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RI tourist arrivals In 2010: Over 7 m More than 7.002 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia last year, surpassing the government-set target of 7 million, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said.

Compared to the year before, the number of tourist arrivals last year represented a 10.74 percent increase, BPS Chief Rusman Heriawan said here early this month.

In December 2010 alone, more than Rusman Heriawan 644.2 thousand foreign tourists visited the country, up 11.43 percent from a month earlier or 3.01 percent from the same period the year before, he said.

Over 6.32 million tourists visited Indonesia in 2009.

Government asked the national banking system to not raise interest rates in February 2011 and keep maintain banking growth at 20-22% of a single digit level. Seen in the picture is bank building at night.

President: Innovation is Crucial to Nation’s Prosperity To accelerate invention and development of technology and sciences, the president said the government is allocating a budget amounting to Rp1.9 trillion for research and development.

poverty, food and energy resilience, environmental conservation, industry development, state defense, and control of future technology.

JAKARTA (TPP) – When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up the National Innovation Committee (KIN) last year, he reminded the nation that “science and technology and innovation play a very crucial role in determining the prosperity of a country.”

“It has become increasingly evident that the economic growth and the competitiveness of a country are contributed by technology skills. This tendency will

The 30-member KIN is directly under the president’s supervision. The committee is headed by Prof Dr Ir Zuhal with Bogor Institute of Agriculture Rector Herry Suhardiyanto as his deputy.

Former National Education Minister Prof Juwono Sudarsono, who is now chairman of President University Foundation. also stressed on the importance of innovation during a recent interview with Industrial Post.

“Some of the key factors to success for developed nations are innovation, application and

continue to grow because technology development will never stop,” he said.

To accelerate invention and development of technology and sciences, the president said the government is allocating a budget amounting to Rp1.9 trillion for research and development.

The president also said the technology that should be developed will have to be relevant with the current or future problems that the country faces, namely

commercialization through partnerships with the private sector,” he said.

To bolster entrepreneurship and innovation culture among the young people, State Ministry of Research and Technology will continue its financial incentive program for idea development and inventions of products with commercial values.

Edi Sukur, expert staff at the ministry, said last month that the incentive comes in the form of seed capital for young inventors.

“We want to push for development of ‘technopreneurship’ among university students who like to innovate,” he said.

Idwan Suhardi, a senior official at the State Ministry of Re-

Innovation from Steve Jobs’ Perspective Carmine Gallo, in “The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs”, made a road map of innovation process that had been proven successful by Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple Corp. Gallo wrote that “Not everyone can become an inventor, but everyone can become an innovator. A person who runs a small business and comes up with an idea that attracted many visitors to his store is called an innovator.”

The third principle: Dare to try something new and always willing to think differently. Jobs is not an inventor of personal computers or MP3, but he innovated them and created Macintosh and Ipod.

The fourth principle: whatever you do, it should be intended to help product buyers to achieve their dreams. To do this, we have to get to know our customers better.

The innovation process is as follows: The first principle, do things that you like to do. Jobs believed that to become an innovative person, we need to follow our hearts. Jobs decided to drop out of school because he did not see any benefit in continuing his study at the expense of his parents’ money.

He decided to study caligraphy and with that skill he created Macintosh, the first computer that presented beautiful typography.

The second principle: the drive to do something can affect the world—very clear passion and vision. Apple conducted a revolution on personal computers by launching Apple II in 1977 when IBM ruled the computer market. Apple II became the most successful personal computer at the time.

The fifth principle: have the courage to get rid of things that are considered not the best. This principle always resulted in the best product in its class.

The sixth principle: Give customers a very impressive experience.

Apple stores have no cashiers or salespersons, they only have computer experts and people who can provide explanations about products and services for all questions raised by customers.

The seventh principle: have the ability to communicate and impress people and to make them believe that our idea is brilliant.

search and Technology, said the program was launched last year.

It offers Rp50 million for each project whose number has now reached 60 (chosen from 150 submitted proposals) for “incubation” of inventions in the first year.

Every project was evaluated a year later to determine whether they are qualified to receive an additional capital of Rp50-100 million.

The same program will be continued this year with the same amount of incentive of Rp50 million.

Idwan said the goal of the program is to train young innovators as early as possible and ideally that should be done while they are still studying in university.

He added that young people can become agents of change if they can turn their innovations into profitable businesses that offer ‘multiplier effects’ on the national economy by creating job opportunities.

Rusman said the number of tourist arrivals through the country`s three largest airports increased last year. They are Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali (2.54 million), Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta (1.82 million) Hang Nadim Airport in Batam (1.007 million).

“The conducive climate throughout 2010 helped increase the number of tourist arrivals particularly through Bali, Jakarta and Batam,” he said.

In total, the foreign tourists visiting the country last year spent an estimated US$7.6 billion, up 20.63 percent from the year before (US$6.3 billion), he said.

Meanwhile, the occupancy rates of star-rated hotels in 17 of the country`s 33 provinces in December 2010 averaged 53.84 percent, up 3.59 points from a month earlier or 1.31 points from December 2009, he said.

“On average the foreign tourists stayed at star-rated hotels in the 17 provinces for 1.99 days in December 2010, up 0.03 percent compared to December 2009,” he said.

