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Tag: Indonesia

  • MasterCard eyes Indonesians craving exclusivity

    MasterCard eyes Indonesians craving exclusivity

    Global payments and technology company MasterCard is intensifying efforts to tap opportunities in the Indonesian premium market segments by offering a variety of exclusive rewards and services for its premium card holders.

    Among the select opportunities are wine privileges for the holders of MasterCard Platinum cards, access to passenger lounges at 750 airports for MasterCard World card holders and concierge services and exclusive dining for holders of MasterCard World Elite cards.

    “Premium customers currently want payment solutions that provide exclusivity and special access, and can be accepted globally and providing a variety of special services,” MasterCard’s president for Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, Safdar Khan, said recently.

    MasterCard is aiming for double-digit growth in debit and credit cards users in Indonesia next year, amid low credit card penetration in the country.

    Data from Bank Indonesia show that, as of September, there were around 123 million active ATM cards and debit cards in Indonesia. The number of credit card holders, meanwhile, reached 17.22 million in October, up 2.85 percent on the year.

    MasterCard has also recently sealed collaboration with domestic lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) Syariah to provide ATM cards for the bank’s customers who go on the haj and umrah. They have cooperated with a private bank in Saudi Arabia to provide special ATMs to better assist Indonesian pilgrims.

    As the country with the largest Muslim population, Indonesia sees nearly 200,000 people go on the haj every year.

  • Garuda Indonesia now flies from Surabaya to Medina

    Garuda Indonesia now flies from Surabaya to Medina

    Garuda Indonesia has opened a new route to connect Surabaya in East Java to Medina in Saudi Arabia in a bid to expand its flight network in the Middle East and tap into the potential umroh (minor haj) market.

    Introduced on Tuesday at Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport, the all economy class flight will be available once a week on Tuesday using Airbus A330-300 that can accommodate 360 passengers.

    “Hopefully we can provide ease and comfort to East Javanese residents and others who are traveling on a pilgrimage since this direct flight will help save time and money,” said Garuda Indonesia Cargo Director Sigit Muhartono in a press release.

    The national flag carrier currently operates two direct international routes from Surabaya, to Singapore and Jeddah.

    Following the opening of the Surabaya-Medina route, Garuda Indonesia now operates a total of 34 flights to the Middle East from major cities in Indonesia.

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  • Indonesia, Singapore cooperate in tourism

    Indonesia, Singapore cooperate in tourism

    Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said Indonesia and Singapore have agreed to cooperate in a number of sectors such as tourism and energy.

    The fields of cooperation include tourism, development of liquefied natural gas (LNG), development of IT Park and sea waste processing into electricity energy.

    “We hope they will all be realized at the end of 2017. In the tourism sector, Singapore agreed to invest in the development of Lake Toba, the Buddhist Borobudur Temple and the Mandalaika,” the coordinating minister said in a written statement in Jakarta on Sunday.

    Indonesia has set itself the target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2019. The government is making all efforts to achieve the target by building a number of supporting facilities.

    Therefore, in its cooperation with Singapore, Indonesia is planning to build cruise terminals.

    According to the minister, the government is planning to develop the terminals in Tanjung Benoa, Palembang, Medan and Semarang. This is to attract some 300 cruise ships per annum.

    So far, the number of cruisers visiting Indonesia is still small, despite the fact that Indonesia is part of foreign destinations.

    Luhut has the target that in the coming two to three years, at least 150 cruisers will come to Indonesia.

    “On Wednesday, we will hold a meeting to discuss the plan to develop the cruise ship terminals,” he said adding that Singapore also agreed to provide tourist service training assistance.

    Regarding LNG, Luhut added that Singapore agreed to develop power generating plants in isolated islands in Indonesia.

    Singapore is viewed to have the technology for increasing the electrification in Indonesia.

    He also referred to the plan to develop IT parks in the form of data reading centers. On the plan, minister Luhut said he would communicate with the Ministry of Communications and Informatics.

  • Garuda the most loved airline in the world

    Garuda the most loved airline in the world

    The nations flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has received a citation of “The Worlds Most Loved Airline” from the Skytrax, the world airline rating agency.

    Garuda Indonesia President M Arif Wibowo said when receiving the citation here on Thursday that the airline topped other airlines with satisfaction rate of 85 percent.

    “Our greatest thanks for our customers and airline workers,” Arif said, attributing the high appreciation for the airline performance to cooperation of a team of thousands hands in creating the strong brand.

    He said he did not expect to receive the citation as he was not aware of the existence of that category.

    He said the citation would bring bout challenge and at the same time give the airline a motivation to create the highest standard of service.

    CEO of SkyTrax Edward Plaisted said the citation was given based on a survey involving respondents from 40 countries.

