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Tag: Indonesia

  • Blackmores spreads wings in Indonesia

    Blackmores spreads wings in Indonesia

    Blackmores chief executive Christine Holgate is in Jakarta today to launch the company’s expansion into the Indonesian market.

    The Sydney-based vitamin and supplements company has been operating in China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand for some years but has held back from the Indonesian market as it searched for the right partner.

    It has now partnered in a joint venture with Indonesia’s Kalbe Farma, one of the largest health care companies in South East Asia.

    “We will be launching with eight products and have 25 products by the end of the year,” Ms Holgate said yesterday.

    “It is quite a complex registration process in Indonesia compared with Australia. But we are used to the different Asian markets where it can take six months to a year to get registered.”

    She said Blackmores had chosen to partner with Kalbe as it was a major supplier of the nutritional supplements market in Indonesia.

    “It’s a market worth around $2 billion in Indonesia and it’s growing really fast,” she said.

    “The country has one of the fastest growing middle classes in the world and it’s predicted to be the third biggest economy in the world by 2030,” she said.

    She said Indonesians were increasingly interested in more Western versions of natural health products. She said Kalbe had a strong “common shared sense of purpose” with Blackmores including having an institute to train people in natural health care products.

    She said Blackmores would be able to leverage Kalbe’s training processes and its strong representation in shopping centres throughout Indonesia where it has health centres giving advice on natural health products.

    Ms Holgate has been in Indonesia for the past week at the Australian-Indonesian dialogue which is aimed at boosting trade between Australia and Indonesia. Federal Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has been negotiating a free trade agreement with Indonesia, reviving a process which stalled in 2013.

    Ms Holgate said only 2 per cent of Australia’s trade was done with Indonesia and added there were business opportunities in areas such as health, education and financial services. She said Australian companies needed to negotiate partnerships with Indonesian companies to expand into the market.

    Blackmores’ business in Indonesia was “not going to be a huge overnight.”“But you need to plant seeds to grow trees and this is an important next step in our history of growing in Asia.”

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  • Bank Indonesia still has chance to slacken its monetary policy

    Bank Indonesia still has chance to slacken its monetary policy

    Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Agus Martowardojo said the central bank still likely has a chance to relax its monetary policy in the second half of this year.

    “Seeing the condition in August, we can say that there is still a chance to slacken monetary policy but whether it will be carried out next September or October will depend on the data” the central bank governor said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

    BIs board of governors meeting on August 18-19 decided to maintain its 7-Day Reverse Repo Rate (BI 7-day RR Rate) at 5.25 percent with a deposit facility (DF) interest rate of 4.5 percent and lending facility (LF) being lowered by 100 basis points from 7.0 percent to 6.0 percent.

    BI began introducing the 7-Day RR Rate last April. At the BIs board of governors meeting on April 21, 2016, the BI Rate was fixed at 6.75 percent and the BI Repo Rate at 5.50

    Besides this, the BI also maintained a symmetrical and narrow interest rate corridor where the lower limit of DF Rate is set 75 basis points below the 7-Day RR rate and the upper limit of LF Rate is set 75 basis points above the 7-Day RR Rate.

    The decision is in line with the efforts to maintain the macroeconomic stability by continuously preserving the momentum of domestic economic growth amid weakening global economic performance.

    With macroeconomic stability, controlled inflation at targeted range, good current transaction deficit and stable currency rate, room for monetary relaxation is still open.

    The BI also continues to take abreast of short-term domestic global economic development, particularly the possibility for the Fed to raise its Fund Rate. “We wilL see it in September there will be flight to quality with regard to reports on the improvement of the United States economy.”

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  • Governement Aims to Protect Fintech Customers

    Governement Aims to Protect Fintech Customers

    Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution wants to have an agency that protects customers of (financial technology/fintech) companies. The agency will also monitor and supervise fintech businesses to make sure they comply with existing laws and regulations.

    The agency, he said, will work in similar ways to the Central Securities Depository (KSEI) and the Clearing and Guarantee Corporation (KPEI) in supervising capital market transactions.

    “In the case of contract breaches, consumers must not incur losses. There must be an agency that covers the loss, he said at the Indonesia Fintech Festival, Tuesday, August 30.