RI’s industrial growth doubled to 5.1 pct last year National industrial growth last year doubled to 5.1 percent from 2.6 percent the year before, fueled by growing investment, exports and public consumption, an official said.

The 5.1 percent industrial growth surpassed the government-set target of 4.65 percent for 2010, Secretary General of the Industry Ministry Anshari Bukhari said here recently.

Among the nine industrial sectors only the wood and forestry product industry recorded negative growth of 3.5 percent last year, he said.

Quoting data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), he said transportation, machinery and equipment industry grew 10.4 percent, fertilizer, chemical and rubber product industry 4.7 percent, food, beverage and tobacco industry 2.7 percent last year.

Meanwhile, the base metal, iron and steel industry grew 2.6 percent, cement and non-metal mineral industry 2.2 percent, textile, leather product and footwear industry 1.7 percent, and paper and printed goods industry 1.6 percent, he said.

The ministry has set the industrial growth target for this year at 6.1 percent.

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THE POLO CLUB BAR & RESTAURANT

INTERVIEW

THE REGION

INVESTMENT

TOURISM

SUTANTO HARTONO: A Visionary Leader

East Asia and Its Big Challenges

RI to Attract Rp240 t Investment this Year

Teaching Revolution as New Software Enters Classroom

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Though he became the CEO of Microsoft only a year ago, Sutanto Hartono has managed to make Microsoft the leader in the IT market in Indonesia.

While the world expects East Asia to become the locomotive of global growth, East Asia will face considerable challenges.

The 2011 investment climate would largely depend on the domestic political and economic conditions which had of late been very conducive

Software developers have now introduced a new approach to teaching—using the love of Facebook as a magnet to boost learners’ attitude toward learning.

Menara Batavia 2nd floor K.H. Mas Mansyur Kav 126 Jakarta Pusat 10230 Indonesia Phone : 021 5723767 Fax : 021 5723767

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A2 February 17, 2011

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Viewpoint Hard Challenges in the Realm of Education In a report titled “Teacher Employment and Deployment in Indonesia” released in 2008, the World Bank found a disturbing fact about teacher scarcity in remote areas. Up to 93% of schools in those areas did not have sufficient number of teachers.

By Wayan Santana

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ompared to other East and Southeast Asian countries, the teacher-student ratio (RGM) in Indonesia is quite sufficient. The ratio in Indonesia is the same as in Japan, which is 1:20 or one teacher handling 20 students on average.

World Bank data showed that Indonesia’s 52 million students are handled by 2.6 million teachers in more than 250,000 schools.

This makes Indonesia the third largest education community in Asia and the fourth largest in the world after the People’s Republic of China, India and the United States.

In the Bank’s report titled “Teacher Certification in Indonesia: A Strategy for Teacher Quality Improvement” issued in 2009, it said that Indonesia will see a surplus of teacher supply in the next two decades if the National Education Ministry’s teacher certification program runs smoothly.

However, Agency for Civil Service Management (BAKN) noted that more than one million teachers will enter retirement age in the next decade and that new graduates from various teacher education schools are needed to fill the vacancies.

So far, the capacity of Indonesian universities to produce

teachers is only 90,000 graduates per annum. Initially, the number is sufficient to meet demand for teachers in the country. But as the number of new schools continues to emerge in recent years in line with population growth, Indonesia as of 2010 needed 50,000 new teachers for all levels, said National Education Minister Prof.

Dr. Muhammad Nuh. The teacher shortage is not really a major problem because in terms of quantity, the number of graduates from teacher education schools exceeds the number of new teachers needed each year.

The main problem is an uneven deployment of teachers both horizontally throughout the country and vertically in all education level.

Ironically, although Indonesia produces a sufficient number of teachers of 90,000 per year, the country has another problem that needs to be handled wisely.

In a report titled “Teacher Employment and Deployment in Indonesia” released in 2008, the World Bank found a disturbing fact about teacher scarcity in remote areas. Up to 93% of schools in those areas did not have sufficient number of teachers.

Nationally, teacher supply in high schools reached 81% and only 13% were facing scarcity, in elementary school level up to 66% schools in remote areas badly needed teachers, while 68% elementary schools in urban ar-

eas were experiencing surplus of teacher supply.

As a result, teachers in remote areas face a heavier teaching burden that left them with very little time to innovate and develop creativity during learning-teaching process.

In terms of academic qualification, only 17% teachers in elementary school level had S-1 (univertsity) qualification and the percentage for high school level was 29%.

The government had since 2005 implemented academic qualification to support efforts to improve education quality.

Tragically, the World Bank report also said that since the reformation movement was launched in May 1998, many things have changed in the national scene, but not much has happened in the teaching profession.

As an example, teachers often don’t show up in class rooms, the reputation of Indonesian teachers remains poor compared to teachers in other ASEAN countries, the public’s appreciation towards teaching profession has not changed since the reformation movement, while in other sectors—law, creative industry, and business sectors—the reputation of their professions continue to improve.

Now many hope the government, especially the National Education Ministry, which is headed by Prof Dr Muhammad Nuh,

will complete the teacher qualification program for around 1.7 million teachers who need the certification to carry out their jobs.

The teacher certification program is expected to be completed by 2014 before the United Indonesia Cabinet II ended its term.

