Alaksir Jakarta blog

This news piece below is a direct translation from this original article in Indonesian by okezone.com.

The news about East Java Islamic scholars mulling over a religious edict on Facebook use is apparently not true. Administrator of Lirboyo Islamic boarding school (”pesantren”) Idris Marzuki denied the accuracy of the news.

In fact, Marzuki said he did not know the person who claimed to be Lirboyo school’s spokesperson, Nabil Haroen, who announced previously that a fatwa on Facebook was forthcoming. “There’s no such thing. I don’t even know this Nabil,” said Marzuki when contacted by okezone at East Java, Friday (May 22).

Marzuki admitted that there was a meeting of scholars in East Java to talk about contemporary issues faced by the Muslims, but it wasn’t meant to talk about Facebook. “We finished the meeting last night, but there was no talk about that issue,” he said.

Previously, The Associated Press reported that a meeting among Indonesian Islamic scholars was to issue a fatwa concerning the use of social networking on the Internet, reasoning that using such service could lead to illicit sex, which is forbidden by Islamic teaching.

The AP piece claimed that the source of the report was a spokesperson for the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school named Nabil Haroen, but school administrator Idris Marzuki said that he did not know Haroen.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presided over a ceremony that marked the much awaited opening of the free trade zone within Batam, Bintan and Karimun islands on Monday.

Batam island, part of the Riau Islands Province, was designated as a bonded zone by a Presidential Decree of 1992, but its legal status as a full-fledged free trade zone was only recently formalized in 2007, and later government regulations that validated its implementation.

The area’s economically strategic location at the gateway through the Malay Straits had been acknowledged since the early 1970s, but poorly coordinated development efforts and power struggles with within the government over the control of the area hampered its true potential as the nation’s growth center.

With an average of 30% in annual growth of new investments, Batam today serves as a major logistics and manufacturing base for prominent global industrialists including McDermott International, AT&T, Bechtel, PerkinElmer, Seagate Technology, Babcock & Wilcox, Matsushita, Hitachi, Sanyo, Nippon Steel, Hyundai, Sony and Philips.  Hosting about 1.5 million visitors each year, it is also the second most popular international tourist destination in Indonesia after Bali.

Batam shipyard at Batam City.

Indonesian flagship airliner Garuda Indonesia Airways will delay holding an IPO it originally scheduled for Q3 this year.  The company’s CEO Emirsyah Satar cited unfavorable market conditions as the reason for the delay.

Garuda originally planned to use the initial offering to raise funds to settle its debts amounting to about Rp5 trillion and to finance its purchase of new fleets.

Fifty new Boeing 737 NGs are planned to arrive at company hangars this year and ten new Boeing 777-300Rs next year, which Satar said will not be delayed as the company has another financing strategy.

Boeing 737 NG (photo boeing.com)	Boeing 777-300R (photo boeing.com)

Satar added that Garuda estimates a 24% growth over 10 million last year due to the addition of 18 new routes served by the carrier.

PT Telkom Tbk. this year will be focusing on optimizing its Flexi CDMA network throughout Indonesia, according to company spokesperson I Nyoman G. Wiryanatha.  According to him, the CDMA network provider has already achieved 95-98% call success rate, thanks to its ambitious expansion over the last few years.

Wiryanatha added that the company’s network optimization project will begin from East Java, as the province contributes significantly to the company’s national revenue structure.  Telkom Flexi currently has a subscriber base of over 4.3 million in East Java, making it the third biggest cellular provider in the province.

According to the Bank Indonesia Governor, there is no reason for the Indonesian central bank to intentionally delay divesting from its subsidiaries as mandated by Law No. 3 of 2004 on Bank Indonesia.  The transitional period within which the central bank is required to divest from its subsidiaries stipulated in the Law will expire this year.

He said, “We are going to speed things up.  We are not trying to delay this thing deliberately.  In fact, the sooner the better.”

According to Boediono, the central bank and government authorities are currently working to determine the best procedures to carry out the divestment process.  He promised that the divestment will take place this year.