    He said that the fintech industry offers an opportunity for entrepreneurs and the financial services sector. But fintechs have their negative impacts and risks as well, that’s why the OJK and Bank Indonesia (BI) must regulate the industry for the protection of its customers.

    BI Governor Agus Martowardojo supports the development of fintechs, saying it is an industry that allows faster, more efficient services for the financial industry in terms of payment system.

    Agus said he has three hopes for the fintech industry. First, for international fintechs to register as an Indonesian entity. Second, to have all payments denominated in rupiah, and third is for the industry to save their funds in the national banking system.

    President Joko Widodo, who attended the Fintech Festival, said that the business is a golden opportunity for people living in remote areas. Widodo believes that better access to financial services will crunch income gap.

    “I invite fintech businesses to innovate and spawn new breakthroughs in the use of digital technology that will fast-track financial inclusivity,” he said.

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  • Indonesia, Norway to expand energy cooperation

    Indonesia, Norway to expand energy cooperation

    Indonesia and Norway have agreed to expand energy cooperation and business-to-business contacts in various sectors of energy development.

    The agreement was reached during an Indonesia-Norway bilateral energy meeting in Stavanger recently, according to Hartyo Harkomoyo, spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy in Oslo.

    Harkomoyo quoted Norwegian Oil and Energy Deputy Minister Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde as saying at the meeting that the country was keen to share its expertise and experiences with Indonesia for the development of the energy sector.

    In response to the statement of the Norwegian oil and energy deputy minister, Energy and Natural Resources Ministrys director for oil and gas development program Agus Cahyono Adi, who led the Indonesian delegation at the meeting, noted that Indonesia was ready to host the Indonesia-Norway energy dialog in March 2017.

    Adi remarked that during the energy dialog, the two countries will discuss governance and regulation in oil and gas exploration, the use of Carbon Capture Storage technology and enhanced oil recovery to revive old wells, and the development of new and renewable energy, among others.

    In the meantime, Indonesian Ambassador to Norway Yuwono A. Putranto said energy is one of the key areas of cooperation in the partnership between Indonesia and Norway.

    In order to focus on the partnership, Indonesia and Norway have agreed on the mechanism to hold regular meetings through dialog in the energy sector every two years.

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  • Indonesia-based HappyFresh announces Series B round, leaves Philippines and Taiwan

    Indonesia-based HappyFresh announces Series B round, leaves Philippines and Taiwan

    HappyFresh, the Jakarta-based grocery delivery platform, announced yesterday it has raised an undisclosed Series B round while also revealing it will be consolidating operations and pulling out of the Philippines and Taiwan.

    The round was led Dubai-based private equity firm Samena Capital, with HappyFresh CEO Markus Bihler said a major reason for the partnership was Samena’s status as a leading investment firm for logistics.

    “Number one, given that our business is, to a significant extent, a logistics business, we feel the support on logistics is very value-add,” said Bihler.

    “And number two, they are a classic large-cap private equity firm with significant ties to offline retail, which is the second arm of the HappyFresh business,” he said.

    Other participants in the round were Vertex Ventures, the venture-arm of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures of Indonesia’s Sinarmas Group and Endeavor Catalyst, a New York-based venture arm of Endeavor Capital.

    The fundraising, which was larger than the US$12 million Series A the company raised in September 2015, remains undisclosed in large part because Bihler said it brought unnecessary attention to the number.

    In regards to the decision to pull out of the Philippines and Taiwan, Bihler said a crucial goal for HappyFresh is to focus on its core markets.

    “I believe that companies who are profitable and independently sustainable are companies that last, and therefore can continue to serve, in our case, the end customers and offline retail partners,” he said.

    The decision to consolidate the company to Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia was a fast decision. It comes six months after the company entered the Philippines back in March and less than a year since it launched in Taiwan.

    “What we have decided is we will focus our effort on the three core markets that we have chosen to operate in, which is Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand,” said Bihler.

    Because HappyFresh puts emphasis on the role of logistics in the decision to go with Samena Capital, e27 asked Bihler to provide some details as to how that looks on-the-ground.