In elementary school level, a survey conducted by National Education Ministry in 2008 showed that Indonesia had a total of 1,445,132 teachers nationwide, comprising 542,065 male teachers and 774,044 female teachers in state-run schools; and 49,636 male teachers and 70,387 female teachers in private schools.

In junior high schools, the number of men that taught in state-run schools across the country reached 206,419 and 110,336 in private schools.

Female teachers in the same level reached 214,682 in staterun schools and 90,441 in private schools. Thus, nationwide the total number of teachers that taught in junior high schools reached 621,878, with 421,101 teaching in state-run schools and 200,777 in private schools.

Meanwhile, the number of male teachers in state-run senior high schools was 85,978 and 76,886 in private senior high schools. The number of female teachers in state-run senior high schools was 86,956 and 59,032 in private schools. The total number of senior high school teachers nationwide stood at 305.852, with

172,934 teaching in state-run schools and 132,918 in private schools.

The number of teachers in vocational schools is not as high.

The survey showed there were only 230,787 teachers with 79,327 of them teaching in staterun schools and 151,460 in private schools.

The number of male teachers in state-run vocational schools was 45,114 and female teachers 34,213; there were 94,63 male teachers and 56,825 female teachers in private vocational schools.

Meanwhile, in universities across the country there were a total of 250,357 lecturers in 2,680 universities. The number increased to 270,000 in 2010.

Antara news agency reported that the National Education Minister, who spoke in an event called “Indonesian Education Minister Speaks Out” at the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, said that Indonesia was still in need of doctorates or S3 graduates to teach in universities.

To realize the goal, the ministry has increased its scholarship budget for this year by Rp2.5 trillion.

All those figures describe only one thing: the government is determined to improve the quality of teachers and make deployment of teachers become more even to support education and to fill job opportunities with educated, trained and skilled people.

The government is determined to improve the quality of teachers and make deployment of teachers become more even to support education and to fill job opportunities with educated, trained and skilled people.

The President Post

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February 17, 2011 A3

Interview

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Microsoft Indonesia

Sutanto Hartono:

A Visionary Leader

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

T

hough he became the CEO of Microsoft only a year ago, Sutanto Hartono has managed to make Microsoft the leader in the IT market in Indonesia.

To be the number one person in a company has always been his dream. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Sutanto worked as a Technical Assistant Brand Manager at P&G Indonesia.

“At that time I thought to be a company director is very cool, so I decided to take an MBA degree because I wished to become a GM,” said Sutanto.

He then took the degree in Marketing & Finance from the University of California and then returned to Indonesia to take a consulting job.

“Actually, I preferred banking or consumer goods, but at that time consulting was booming, and I kept holding on to the ambition of becoming a CEO. How to get there is a second thing,” he said.

“In the end I took a consulting job. Besides an attractive salary, the job also offered many opportunities and allowed me to set up networking. The fact is, the consulting job was the real door-opened for my career.”

His dream came true when he become one of the founders of Sony Music Indonesia and Senior Vice President in Southeast Asia. I thought at the time, “When will there ever be another opportunity to start a company under the banner of Sony Music?”

After that he went on to develop RCTI, where he was the CEO in 2008 after being Managing Director since 2003. The TV station garnered the “Most Admired Company” award presented by BusinessWeek Indonesia. He also played role as Director of Media Nusantara Citra, a multimedia company that is the parent company of RCTI. His experience in leading media and entertainment companies allowed Sutanto to bring new perspectives on Microsoft’s approach to the business community, the government, the education sector and the consumer market in Indonesia.

The following are excerpts from an interview with Sutanto, who also explained Microsoft’s goals and achievements in Indonesia.

What is Microsoft’s marketing strategy in 2011? What products are the focus of Microsoft this year?

It’s quite hard to answer this question with one simple sentence because we have a lot of products.

Our largest product is Windows and Microsoft Office. We already have Windows Phone, though actually we’re fairly at the tail of competition with smart phones. We were there before smart phones entered the market, but we were complacent because our orientation was American.

Anyway, we’ve made a breakthrough with Windows Phone 7, which is a mobile device that we believe is more superior in technology, easy-to-use and others.

We also have Xbox Kinect that sold more than 8 million copies. The problem is those products are still not available in Indonesia.

Beside Windows 7, we rely on online products. Users that already use Windows as operating system are expected to use Internet Explorer as their browser, Bing as search engine, Hotmail for email account and WindowsLive for personal portal. So actually we have complete range of offerings.

Now, we are trying to raise the public’s awareness on these products, and align public perception with our features. For example, Internet Explorer (IE) was once the favorite browser but is now somewhat less so in Indonesia. IE is considered slower than other browsers. We have now launched IE beta version 9, acknowledged to be the fastest browser though only it is only for Windows 7 users.

To enhance hotmail and WindowsLive users, we set up a strategic partnership with other institutions. For example Plaza. com, we took over the services and brought better features to the site so consumers will stay longer on the web. Plaza.com has about 500.000 active accounts that are automatically transferred to our email.

For corporations, we keep doing business as usual – competing with competitors in data base, Windows platform, Office and others. But we are focusing on three themes: Microsoft Cloud, Business Intelligence and Collaboration.

We believe that Cloud Computing will be a success, because we are totally committed to develop it.

If people ask what Microsoft

excels in, I would say that it is products that are easy to use. We have many applications to bridge complex core applications that are easy to use. This is what we call Business Intelligence. We want to help enterprises to optimize their current system.

