INDONESIA OUTLOOK

From The Jakarta Post April 2, 2015 The government has changed its plan to build a new port in Cilamaya and is seeking a better location in Subang or Indramayu, West Java. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the government needed to build a new port but it would not be in Cilamaya. The Vice President, who visited Cilamaya with several ministers, including Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Susilo and Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan on Thursday, said the new port would be built east of Cilamaya, either in Subang or Indramayu. Kalla said the main reason to move the new port’s location to another regency was because waters in the area were already crowded by offshore mining activities and oil tankers transporting crude oil to Jakarta and other cities. The government has allocated Rp 34.5 trillion (US$2.6 billion) to construct a new port, as Tanjung Priok Port is deemed too crowded. For detailed story, visit here The government has changed its plan to build a new p

From The Jakarta Post April 2, 2015 PLN, State electricity company  has said that its plan to hold the prequalification tender for the procurement of liquefied natural gas (LNG) aims to accelerate a 35,000 Megawatt (MW) power plant construction project. PLN’s director for strategic procurement and primary energy, Amin Subekti, said the company would hold a tender not only to ensure smooth power plant construction but also to secure its gas supply. PLN would auction not only the supply of gas but also its transportation and supplying infrastructure as well as its regasification facilities. He said PLN had announced studies on the prequalification process, followed by consultation sessions held at the company’s headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday. Moreover he explained that in the end, the tender winners would create consortiums in which each of them would be permitted to procure gas domestically or through imports, to accommodate and to store, to transport and regasify the gas in ev

From The Jakarta Globe April 1, 2015 Inflation increased slightly in March, data from the Central Statistics Agency, or BPS, showed on Wednesday, as prices were pushed up by higher prices for fuel and rice and continued weakening of the rupiah. Analysts said stronger inflation would limit Indonesia’s central bank’s ability to further reduce its key interest rate. The BPS announced March’s headline inflation rate was 6.38 percent, compared with 6.29 percent a month earlier. “This is broadly in line with our forecast and the consensus median,” said Dian Ayu Yustina, a Jakarta-based economist with Bank Danamon Indonesia. The administration of President Joko Widodo has reformed the fuel price policy to a regulated price that can fluctuate according to the global oil price and the exchange rate. Looking forward to the rest of the year, analysts Wai Ho Leong and Angela Hsieh from Barclays said the path of inflation was still benign. They projected inflation to average 6