As of end of 2007, Bank Indonesia owned 55% of PT Jaminan Kredit Indonesia, a government-owned credit underwriter focusing on small businesses and cooperatives.  Their ownership was further diluted to 22% following the government’s initiative to inject Rp1 trillion to the company to expand credit to small businesses.  The central bank also owns 82.22% of PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia, a government-owned financing company also focusing on small businesses and cooperatives.  In addition, it also partly owns the Indover Bank, which was recently declared bankrupt by a Dutch court decision due to lackluster performance amid a growing crisis.

Property insurance and reinsurance are starting to tighten up policy sales as the threat of widespread flood reemerges.  Reinsurance companies have begun reining in treaty (policy) limits and increasing deductibles, while insurance companies scale back from underwriting new policies, according to a spokesperson of the Indonesian General Insurers Association (AAUI), Julian Noor.

Noor fears that insurers would eventually stop covering flood risks.  He said there are three things that exacerbate flood in Jakarta: coastal flood tide, actual degree of precipitation in Jakarta, and that in areas surrounding the city.  Given these three factors, widespread flood throughout the city will almost be certain.

Insurance and reinsurance companies suffered approximately Rp4 trillion in losses due to the major flood in Jakarta in 2007.

New investors are still willing to set their foot here in the land of floods and earthquakes.  December last year saw 12 new investors–six of whom Indonesian and the other six foreign–entering into an agreement to invest at the Jakarta Nusantara Bonded Zone (KBN).  The KBN is a government owned company that runs manufacturing bonded zones at Cakung, Marunda and Tanjungpriok, all in North Jakarta.

The new investments are worth US$14.8 million in total, and will create an estimated 7 thousand new manufacturing and logistics jobs.  One of the new investors is a garment manufacturer under the South Korean chaebol, Hansol, which will be investing in a new 5,500 hectare manufacturing facility here, after divesting from its Guatemalan operation.

According to Operations Director at KBN, Eddy Ihut, only three companies operating within the KBN zones have had to lay off their employees since the current crisis began, which is a pretty impressive performance these days.

A total of 155 companies operate within the KBN; 120 of which are export-oriented manufacturers and 35 provide logistical services.  Most of the products manufactured here are exported primarily to other Asian countries.

Jakarta office rats, clocking in and clocking out won’t be the same as they are now.  After forcing our kids to forget about breakfast start school at 6.30 in the morning, next month the city administration is going to start regulating office hours around the city.

As a prelude to this, next week you will start seeing propaganda communication materials designed to make you conform with the new rule.

If it is news to anyone, traffic in this city is getting out of control, and this is probably the first time the governor will have to do something about it, as he will very likely face the political consequence of not doing anything about the traffic gridlock in the next election.  At least Deputy Governor Prijanto admits this much:

“I have to persevere to enact this regulation, because this is the trust given to me.”

Is he saying that Governor Fauzi Bowo is charging him with taking care of the traffic business?  Hear that?  That’s the sound of the Governor saying, “Gotcha!”

Well at any rate, if this thing gets a go ahead, this is how office hours will be arranged next month:

Private sector offices in Central and North Jakarta will start at 7.30 am, because according to government consultant PT Pamintory Cipta, 45.28 percent of offices at Central Jakarta and 47.64 percent at North Jakarta already begin their office hours at 7.30.  For those at West and East Jakarta, office hours will start at 8.00 am.  59.93 percent offices at West Jakarta and 61.34 percent at East Jakarta won’t have to change anything.  South Jakarta offices will have to start their office hours at 9.00 am, and almost 51 percent offices there won’t need to change anything.

Bank Indonesia economist Wiwiek Sistowidayat said that about US$500 million of foreign money has entered Indonesia through the stock market during the last few weeks.  Sistowidayat added that an additional US$5 million made its way to the economy to purchase the government’s sovereign bonds.

Several weeks ago, Bank Indonesia Governor Budiono predicted that foreign funds will return to the market as investors decide to buy up undervalued stocks that offer good returns.

Government electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is issuing Rp1 trillion (US$85 million) bonds and Rp500 billion (US$42 million) Islamic bonds or sukuk from today until 16 December.  Following this offer, the bonds will be listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange on 12 January next year.

The company plans to use the cash raised to construct electricity generators and transmission facilities to meet its 10,000 MW electricity supply target by 2010.  Underwriting the bonds will be PT Danareksa Sekuritas, PT Trimegah Securities and PT Indo Premier Securities.