Last but not least is collaboration. All collaborations can be done in our technology. For example, Lync Software or Office Communication Server (OCS) connects people anytime, anywhere through PCs, phones or browsers. Lync could make a connection that allows face-toface meetings virtually. All interactions include video and audio conferences.

Microsoft is said to have been unfairly treated as the government prefers to use open source software. Any comment?

Unfairness is relative. To me it’s not unfair treatment but misperception. People take a blackor-white point of view when it comes to open source as opposed to Microsoft.

We are creating the ecosystem and developing a local software company.

We also support a start-up company by giving them free software for three years. We hope that after that period and they succeed, they will pay for using the software again. If not, then it’s still okay.

Open Source Software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software. It’s the opposite of closed system (proprietary) used

by Microsoft and others like Oracle, IBM and others. So actually, it’s a common thing that there are two types of businesses.

Another misperception is that people think that open source is always free. There is Independent Software Vendor (ISV) that takes codes from open source, modifies, and makes it as a proprietary. Though it’s claimed as open source, it’s not free.

Software utilization isn’t only about licenses. After licenses there will be modifications, deployments, and maintenance.

These three steps are absolutely not free.

So, the real truth is open source software versus proprietary (not

only Microsoft), and that open source is not always free.

Actually Microsoft has a cooperation agreement with open source in doing some citizenship activities i.e. sharing free software, training, build start-ups and others.

Indonesia is not a place for your development or research center. To what extent does Microsoft explore its IT personnel in Indonesia?

Our development center is based in America, and we bring the software here as required by local needs. We need local partners to set up the ecosystem; we train and make them familiar with our products. That’s called local elements.

On innovation, it’s not always about inventing products. Developing and modifying platforms also require innovations. We have a special team called Evangelist to go to student communities, developer communities, or software company communities to introduce and teach them our platform.

We also do innovations in marketing. Actually all marketing campaigns are already in place, but in Indonesia we need to be one step ahead due to the high level of piracy. If we promote Windows 7 the usual way, people will use Windows 7 but the illegal version. We need also to explain that it is better to use the original version of Windows 7!

Do you think that the antipiracy law is not functioning well?

Nothing’s wrong with the laws and regulations. The problem is implementation. People’s awareness and understanding are still low. And I can say that it’s the culture that taught them “it’s okay to use illegal products”.

It takes education to make people understand, and that is our homework.

Let us think that using an original product is like having an insurance policy, as the chance to lose data is small. Such software is more reliable and the chance to be infected by virus is also smaller.

We also need to inform the IT community that if they want the IT business to grow, this is the time to make the right business model, and we have to put a value to this industry.

Indonesia has a high number of potential IT players, from hackers to professionals. Does Microsoft have a special program to accommodate their abilities?

We are creating the ecosystem and developing a local software company. We also support a start-up company by giving them free software for three years. We hope that after that period and they succeed, they will pay for using the software again. If not, then it’s still okay.

We also want to educate hackers not to feel satisfied after they have cracked something, as they do not earn anything from that.

We want to see them have a great career because of their ability.

The President Post

A4 February 17, 2011

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The Economy ECONOMIC UPDATES Govt ready to open 2 million hectares of farm land The government is ready to open two million hectares of farm land in anticipation of declining food production due to global climate change and extreme climate, a minister said.

Agriculture Minister Suswono said here early this month that food-producing countries had of late seen a shortfall in their production due to the uncertain climate, leading to a steady decline in Agriculture Minister Suswono global food stocks.

This prompted the food-producing countries not to export their food production any longer in order to safeguard their food stocks, he said.

“Looking ahead, the quantity of food commodities traded in the international market will be getting smaller while at the same time food demand will be on the increase. This will lead to the higher price of food commodities in the international market,” he said.

“With the existing farm land potentials it is still possible to open new paddy field to keep the balance of land conversion rate particularly in Java,” he said.

Property Growth The property industry is expected to book a growth of 15% this year in line with large demand for office space.

Dumai airport built to accommodate Boeings

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The Pinang Kampai airport of Dumai, Riau, normally used by Fokker planes, will be built for use by bigger planes like Boeings.

Head of the Dumai transportation agency H Marwan said here recently that the upgrading is first of all carried out by increasing the length of the runway from 1,800 x 40 meters to 2,250 x 40 meters.

“We are doing this because the runway of a Boeing is basically 2,000 meters long. We therefore have to renovate the airport by making its runway longer,” he said.

Marwan also said other facilities of the airport which are thought to be not enough need to be renewed by the procurement of supporting heavy equipment.

“The improvements and building of Pinang Kampai will have its funding and budget from the State Budget of the Transportation Ministry estimated at Rp 34 billion,” Marwan said.

RI 2010 Exports Value Reaches All-time High

West Sulawesi to build 10,000-ton fuel oil depot The West Sulawesi provincial administration will build a 10,00 ton fuel oil depot at Belang Belang Port in Mamuju district, West Sulawesi, a local official said here recently.

The fuel oil depot owned by state owned company PT Pertamina was reported to be built in this year, an information obtained from the provincial administration office said.

Haeruddin Anas, a spokesman for the administration office, said the local government had actually prepared about two hectares of land for the construction of the depot, the location of which is close to Belang Belang Mamuju port area.

