Finance Ministry Looks Into Unusual Reports

The Ministry of Finance received 62 unusual reports on financial transactions from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center as regards March 2007-March 2011 data.

Deputy Finance Minister Anny Ratnawati said on Thursday the investigation over the reports is aiming at seeking illicit financial transactions carried out within the institution.

Should thorough analysis finds that elements of gratification are practiced, the Ministry of Finance will authorize the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to proceed with the reports.

Anny has however yet to mention about the directorates at the Ministry of Finance from which the reports were acquired.

As reported earlier, Finance Ministry Inspectorate General said in a statement it has taken in 46 reports on unusual financial transactions allegedly committed by tax officers.

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Indonesia Starts 7.5 Mn Cheap-homes Program

The Indonesian government plans to build 7.5 million affordable homes up until 2014. This year, the government claimed that only one million homes will likely be available.

Deputy Minister of Public Housing, Jamil Anshari, said the authorities are ready to set up 350,000 homes of very affordable prices and 650,000 homes of affordable prices.

Jamil said the program will be subject to interest rates set at lower than two digits.

The government prepares Rp2.7 trillion of total budget for implementing the program. "Of the amount, the absorbed fund is only Rp600 billion We call on REI (Real Estate Indonesia)'s participation to make the homes available," he said.

However, Chief REI Bali, AAM Sukhadana Wendha, said the fund will not be sufficient for acquiring land. "It won't be enough. We have all been informed of current land prices in Bali," he said.

He said that the REI expects the provincial government issues policies which enable handing-over of land plots in pursuit of the successful program.

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Indonesia Inco Eyeing More Nickel Production

PT International Nickel Indonesia Tbk (Inco) said in a statement it will double annual nickel production from 73,000 metric tonnes within the last five years to 90,000 metric tonnes in the next few years.

Inco President Director Tony Wenas said the objective is expected to affect three provinces in Sulawesi positively.

Inco's operation in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, according to him, will improve production to 90,000 metric tonnes through brownfield method.

To back up the plan, the company will optimize production in processing facilities in Sorowako, including an uplift in furnace facilities.

"Inco will make a breakthrough by applying best exploration and mining methods," said Tony on Wednesday.

He said the project is reaching its final phase of development of which implementation is ready in 2011. "With regard to Karebbe Dam power plant project, it is expected to be completed in August 2011," he said.

The Karebbe project will produce electricity up to 90 megawatt.

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Indonesia Ranked Higher on NR Index

Indonesia is ranked 53rd out of 138 countries on Networked Readiness Index (NRI) for the period of between 2010 and 2011 from the Global Information Technology Report (GITR). Last year, as published by the World Economic Forum, Indonesia was ranked 67th out of 138 countries.

Networked readiness is an international assessment of countries’ capacity to exploit the opportunities offered by ICTs by looking at the extent of increase in the use of ICT in a specific country and the factors that enable this.

"The improve in NRI proves Indonesia has been catching up with various progresses on technology, information and communication sectors especially in overcoming digital gap," said Dian Triansyah Djani, permanent representative of the Republic Indonesia to the United Nations, WTO and other international organizations in Geneva, on Wednesday.

Djani said Indonesia records the most significant upswing among all surveyed countries.

There are factors which lead to the progress such as protection over intellectual rights (67th to 57th), extent and effect of taxation (22nd to 17th), government prioritization of ICT (71st to 68th), government procurement of advanced technology (34th to 29th), importance of ICT to government's vision (85th to 62nd), internet acces in schools (59th to 50th), ICT use and government efficiency (90th to 72nd), extent of business internet use (71st to 61st), and capacity of innovation (44th to 30th).

In the 2010-2011 GITR, Indonesia shuts off NR index of major emerging economies as well as European and Latin American countries like Brazil (56), South Africa (61), Poland (62), Greece (64), Turkey (71), Federation of Russia (77) and Argentine (96).