    Garuda competed with 420 other airlines included in the survey, Plaisted said.

    “Garuda deserves the citation for highest level of services and satisfaction,” he said.

    The airline provides good facility for both main, business and economic classes with five-star standard, he said.

    The airline has succeeded in taking a big leap forward after it was banned from flying to Europe several years earlier for poor service and performance including air accidents.

    It also began to chalk up operating profit only in the past several years after years of being in the red.

    Garuda also operated a budget subsidiary Citilink, which provided low-cost flights to multiple Indonesian destinations and was spun-off in 2012.

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  • Garuda to fly wide body airplanes to Jayapura

    Garuda to fly wide body airplanes to Jayapura

    National carrier Garuda Indonesia will begin operating wide body aircraft such as the Airbus 330 or the Boeing 777 to Jayapura, in the eastern province of Papua, next year.

    The operation of wide body airplanes to Jayapura was part of the airlines efforts to expand its business to the eastern region of the country, President Director of Garuda Indonesia M Arif Wibowo said here on Friday.

    Garuda Indonesia will begin operating the wide body airplanes to Jayapura in January or February next year, Wibowo said.

    The expansion is also aimed at bolstering the tourism sector by luring more international and domestic tourists.

    “We focus on international flights to boost inbound tourism,” Wibowo said, adding that the airline was trying to encourage tourists to visit the countrys eastern regions.

    Wibowo said that the airport at Jayapura was ready to handle wide body airplanes such as the Airbus 330.

    Using a wide body aircraft will increase the passenger load capacity to 222, from 160 at present in a smaller plane.

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  • Citibank sets conservative loan growth target

    Citibank sets conservative loan growth target

    Lender Citibank Indonesia expects to book single-digit loan growth next year although it believes lending will pick up speed in the second half of 2017, the company’s top management said on Wednesday.

    “For Citibank, we expect single-digit [lending growth]. It is better to be a bit conservative because we expect that lending will start to pick up in the third quarter,” Citibank’s CEO Batara Sianturi said.

    He said Citibank was confident that the economy would improve next year, partly because it expects the funds released from the tax amnesty to flow into Indonesia’s real sector.

    More liquid assets entering the country’s economy could be used to fund various projects, which would increase demand for loans, he said.

    Batara said the company would focus on pushing loan growth in all segments, which include institutional banking and retail banking.

    The lender’s financial report for the January-to-September period recorded that the bank’s loans decreased by 7.3 percent annually to Rp 39.07 trillion (US$2.9 billion) from Rp 42 trillion year-on-year.

  • BT partners with DCI on Indonesia cloud venture

    BT partners with DCI on Indonesia cloud venture

    BT, DCI Indonesia, and Equinix, a DCI partner, announced that they are working together to provide private cloud infrastructure in Indonesia.

    The companies said by using BT’s private cloud solutions as part of the BT Compute portfolio, enterprises active in Indonesia will now be able to reap the full benefits of the cloud to realise their digital transformation, launch new services more rapidly, mitigate risks, reduce costs and focus on business growth.

    The combination of BT and DCI data center capabilities also enables international businesses expanding into Indonesia to accelerate market entry, as they no longer need to invest time and resources to set up their own data center infrastructure and deploy business critical applications.

    Ron Totton, Southeast Asia managing director, BT, said, “Indonesia is a promising market for BT, where demand for private cloud and data center services is growing fast, especially in sectors such as finance, energy, and the telecom industry.”

    “This collaboration with DCI builds on our Cloud of Clouds portfolio strategy and is aligned to our ambition to be the world’s leading cloud services integrator. This will help give BT customers a competitive advantage in Indonesia and beyond,” Totton said.

    Through this collaboration, BT becomes the first global networked IT services provider to offer private cloud infrastructure in Indonesia. BT will be hosting its Point of Presence in DCI’s data center. By using the BT Private Compute platform, businesses can run a full range of applications, from network and storage to computing and security without having to invest into their own cloud infrastructure.

    DCI Indonesia is the only tier-IV data center service provider in Indonesia providing the most stringent service level agreement of 99.999% uptime through dual configuration infrastructure that ensures redundancy.

    Marina Budiman, president director of DCI, said “DCI is well-positioned to support the BT Private Compute platform.”

    “With DCI’s fault-tolerant infrastructure, strong financial ecosystem and global interconnection through Equinix’s Cloud Exchange, we believe our collaboration will provide BT’s customers with the best-in-class service in Indonesia,” Budiman said .

    Last year, BT was awarded the Siskomdat license, enabling it to offer its portfolio of networked IT services and applications directly to customers in Indonesia.

    DCI Indonesia has zero history of downtime since the first time it serves the market. This exceptional performance comes from solid experience from industry players with more than 20 years of experience in information technology, data center services and infrastructure management.