“Pertamina was reported to have agreed with the depot construction and a feasibility study on the location will be conducted in a relatively short time, he said.

“So far, fuel oil for West Sulawesi is supplied by Pare-pare depot, the distance of which is about 300 kilometers long from Mamuju city.

BI: year-end forex reserves $112.6 b Bank Indonesia said direct capital investment may play a bigger role in capital inflow, so that total balance payments may reach a surplus of US$16.4 billion and foreign exchange reserves US$112.6 billion by the end of 2011.

“The amount may cover 7.5 months of government imports and short-term foreign debt payments and increase Indonesia`s economic resilience in mitigating various external shocks,” Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution said in a banking annual meeting or Bankers Dinner here recently.

Last year`s foreign exchange reserves reached US$96.2 billion with a balance payment surplus of US$30 billion.

Besides, Darmin estimated that in the short term there will be an opportunity to continue economic activities for high economic growth in 2011 reaching 6.0 - 6.5 pct, and increased to 6.1 - 6.6 pct by 2012.

Darmin said he saw three risks faced in 2010 which remained a challenge in the future, namely risks relating to a global economic imbalance, related to global capital traffic and currency war, and risks related to domestic demands and the pressure of inflation.

He said that two years after the crisis the global economy was proceeding in two different speeds, namely the country`s economic restoration the emerging market far exceeding those of the advanced countries.

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Indonesia’s exports in 2010 reached a total value of US$150 billion, the highest figure ever achieved in the country`s foreign trade.

C

entral Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Chairman Rusman Heriawan recently said Indonesia’s exports in the period January-November 2010 reached a total value of US$140 billion while the figure for December 2010 was expected to be above US$10 billion.

He said natural resource-based commodities such as Crude Palm Oil (CPO) were still the biggest contributors to Indonesia`s export revenue followed by such goods as rubber, textiles, textile products and electronics.

RI’s imports up 20 pct last year Indonesia`s imports last year jumped 40.05 percent to US$135.61 billion from the year before, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said.

Oil and gas imports in 2010 rose 44.16 percent to US$27.36 billion from the previous year, with crude oil imports increasing 15.16 percent to US$1.12 billion, and oil products 61.93 percent to US$6.89 billion, BPS Chief Rusman Heriawan said here on Tuesday.

“Gas imports also rose US$374.1 million or 76.49 percent,” he said.

Meanwhile, non-oil/non-

gas imports last year reached US$108.24 billion, an 39.04 percent increase compared to a year earlier.

Rusman said the 2011 non-oil/ non-gas imports were dominated by machinery and mechanical appliances (18.49 percent), electrical appliances (14.44 percent) and motor vehicles and spare parts (5.30 percent).

“The import of consumer goods only contributed 7.37 percent to the overall non-oil/nongas imports, with the import of raw and auxiliary materials for manufacturing industries reaching 72.78 percent,” he said.

Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Chairman Rusman Heriawan recently said Indonesia’s exports in the period January-November 2010 reached a total value of US$140 billion while the figure for December 2010 was expected to be above US$10 billion.

Veep Calls on Officials, Bizmen to Abide by Rules Vice President Boediono said the case of former tax official Gayus Tambunan should become an eye opener for all officials and businessmen on the importance of abiding by existing rules.

“As of now we must really abide by the rules and should never make wrong compromises,” he said at the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of

the Association of Indonesian businessmen (APINDO) here early this month.

Gayus had recently been convicted of corruption and sentenced to seven years in jail. His case has drawn a lot of public scrutiny because of its web of involvement that includes businesses and law enforcement officials.

Boediono said the government supported positive partner-

ship with businessmen to boost the country`s economy so that it would be better and able to compete in global competition.

“The government is very committed to creating strong and clean governance and this needs to be responded well by businessmen,” he said.

“Our goal is the same namely developing better national economy which will be competitive

at global levels. Differences are a common thing. There must be agrement that could be made. It is here that positive partnership is needed, in which the government and the business play their roles positively in line with rules that have been agreed upon,” he said.

“Do not even make wrong compromises like the ones shown in legal cases so far. The state and the business community must

know and abide by the rules,” he said.

Boediono said positive partnership between the government and the business was a must that had to be built honestly in a positive atmosphere.

“That way I agree that Indonesia will be able to meet various current global economic challenges and uncertainties,” he said.

The President Post

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February 17, 2011 A5

The Region East Asia and Its Big Challenges www.mulk.co.cc

While the world expects East Asia to become the locomotive of global growth, East Asia will face considerable challenges.

By Atmono Suryo

D

THREE-WAY SPLIT uring the year 2010 global growth was stronger than expected compared to the crisis years of 2008-09. However, as predicted before, world recovery remained to be fragile, lacking the needed strength for a robust recovery.

The world is still facing a number of hard issues which remain unresolved. It is happening in such key areas as money, finance and banking. There is still the continuation of global imbalances and the acceleration of large debts. These are all happening in the more advanced region of Europe and North America.

When looking at the year 2011 from broader perspectives one will get the impression again that the overall outlook remains uncertain. Although more guarded optimism is beginning to prevail, much will depend on the effective actions taken by the Euro-zone countries and the United States.