    “I think if I go back and look at what HappyFresh is, we are a digital marketplace for offline retailers on the front end. And on the backend we are a digitally enabled fulfillment operation. So the largest efficiency gains that we have seen historically, and I am very sure that we will see in the future, is driven by technology,” said Bihler.

    This means intelligent use of routing, the increase of prediction software, and more efficient usage of resources (the time and availability of the shopper and drivers in the company).

    HappyFresh was founded in October 2014 and began operating in March of 2015.

    Its operating model is similar to that of competitor honestbee — in which shoppers visit specific grocery stores and shop for the consumer before the food is delivered. As a comparison, another grocery delivery player, RedMart, has its own warehouses and thus does not ‘shop’ for customers.

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  • Taiwan Eyes More than 200,000 Indonesian Tourists

    Taiwan Eyes More than 200,000 Indonesian Tourists

    Taiwan is eyeing as many as 200,000 tourists from Indonesia to visit Taiwan this year, or an increase from that in 2015, where at around 177,743 Indonesian tourists visiting Taiwan.

    Taiwan Tourism Bureau Director David Tsao said that to meet the target, it has held a tourism exhibition at Grand City Surabaya Mall & Convent on 26 to 30 August, 2016.

    “In 2015, tourists visiting Taiwan reached 10.439 million of them and 177,743 of them are Indonesian tourists,” he said in Surabaya.

    He added that one of the attractions of Taiwan’s tourism is its landscape that is different from the sights in Southeast Asian countries.

    “For example in the northern region of Taiwan precisely on the island of Li, the weather is cooler and you can find snowfall there,” he said.

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  • Bahrain-Indonesia trade ties discussed

    Bahrain-Indonesia trade ties discussed

    Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI)’s chairman Khalid Almoayed alongside a number of board members and Acting CEO have met the Indonesian ambassador to Bahrain, Chilman Arisman.

    The meeting hailed the deep-rooted relation between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Republic of Indonesia and discussed the promising sectors and incentives offered to investors.

    Almoayed underlined the importance of reinforcing the exchange of business delegations and holding business events to bridge the knowledge gap between Bahraini and Indonesian business owners and stimulate trade, partnership, and investments.

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  • Thousands of foreign tourists come to Enliven Togean Festival

    Thousands of foreign tourists come to Enliven Togean Festival

    Thousands of tourists from Italy, France, Germany, Australia, and South Korea, among other things, were present to enliven the Togean Festival, opened by Central Sulawesi Vice Governor Soedarto in Tojo Unouno district on Saturday.

    Held from Augut 27 to 31, 2016, the Togean Marine Festival aims to promote the natural beauty and unique underwater paradise in Tojo Unouno district, according to Central Sulawesi Culture and Tourism Office Chief Siti Norma Mardjanu.

    “Yes, more than one thousand tourists from various countries are now in Tojo Unauna to enliven the marine festival of Togean Islands charm,” Mardjanu affirmed here on Sunday.

    According to her, all cottages accommodations in Tojo Unauna are fully booked by the foreign tourists, and many of them have to stay at the homes of local government officials.

    To enliven the Togean Marine Festival, the foreign tourists also participates in road race hosted by Tojo Unauna District Head Mohammad Lahay, underwater photo contest, boat race, the tug of war on the boats, cultural attraction, traditional martial arts, swimming and fishing contest.

    Increased tourism promotion in Togean, according to her, will continue to be made through the festival by involving the Ministry of Tourism to maximize the dissemination of information about the charm of the area nationally and internationally.

    “Central Sulawesi provincial government took the central government to participate in promoting the Tojo Unouno tourism through the Togean Marine Festival,” Mardjanu explained.

    Togean Marine Festival is being held to promote the regional tourism in the country and abroad in a bid to boost tourist visits to Togean Islands.

    Indonesia is home to some of the worlds most beautiful aquatic areas including the Togian Islands, where diving is one of the best things the visitors can do.

    “Tropical coral reefs filled with an abundance of marine life can be found in many areas around the island,” she said.

  • Indonesia Port Net to be Launched by Year-End

    Indonesia Port Net to be Launched by Year-End

    President Director of state-owned seaport operator PT Pelindo II Elvyn G. Masassya said the implementation of a single Internet-based electronic service or the Indonesia Port Net (Inaportnet) in Pelindo I to Pelindo IV has entered the finalization stage.

