Indonesia Morning News For December 14

Indonesia official says Boeing should set up shop in country
American aircraft maker Boeing should set up operations in Indonesia, given that it gets a lot of business from the country, a senior official has said.
— The Straits Times

BCA and Indonesia AirAsia X Sign Deal to Ease Ticket Purchases
Bank Central Asia, the country’s largest lender by market capitalization, signed a partnership agreement with the local unit of Malaysian long-haul budget carrier Indonesia AirAsia X in a bid to boost the lender’s digital services.
— JakartaGlobe

Indonesia’s Motorbike Sales Down 3.6 Percent in November
Motorcycle sales in Indonesia fell 3.6 percent in November from a year earlier, data from an industry association showed on Wednesday (13/12).
— JakartaGlobe

Pertamina Elaborates New Scheme for Geothermal Electricity Tariff Regulation
PT Pertamina (Persero) is supporting the new government regulation as stipulated in Ministerial Regulation No. 50 of 2017 on the Development of New and Renewable Energy (EBT) which opens opportunities for the process of determining tariffs by way of business-to-business (B2B) between state electricity company PLN and independent power developers (IPP).
— Netral News

Reduce the Use of Dollars in International Transaction, says MUI
Secretary General of Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) Anwar Abba has called on the public to reduce the use of US dollars for international transactions to press US President Donald Trump to withdraw his policy recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli capital.
— Tempo

Gunung Steel Group and Shenwu to Build $3b Steel Plant in S. Kalimantan
Gunung Steel Group, Indonesia’s largest locally owned private steel company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s Shenwu Technology Corp to build a steel plant in Batulicin, South Kalimantan, with an annual production capacity of 3 million tons for an estimated investment of $3 billion.
— JakartaGlobe

Garuda Indonesia signs 10-year contract extension with GMF
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia signed on Wednesday a memorandum understanding (MoU) with aircraft maintenance service company PT Garuda Maintenance Facility Aero Asia (GMF) to extend its contract signed in 2013. The contract is set to expire in June 2018.
— The Jakarta Post

Indonesia’s Sugar Demand Projected to Increase 6% Next Year
Indonesia will need 3.6 million tons of sugar for industrial use next year, compared with this year’s 3.4 million tons, according to an estimation by the Ministry of Industry.
— JakartaGlobe

Bitcoin CEO Agrees with BI to Not Recognize Bitcoin as Currency
Bitcoin Indonesia CEO Oscar Darmawan says that Bitcoin is not a currency.
— Tempo

Indonesia Digest: Grab-Kudo joins hands with PayTren; M-Cash launches partnership program for SMEs
The latest developments in the consumer internet space in Indonesia has seen ride-hailing transportation app Grab and its Indonesian unit Kudo form a strategic partnership with mobile payment and transaction app PayTren to further penetrate the country’s middle-class market segment, while digital solutions provider M Cash Integrasi has launched a partnership program that enables small and medium-sized business owners to distribute digital products in their business locations.
— DealStreetAsia

BMW Indonesia opens dealership for electric vehicles
BMW Indonesia, along with PT Tunas Mobilindo Parama, opened its first dealership for electric vehicles in Jakarta, which will also provide service and maintenance for BMW’s line of electric and plug-in hybrids.
— The Jakarta Post

LG Indonesia Set to Launch LG V30+ Premium Smart Phone by End of December
LG Indonesia announces that it will launch the LG V30+ premium smart phone in Indonesia’s markets by the end of December, 2017. The premium smart phone will be sold for around IDR10 million.
— Netral News

Indonesia’s Inalum is making its push from supplier to refiner
Indonesia Employees at Indonesia Asahan Aluminium looked cheerful as they welcomed dozens of journalists from major Jakarta publications.
— Nikkei Asian Review

India In Talks With Indonesia For Refineries, LNG Plants
India is discussing setting up refineries and LNG plants in Indonesia , Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.
— EnergyInfraPost

Uber seeks to expand investment in Indonesia
United States-based ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc. has reiterated its interest in expanding in Indonesia, where it faces tight competition with local rival Go-Jek and Singapore-based Grab, as well as in the rest of Southeast Asia.
— The Jakarta Post

Indonesian tycoon back with $1bn rights issue
Indonesian billionaire Prajogo Pangestu, once known as “timber king” before shifting his focus to petrochemicals, is aiming to raise up to $1 billion through a rights issue to consolidate his geothermal energy business under a holding company.
— Nikkei Asian Review

All cities and regencies to get 4G network in 2019
Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the government planed to provide cellular phone users in all cities and regencies across the country with fourth generation ( 4G ) broadband cellular networks in 2019.
— The Jakarta Post

Nigeria’s Exports To Indonesia Increase By 300%
The Indonesian Envoy to Nigeria, Amb. Harry Purwanto has announced that Nigeria’s exports of crude oil and agricultural products to Indonesia had between January and August last year increased by 300 per cent.
— The Tide

Government cancels plans to double village fund in 2018
The government has canceled next year’s plan to double the budgetary allocation for the village fund program from Rp 60 trillion to Rp 120 trillion (US$8.4 billion), a Finance Ministry official has said on Tuesday in Bogor, West Java.
— The Jakarta Post

Jakarta-Cikampek toll road construction uses Sosrobahu technology
The construction of Jakarta-Cikampek II toll overlays uses Sosrobahu system, which is a construction technique, created by an Indonesian engineer named Tjokorda Raka Sukawatim, in the form of pierhead to avoid disruption of traffic flow underneath.
— Antara

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