In this era of interdependent world, Asia would like to know what the economic reality of 2011 is going to be, how the global economy will behave during the current year and what policies will come up. Will there be different approaches?

and India the population of nearly 600 million consumers in the ASEAN nations and their average 6% growth rate, and you are looking at three billion people and the driving force of the global economy. This is not just true for this year, but hopefully for many years to come.

On this score it may be relevant to note what The Economist stated some months ago. The Economist was talking about a “Three-way Split” involving the Euro-zone, North America and the Emerging World. The three zones are most likely heading in different directions. This threeway split alone will bring about sources of stress to the global economy.

It is also being assumed that the world is set for a “three-speed” recovery this year in addition to the “three-way split” among the countries in the global economy.

This indicates that the year 2011 will most probably be a complex year, difficult to assess with more precision.

One can also assume that there will be different strategies among the emerging countries. Perhaps the world will face not only a three-way split but a multi-way split. There are some countries or business groups which reject in total the growth of capitalism.

There also many which are not keen to continue to promote free trade policies and prefer to go the protectionist way.

THE EMINENT ROLE OF EAST ASIA During the critical years 20092010 America and Europe have worked together and shared similar economic philosophy. Now both are obsessed with their internal problems and adopt oppo-

Big challenges To assume the informal role as the locomotive of global growth, it will be most pertinent for Asia, in particular ASEAN, to bolster in the first place their own economic growth. According to ADB (Asian Development Bank) the economies of East Asia will grow 8.8% in 2010 but will taper off this year because of the weak global outlook and the phasing out of stimulus programs.

The City of Shanghai, China. China and India are expected to enjoy growth of 8-10% in 2011 and together comprise a consumers market with a total of 2.4 billion people.

site strategies. The large emerging countries stretching from Shenzhen in China to Sao Paulo in Brazil are in a better situation.

They are in a position of relative high growth with a high degree of consumers’ confidence.

Various observers including international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development have made their views known. Some statements made at the Davos WEF 2011 (World Economic Forum) also confirmed that the locomotive of global growth will comprise of a number of emerging

countries.

The emerging countries which are expected to be the locomotive of growth are China, India, South Korea and most of the ASEAN member countries and especially Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

They are all East Asian countries.

To that group of emerging countries of East Asia should be added a country from Latin America, notably buoyant Brazil.

Largely thanks to China, East Asia has recovered from the economic and financial crisis. Within one year East Asia shifted from

a collapse in exports and investment to a swift rebound. The region’s output, exports and employment have mostly returned to the levels before the crisis. After slowing in real GDP growth from 8.5% in 2008 to 7.0% in 2009, it is expected that growth in 2010 amounts to 8.8%.

The world is presently attracted to Asia for the following reasons: China and India are expected to enjoy growth of 8-10% in 2011 and together comprise a consumers market with a total of 2.4 billion people. Add to China

On the external side Asia will face a fragile global environment.

Some uncomfortable views were expressed at the recent Davos Forum. Some senior economists, among others Nouriel Roubini and Martin Sorrel, warned that stewardship of the global economy is in disarray due to a vacuum of leadership.

There are a number of unresolved and new issues such as the problem of global imbalances, the spread of trade imbalances, the question of unpredictable capital flows, a “currency war”, climate change and other upcoming issues.

All this will be thrown on the plates of the G20 where Asia is well-represented. Asian countries members of the G20 are: China, Japan, India, South Korea and Indonesia. Indonesia with ASEAN

on its side will be highly involved in the upcoming G20 summits While the world expects East Asia to become the locomotive of global growth, East Asia will face considerable challenges. Indonesia will be right in the middle of “guarded optimism” and the “wavering views” of many countries on current economic affairs.

The first ASEAN Summit will be held in Jakarta in April, while the second ASEAN summit will be held in Bali in October this year. One of the key issues concerns the development of the ASEAN Community and how to make ASEAN a “people- centered” and “people-driven ASEAN”.

Furthermore, the highly important East Asia Summit, which will also meet in Bali in October this year, will most possibly turn out to become a summit of increased importance. After all, leaders of the prominent EAS (East Asia Summit) will come from the 10 ASEAN countries plus 8 (dialogue countries): China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

In addition to the East Asia Summit, leaders of APEC (AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation) will also gather in Indonesia. In addition Indonesia intends to hold the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia in Indonesia in June of this year. ASEAN with Indonesia in the chair will have a most busy year as ASEAN intends to remain on the driver’s seat in East Asia’s meetings.

The writer is a retired senior diploamt and former ambassador to the EU.

The President Post

A6 February 17, 2011

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ASEAN Indonesia’s Leadership in ASEAN www.presidensby.info/Abror

The Indonesian community should welcome and support Indonesia’s commitment to take a more active role in ASEAN’s “collective leadership”.

Indonesia would be in the lead to strengthen ASEAN to take the “Great Leap forward” to ensure that ASEAN would bring peace, welfare, employment and sustainable growth to the people.

By Atmono Suryo

I

2011 CHAIRMANSHIP t is quite a relief for many observers and outsiders (like myself) to observe that presently Indonesia intends to give much greater attention to ASEAN. This is a very welcome decision and an important step in the right direction. This intention will hopefully be a permanent one: that Indonesia will continue to give high priority to ASEAN. There are quite different views, but the reality will show there is the need for Indonesia’s greater involvement with ASEAN. Notwithstanding the many obstacles and frictions happening on the ground, it is important to realize that there is much at stake in Indonesia-ASEAN relations.