    Inaportnet is expected to improve connectivity of the four enterprises.

    Masasya added the Inaportnet application throughout all seaports managed by PT. Pelindo would be gradually done.

    “Our plan is that the Inaportnet in all the seaports managed by PT. Pelindon will be integrated at the end of 2016,” she said in Jakarta on Saturday.

    The Inaportnet will integrate the information system of ports throughout Indonesia and one of the benefits is to monitor domestic commodity and anticipation of complaints about waiting times for vessels.

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  • Jokowi to Open Indonesia Fintech Festival and Conference 2016

    Jokowi to Open Indonesia Fintech Festival and Conference 2016

    President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is scheduled to open the Indonesia Fintech Festival and Conference 2016 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition, Tangerang, on 29th August 2016. The event is organized by the Financial Service Authority (OJK) and the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).

    “President Jokowi will open the event and it will be closed by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands,” said the OJK’s Deputy Commissioners for Non-bank Finance Industry (IKNB) Dumoly F. Pardede on Thursday.

    Dumoly said a startup competition will be held during the event. In addition, an international financial technology conference will also be held. It will also provide assistance to fintech startups. “It will also host meetings between investors.”

    The event is aimed at establishing shared understanding of harmonious development of fintech ecosystem among industrial stakeholders in Indonesia. “There’s a shared commitment among several fintech practitioners to enhancing fintech in Indonesia,” Dumoly explained.

    Dumoly said the festival will be held annually in order to produce the best startups. “It’s a prestigious event, we will create an area of fintech, new trends and cultures in Indonesia,” he said.

    Kadin’s Startup Technology Innovation Department head Patrick Walujo said 72 startups will participate in the festival. “They will exhibit their products. We expect to see more startups next year,” he said.

  • Many foreign banks have not complied with SMEs credit policy

    Many foreign banks have not complied with SMEs credit policy

    Bank Indonesia said many banks mainly branches of foreign banks have not complied with the call for setting aside at least 10 percent of their credits for micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) .

    Head of Bank Indonesias division for development of SMEs Yunita Resmi Sari in Jakarta said despite facility such linkage branches of foreign banks are still in difficulty in extending credits for SMEs as asked by the central bank.

    “We are aware that foreign banks have limited networks of branches and their capacity is not for SMEs,” Yunita said here on Thursday.

    In 2015, the central bank asked banks to increase the portion of their credits for SMEs by 5 percentage points a year to 20 percent in 2018.

    Yunita , the central bank is preparing a policy on SMEs credits from foreign bank branches.

    Until August, this year, more than 100 of the 119 banks in the country already set aside 10 percent of their credits for SMEs.

    Yunita said the SMEs credit market is still wide open , pointing out only 22 percent of 57.8 million units of SMEs have access to bank credits.

    SMEs account only 19.7 percent or Rp827.3 trillion of the total outstanding credits of banks in the country by the end of the second quarter of 2016.

    The SMEs credits grew 8.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2016.

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  • Electricity Prices May Decline

    Electricity Prices May Decline

    The National Energy Board (DEN) is asking state power company PLN to review its suggestion to formulate a new formula for the basic prices of electricity. The DEN believes a new price formula will bring benefits to the public.

    “Concept-wise, it is good. But PLN must first hold a price simulation to figure out how positive a new price scheme would be for the public. The tariffs could be a lot cheaper,” DEN member Abadi Purnomo told.

    He said the opportunity to lower electricity prices arrives from the abundant power supply generated by coal-fueled power plans, which accounted for 52.8 percent of the national energy mix last year. The second largest portion is gas energy use with 24.2 percent.

    PLN suggested a new price formula that will include energy mix component in the calculaton. Today’s tariffs calculations only refer to the Indonesian Crude Price (ICP), whereas the use of oil fuel for power-generation has declined from 11.7 percent in 2015 to just 6.7 percent this year.

    Another DEN member Sonny Keraf also supports PLN’s proposal. He asks the government to evaluate the current electricity price formula as a way to develop new renewable energy sources.

    A new, cheaper price electricity scheme will trigger industry growth, Sonny said. Industry players have always complained about Indonesia’s pricy electricity rates that prevent them from competing with other nations.