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  • Lippo Investment Trust to Acquire Lippo Mall Kuta in Bali

    Lippo Investment Trust to Acquire Lippo Mall Kuta in Bali

    Opened in 2013, Lippo Mall Kuta is a three-floor mall that offers 21,132 square meters to international and local tenants, such as Nike, Bata, Quicksilver, Planet Sports, Amazing Kuta, Matahari Department Store and Cinemaxx.

    Lippo Karawaci president director Ketut Budi Wijaya said the acquisition is part of “light assets program,” by which the property developer expects to increase its revenue and reduce operating cost.

    LMIRT has been listed on Singapore Stock Exchange since 2007. Its diversified portfolio of income-producing real estate in Indonesia includes 19 retail malls and seven retail spaces.

    The company had $760 million in market capitalization as of November.

     

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  • Asian grocery boom predicted by IGD

    Asian grocery boom predicted by IGD

    Asia will continue to be the biggest engine of growth in the grocery market with its sales set to exceed those of Europe and North America combined within five years, according to new forecasts from research organisation IGD.

    Global growth will be driven by a combination of inflation, population and rising incomes.

    Highlights from IGD’s latest global grocery forecasts to 2021 include:

    * Asia’s grocery market is set to increase by $1.073 trillion, an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3 per cent.

    * China will extend its lead over the US as the world’s biggest grocery market, with India in third place closing the gap.

    “Although there are several risks to the global economy and a danger of new barriers to trade in particular, we are optimistic these can be surmounted,” says IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch. “We expect all regions to grow their grocery markets over the next five years, presenting big opportunities globally for manufacturers and retailers.”

    Asia’s grocery market will continue to prosper with China remaining comfortably in first place and three other Asian countries within the top 10, Denney-Finch says. “Millions more people across Asia will become middle class, and many more consumer goods companies will view this region as the key to their growth strategy.”

    IGD’s projected figures for 2021 show that China’s grocery market will be worth $1612 billion with a CAGR of 5.5 per cent.

    This compares with a market worth of $1.311 trillion for the US, with a CAGR of 3.6 per cent.

    India comes in third with a $735 billion market and a CAGR of 9.1 per cent.

    Japan is in fifth place after Brazil with a $399 billion market and a CAGR of 0.7 per cent.

    Rounding up the top markets in Asia is Indonesia, in eighth position with a market value of $305 billion and a CAGR of 9 per cent.

    A food and grocery research and training charity, IGD defines the grocery retail market as all food, drink and non-food products – such as health and beauty, pet care, clothing, DIY – sold through retail outlets selling predominantly food. Modern retail formats, such as supermarkets and hypermarkets, are included as well as traditional retail formats like markets and traditional food stores such as bakers. It excludes wholesale and foodservice formats and drugstores/pharmacies.

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  • Garuda Indonesia Opens Jakarta-Mumbai Route on December 12th

    Garuda Indonesia Opens Jakarta-Mumbai Route on December 12th

    Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will open scheduled flights to India starting December 12, 2016. Garuda Indonesia will operate three flights a week from Jakarta to Mumbai via China.

    Garuda Indonesia president director Arif Wibowo said that the flights will make one transit stop in China in first phase of operation.

    “We will see how it goes in two or three months; if the results are good, we will make it direct flights,” he told reporters at a tourism event in Jakarta on Tuesday, December 6, 2016.

    Arif went on to say that India has a huge potential considering its 1.4 billion population. On the other hand, the number of tourists traveling from India to Indonesia is quite significant at 300,000 arrivals per year.

    As such, he is confident that seat occupancy rate of Garuda’s Boeing 737 to operate in that route will reach 70-75%.

    “More so because it will start to operate on the right time, i.e. before year-end holidays,” he added.

    Aside from India, Garuda will also open direct flights from China’s Chengdu province to Bali. Regular flights will commence mid-January 2017.

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  • GIC buys $370 million ticket to the movies in Indonesia

    GIC buys $370 million ticket to the movies in Indonesia

    GIC is investing 3.5 trillion rupiah (S$370 million) in Indonesian cinema operator PT Nusantara Sejahtera Raya (NSR) as the Singapore sovereign wealth fund hopes to capture a slice of Indonesia’s economic growth.

    The investment is intended to help NSR further anchor its market position and to prepare for the next stage of growth, GIC and NSR said in a press release.

    “The investment by GIC reflects our confidence in Indonesia’s long-term growth potential,” said Amit Kunal, GIC’s head of direct investments group for South-east Asia, private equity and infrastructure.

    “NSR’s operational expertise and portfolio of high quality cinemas positions it well to benefit from the rapidly expanding consumer class and economic development in Indonesia. We look forward to working with the team at NSR to accelerate its presence nationally and to achieve the vision of providing best-in-class cinematic experience to the country.”