Indonesia’s greater commitment could be a signal that a new ASEAN momentum will be appearing on the horizon. East Asia with China and India in the lead is already moving to become the epicenter of the global economy. The world looks at Asia, including ASEAN, as the world’s most dynamic region and home to two-thirds of the global pop-

sia but also ASEAN. This change will undoubtedly contribute towards the development of ASEAN’s “big leap forward” in the years to come, especially after the successful achievement of ASEAN Community by 2015.

In the area of economics ASEAN is already making considerable progress as its members grew at a fast pace until 2008. Despite the difficult years of 2009-2010 ASEAN is among the few which has come out of the crisis in a better condition than before the crisis.

ulation. Being part of Asia it is now ASEAN’s turn to create a new drive within the ASEAN-10 to become a dynamic and a more integrated regional grouping.

In 1967 the founding fathers of ASEAN rightly recognized the advantages of ASEAN’s strategic location at the heart of Asia. They were aware of ASEAN’s relative wealth in natural and human resources and its potential political significance. They also correctly presumed that the day will come when ASEAN would represent a significant political and economic force in Asia.

ASEAN has shown that during the last decades or so it has won the respect of many countries, including the United States, Russia the European Union and Latin American countries. On top of it ASEAN has been able to be on the driver’s seat in the development of East Asia cooperation.

We should also remember that at that time Indonesia’s leadership within ASEAN was widely accepted and highly respected.

It is, therefore, with regret to see that internally there has been the declining trend of Indonesia’s interest in ASEAN.

President SBY honored as new leader of ASEAN 2011 on the 17th ASEAN Summit Conference at National Convention Center, Hanoi, Vietnam, Oktober 2010. The previous leader is PM Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung.

There was even deep concern that Indonesia was (for various reasons) just losing total interest in ASEAN. In the area of business other ASEAN countries are being considered merely as strong rivals, not as potential business partners with common interest and objectives. It is no wonder that Indonesia’s intra-ASEAN trade is among the lowest among the ASEAN countries.

There was also the impression that ASEAN was also no more considered as the cornerstone of Indonesia’s foreign policy. It is also continuously felt that Indonesia is often the victim of all

To take a leadership role, however, requires firm commitments on the side of all stakeholders in Indonesia, including political parties, the Parliament and the entire business community.

sorts of crime conducted by some irresponsible quarters in the other South-Eastern countries.

Apparently one of the main reasons is that the political climate in the country has not been conducive to promote closer relations with the other ASEAN countries. With the result that Indonesia has somehow lost its credibility and leadership in ASEAN. BIG LEAP FORWARD Fortunately a big change is now in the air with regard to Indonesia’s position vis-à-vis ASEAN. This change will not only benefit and strengthen Indone-

The process of ASEAN economic integration involves a huge market of 600 million consumers with a rapid growing middle-income group. ASEAN has become an attractive market and a potential economic partner for non-ASEAN countries all over the world.

Asia is moving fast and is becoming a world economic leader in the global economy. As it now stands the largest countries in Asia are China, Japan, ASEAN and India. They will be the frontrunners in Asia’s development.

INDONESIA’S POSITION In terms of size Indonesia is the largest country in ASEAN. But what is most encouraging to note is that Indonesia is not only keen to make its chairmanship a success; Indonesia now appears to prepare itself to take a more active leadership role in ASEAN. Such assurances primarly come from Foreign Minister Marty Natalagawa and Trade Minister Mary Elka Pangestu. A chairmanship position will only take a year while a leadership role can take some more years.

To take a leadership role, however, requires firm commitments on the side of all stakeholders in Indonesia, including political parties, the Parliament and the entire business community.

Indonesia has indicated some goals which it would like to achieve. Indonesia is paving the way for ASEAN to achieve among others, the following longer-term objectives in addition to immediate or short-term objectives: • To take the ASEAN community to the Global Community of Nations; • To establish the ASEAN Community by 2015 based on three pillars (political-security; economy and social-cultural); and • To establish “People-centered and People-driven ASEAN” Indonesia is also aware of the need to further strengthen the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

More than 50 countries have already accredited their Permanent Representatives (ambassadors) to ASEAN, including Indonesia, which has accredited its special envoy to ASEAN. The Indonesian community should welcome and support Indonesia’s commitment to take a more active role in ASEAN’s “collective leadership”. Indonesia would be in the lead to strengthen ASEAN to take the “Great Leap forward” to ensure that ASEAN would bring peace, welfare, employment and sustainable growth to the people. And also to make ASEAN to become a significant political-economic and stabilizing force in Asia as was assumed

by ASEAN’s founding fathers 44 years ago in 1967.

The President Post

www.thepresidentpost.com

February 17, 2011 A7

Around Jababeka Cikarang Dry Port Starts Operations in April The development of CDP is estimated to cost up to over Rp 500 billion and will be done in several stages.

Bambang said that Jababeka and the Cikarang Dry Port will be a model for the implementation of special economic zones, especially in terms of handling logistics.

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

The MoU signed in 2006 calls for Jababeka to provide land, the Ministry of Public Works to build buildings, the Ministry of Transportation to issue transportation permits, and the Bekasi local government road access.

