giwangan, Umbulharjo, Yogyakarta.

The modification workshop is owned by a young university lecturer in Yogyakarta, Andika Kairuliawan, who has the passion and hobby for automotive modification.

BOW has been producing various kind of headlights modification from different types of motorcycles, such as Yamaha Byson, Yamaha V-Ixion, Suzuki Satria FU, Kawasaki Ninja, and other types of sport motorcycles.

The headlights installation process is fairly easy. Just lift the headlamp and the original bracket on the motor, and then attach the light model that has been ordered according to customer requirements. The price of modified headlights is between Rp 300-400 thousand per unit.

For full body modification, the cost may reach Rp 5-7 million, and it takes about one month for full body modification. In addition, for orders outside Yogyakarta, shipping cost will be added.

TEXT AND PhOTOS BY NANDI NANTI

Balu Oto Work,A Lecturer’s Business and Hobby