    NSR owns the Cinema 21, Cinema XXI and The Premiere brands in Indonesia.

    The company operated 864 screens in 157 cinemas across 36 cities in the country as at December 2016.

    The NSR investment is in line with GIC’s stated long-term optimism about the region’s economic prospects.

    In GIC’s investment report in July, the fund noted that it held more emerging market equities than a reference portfolio.

    About 19 per cent of the fund’s portfolio was invested in emerging market equities as at March 31, 2016, up slightly from the 18 per cent allocation a year earlier.

    “We have assessed that emerging market equities will benefit from the sustained structural improvements in these economies, and contribute positively to the long-term real returns of the GIC portfolio,” GIC said.

    “We have maintained this assessment even though emerging market equities have underperformed developed market equities in recent years.”

    The worldwide cinema industry is expected to continue to grow over the next few years, with Asia-Pacific outpacing the global average, according to an analysis by PwC.

    In a recent report, PwC estimated that the Asia-Pacific cinema business could grow at a rate of 11.8 per cent per year from US$14.2 billion in 2015 to US$24.7 billion in 2020.

    The expected global average is a more modest 5.8 per cent per year over the same period.

    Box office sales in the region are estimated to grow at 12 per cent per year through 2020, about double the global outlook of 5.8 per cent per year.

    Asia-Pacific cinema advertising is expected to grow at 6 per cent every year through 2020, more than two times faster than the expected global average of 2.8 per cent.

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  • Ministry tells Indonesian airliners to hire 900 jobless local pilots

    Ministry tells Indonesian airliners to hire 900 jobless local pilots

    The Transportation Ministry has said as over 900 Indonesian pilots having not been able to gain employment with local airliners, the ministry is planning to impose a new obligation to ensure higher absorption of local pilots by the airline industry.

    “This is a big problem. At least 900 local pilots have no jobs. This will be our homework, to create opportunities for them,” Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said on the sidelines of the Air Transportation Safety Campaign at the ministry’s office on Sunday.

    Budi said his ministry would require local airliners to employ local pilots, while promising that the ministry would also help improve the competence of the pilots through further training.

    “There has to be an obligation for local airliners to take on local pilots,” he added.

    In addition, the ministry would give impose stricter requirements to foreign pilots working at local airliners.

    “We should impose certain requirements for foreign pilots working in Indonesia,” he added.

    Reportedly, 564 foreign pilots are currently working in the country.

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  • FL Technics Opens for Business in Jakarta

    FL Technics Opens for Business in Jakarta

    FL Technics has opened its MRO hangar at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia, and reached cooperation agreements with ten Asian airlines.

    The 9,000-square-meter facility accommodates up to three narrowbodies and is certified to serve 737NGs and CLs, A319s, A320s and A321s.

    Line maintenance has started and base maintenance will begin in 2017.

    Zilvinas Lapinskas, CEO of Lithuania-headquartered FL Technics, said: “After renovating and upgrading the facilities according to European standards, we finally have a modern MRO centre, located in the heart of Indonesia.”

    The unveiling of the facility follows FL Technics Indonesia passing audits by Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Thai Department of Civil Aviation.

    The ten airline customers are comprised of NAM Air, Sriwijaya Air, K-Mile Air, Lion Air, Batik Air, Kalstar Aviation, Airfast Indonesia, Trigana Air Service, Tri-MG Intra Asia Airlines and Travira Air.

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  • DHL Express launches Rp-17-billion service center and gateway

    DHL Express launches Rp-17-billion service center and gateway

    International logistics company DHL Express, part of Deutsche Post’s DHL Group, launched a service center and a gateway worth Rp 17 billion (US$1.26 million) to support its business operations in and out of Batam, Riau Islands, on Monday.

    DHL Express decided to expand its business in Batam given its potential as the third-largest city in Sumatra, well known as an industrial area, an emerging transport hub, and part of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore golden triangle.

    “This new investment could improve our network in Indonesia that consists of gateways in Balikpapan, Batam, Denpasar, Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya,” Sean Wall, executive vice president of network operations and aviation of DHL Express Asia-Pacific said.

    The new facility has the capacity to handle 2.4 million kilograms of cargo and process up to 150,000 shipments per year. About 26 people work in the 972-square-meter facility, with three certified employees for handling dangerous goods.

    The company claimed that the facility was launched at the right time because the government is considering whether to make Batam a special economic zone for companies that are involved in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul.

    “With the potential of Batam being opened as a special economic zone for the aviation industry, DHL’s investment will be able to support the growth of the aviation industry in Indonesia,” Ahmad Mohamad, senior technical advisor of DHL Express Indonesia, said.

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