Indonesia among other ASEAN countries are third best after Singapore, while Malaysia is ranked 28th, Vietnam 55th, Brunei Darussalam 57th, Thailand 59th, Philippines 86th, and Cambodia 111th.

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JBIC Prepares US$1 Bn for Power Plant

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) prepares US$1 billion to bring about two infrastructure projects under public-private partnership scheme.

According to JBIC Executive Director, Fumio Hoshi, the two projects include Steam-based Power Plant in Central Jawa and Geothermal Power Plant in Sarula, North Sumatra.

Fumio went in by saying that the fund JBIC has channeled through Indonesia reaches US$9 billion, which will be mostly allocated to LNG projects.

JBIC also plans to invest in Geothermal Power Plants in several Sumatra areas as well as transportation, coal-train railways, and mass rapid transit.

JBIC on the other hand makes arrangements to participate in a feasibility test on metropolitan priority area projects which include rebuilding of industrial zone in East Jakarta, Soekarno-Hatta Int'l Airport expansion, Tanjung Priok Harbor development, port construction in Cilamaya, industrial revitalization in Cikarang, at a total of US$30 billion.

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Bank Indonesia Maintains BI Rate at 6.75 Pct

Bank Indonesia (BI) decided to maintain the benchmark BI Rate at 6.75 percent.

"Board of BI Governors' meeting agreed to retain the BI Rate at 6.75 percent to control inflation rate resulted from volatile food," said BI Governor Darmin Nasution on Tuesday.

BI figured that Indonesia's economic growth this year will hit between 6 and 6.5 percent.

"The economy will grow, especially on transportation, telecommunication, services, restaurant and construction," said Darmin.

However, BI also estimated that the improving global economy will be hampered by debt crisis in a number of countries as well as Japan earthquake and tsunami effect.

Fluctuating global food and commodities' prices are expected to put pressures on inflation.

Between January and March, the government can still control inflation mainly on volatile food.

On banking sector, BI also viewed that credit growth also advances as last year it recorded 25.1 percent of increase compared to the same period of 2010.

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Establish Your Business Online Presence for Free

Having your business information online or not is not a matter to debate anymore. It is essential. People now expect to find your business online and if they don't they'll gladly contact your competitors who have their information posted on the web.

It is understandable that a website can be a daunting project for small business owners. Most folks are comfortable using a computer for minor tasks and maybe some advanced business applications but designing a website is out of the skill level of most users.

The other option is to have the website functions outsourced but this too can present some major challenges. The price for website design can reach $1000s and after the website is designed there are still the tasks of inserting content, managing visitors and getting traffic to the site. Add the new demand for mobile websites and you can understand why some business owners prefer to ignore the problem and hope a solution fall in their laps.

The last option is "Instant" website creation services where you sign up for a service and just upload your content to their website. The online process produces a out-of-the-box website almost instantly. The results are usually of poor quality and the business owner ends up over paying for the little value they are getting.

Google came up with an answer

Not too long ago Google created close to 50 million "websites" for local businesses by fetching individual business information from local directories and databases. Google are calling those "websites" Google Places. Most businesses in North America had a Google Places Page created for them, yet more than 95% of the business owners are not aware of it.

The Google Places Pages act much like a regular directory business listing where it displays the company's name address, phone number and other information, but it also includes other benefits like posting images and videos, offering coupons, sending out regular messages as well as providing other information prospects might require. The best part of it is that the Google Places Pages are free.

The other advantage of having a Google Places Page, is that the pages are mobile enabled by default. This means that local businesses have a mobile website that can be viewed on most mobile phones, tablets and even some in-car GPS devices.

Claiming your free website

Having and maintaining a Google Places Page for your business is the easiest and most affordable way to have an online presence for your local business. To start the process, enter your business phone number into the Google search engine box and if your business information was accessed by Google, they will have created a listing which you can claim.

If entering you phone number does not trigger a Google Places Page for your result, simply go to the Google Places Page webpage and start the process from there. The process is very simple and you can have your business online in matter of minutes.

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