    PLN’s planning director Nicke Widyawati promised to bring their proposal to the DPR.

    Meanwhile, Acting Energy Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said his ministry is reviewing the suggestion.

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  • Madiun develops tourism villages to attract tourists

    Madiun develops tourism villages to attract tourists

    Madiun district government in the Indonesian province of East Java is making efforts to develop a number of areas into tourism villages to attract local and foreign tourists, according to an official.

    “Of all 206 villages in Madiun district, 11 have been surveyed to be developed into tourism villages to attract both local and foreign tourists,” said the head of Department of Cooperatives, Industry, Trade and Tourism (Diskoperindagta), Sawung Rehtomo, here.

    He said the 11 villages are Brumbun, Kresek, Segulung, Dolopo, Durenan, Kare, Batok, Tawangrejo, Gunungsari, Pilangrejo, and Mruwak.

    According to him, the concept of the tourism village will highlight the potential that exists in each village for sale to tourists.

    In Brumbun village, for example, tourists will have the opportunity to cruise down the beautiful riven on the slopes of Mount Wilis, or to have the sensation of picking durian fruits in Kare village.

    Rehtomo explained that the development of tourist villages will be carried out as part of efforts to build the tourism industry in Madiun district, both nature and cultural tourism.

  • Toyota to Continue to Invest Big in Indonesia

    Toyota to Continue to Invest Big in Indonesia

    Toyota will continue its major investment plan in Indonesia, particularly in manufacturing, up to Rp20 trillion by 2020.

    PT Toyota Motors Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN) deputy president director Warih Andang Tjahjono in Tokyo, Japan, said Sunday, August 28, 2016, that Toyota has made Rp10 trillion investment of its planned investment in Indonesia, as promised by Toyota Motor Corp (TMC) president director Akio Toyota.

    “Major projects have been realized, the third plant has been completed,” he said.

    Since 2013, he went on, Toyota’s production capacity in Indonesia continues to increase, from 110,000 units to currently 25,000 units per day.

    According to Warih, the total TMC investment in the past few years have reached roughly Rp10 trillion, in which the biggest investment had been made to develop the production capacity of Kijang Innova and Fortuner at approximately Rp5 trillion, followed by the production of Sienta at around Rp2.5 trillion, and NR engine production with an investment value of roughly Rp2.3 trillion.

    “Investment will continue, although it would not be as big as the current investment,” Warih said.

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  • Huawei, Indonesian partners build cloud platform

    Huawei, Indonesian partners build cloud platform

    PT Huawei Tech Investment (Huawei Indonesia) has worked with Accenture, Cloudera, Anabatic, IDPRO, Infosys and Telkomsigma to build a new cloud ecosystem.

    The new solution, FusionSphere 6.0, was launched during the recent Huawei Cloud Conference Indonesia.

    FusionSphere 6.0 is an enterprise-class cloud operating system that helps customers deploy virtual servers, private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, cloud desktops and NFVI.

    The ecosystem brings the concept of open source which used in components, architecture, and ecosystem enabling customers to have more choices in software. Huawei FusionSphere 6.0 keeps pace with the open-source OpenStack community, complies with the native OpenStack standards, and supports OpenStack APIs.

    Third-party applications developed based on native OpenStack can run on Huawei FusionSphere 6.0 without having to make changes.

    The platform is designed to help enterprises overcome the challenges faced during different stages of IT transformation, making enterprise business and workflow more effective and efficient in the deal with changes in the market, lowering investments on IT assets and human resources.

    “Huawei enthusiastically built a win-win cloud ecosystem with partners,” Huawei Indonesia CEO Liu Haosheng said.

    “We would like to share our successful practices in the global ICT sector, and to use the most innovative and competitive ICT technologies, products, and solutions to support our strategic business partners in Indonesia , creating values and benefits for their users in the cloud era.”

    At the conference, Huawei Indonesia also shared its successful practices in cloud transformation in cooperation with Accenture, as partners, for Telkomsigma.

    This successful practice in cloud transformation embodies Huawei Indonesia’s commitment to do innovation together with partners in an effort to build an open cloud ecosystem to help customers accelerate the transformation toward cloud solutions.

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