“The Cikarang Dry Port (CDP) is the first of its kind in Indonesia and is expected to start operating in April,” said S. D. Darmono, President Commissioner of PT Cikarang Inland Port, the company that manages the facility.

The development of CDP is estimated to cost up to over Rp 500 billion and will be done in several stages. The first phase is to build 10 hectares of port area as part of the original plan that covers 70 hectares. In its entirety, the port will take up 150 hectares of land, covering the port area and 80 hectares of logistics area.

Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono in a working visit to CDP said that CDP will play a very important role for the import-export business in Indonesia. Also, there are seven industrial estates in Cikarang that contribute 60%65% of total exports and imports through Tanjung Priok port.

In Jababeka there are approximately 2,500 companies, including Mattel, Unilever, Samsung and others.

“To date, Tanjung Priok is still the main destination for imported goods. If the dry port could start operations in April, CDP can be the final destination port.

This will make the export-import business efficient,” said Bambang.

He said that Jababeka and the Cikarang Dry Port will be a model for the implementation of special economic zones, especially in terms of handling logistics.

The MoU signed in 2006 calls for Jababeka to provide land, the Ministry of Public Works to build buildings, the Ministry of Transportation to issue transportation permits, and the Bekasi local government road access.

“So we are expecting the container trains from Cikarang Dry Port (CDP) to Station Pasoso (Tanjung Priok) to operate this year,“ said Bambang.

CDP will play a very important role for the import-export business in Indonesia. Also, there are seven industrial estates in Cikarang that contribute 60%-65% of total exports and imports through Tanjung Priok port.

CDP uses two modes of transportation, namely trains and trucks. However, trains from CDP are still unable to reach Tanjung Priok because the railway from Pasoso station to the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), Tanjung Priok, is not yet available. So the lo-

When You Eat Chocolate, Remember its Tree Occupying at least 30 out of 100 hectares land slots around the Jababeka Golf Course in Cikarang, the Jababeka Botanic Gardens were started to be developed in 2007.

It was a bit cloudy with some drizzle when Muslimah planted a cacao tree in the Jababeka Botanic Gardens, last Monday, February 14, 2011. Muslimah Nur Islami, chair person of the President Botanical Society, was accompanied by a dozen students and her lecturer, Mr. John Mewburn, who is also the adviser of the club. Every one gave her a very warm applause when she finished planting the seedling and started to water it.

Theobroma cacao or chocolate tree became the major attraction of the Valentine’s Day celebration this year. “All of us enjoyed eating chocolate, but seldom we thought about cacao planters through out the country. Therefore, we invite students to pay a better attention to cacao trees that made Indonesia the third major cacao producer in the world,” said Eka Budianta, the development consultant of Jababeka Botanic Gardens.

Occupying at least 30 out of 100 hectares land slots around the Jababeka Golf Course in Cikarang, the gardens were started to be developed in 2007. The opening ceremony was officiated by Mr. Rachmat Witoelar, the State Minister of the Environment back then.

Indonesia has plentiful species of trees, shrubs and flowers.

Yet, there are not so many botanic gardens established as means to educate people. There are only four state botanical gardens developed in such a huge country of 237 million Indonesians. “We may compared with England, which is only the size of Sumatra island with 61 million population, but it has more than 40 botanic gardens, including the best known Kew Botanic Gardens and the spectacular project of Eden,” said Eka. Eka Budianta, a graduate of The Leadership for Environment and Development, has started to introduce the Jababeka Botanic concept in 2006. He also has presented the development plan of Jababeka Botanic Gardens at

the Asian Botanic Gardens Congress. The idealistic plan creating the first private botanic gardens in Indonesia has drawn much attention among botanists and tree lovers. A special package of exhibition was sent and displayed at the World Botanic Gardens Conference in Kew, England, in the late 2007.

Through these special species of industrial trees, students and other visitors are expected to remember and learn what particular trees are needed for our daily life.

Jababeka Botanic Gardens comprised of several clusters of plants. Exotic and introductory trees are planted at the back yard of The President Executive Club, at the Jababeka Central Business District. At least 20 different kind of imported and local trees are specially treated in a classic design of the Food Promenade. We may enjoy the beauty of the purple jacaranda and gold Tabeuea chrysanta there in the right season.

Jababeka Botanic Gardens offer the beauty of flowering trees such as the orange sapatodea, the flaming red of Flamboyant - Delonix regia and the sweet smelling of Citarexyllum spinosum, occally known as the arum dalu trees. At least 76 local species of fruits are also cultivated at the Fruit Cluster, next to the Jababeka Multicultural Centre. Among the selected fruits are mangos, rambutans, savodillas, and star fruits. An outstanding religiously known

species, date palm – Phoenix dactylifera is planted by the Regent of Bekasi, Drs. Sadudin at the cluster of Exotic Plants.

The Jababeka Botanic Gardens present special collection of trees planted by dignitaries too. The most respected environmentalist and stateman, Prof. Dr. Emil Salim planted an Aracaucaria heterophylla, a special type of pine that may grow up to 600 years.

Other important trees are donated and planted by Mrs. Sugiarti from Bogor Botanic Gardens, Mrs. Karen Sjarief Tambajong, the President of Indonesian Flower Association; several state ministers and ambassadors.

During his tenure as the chair person of President Executive Club (PEC), Ambassador of Singapore, H.E. Mr. Edward Lee, planted a Cananga odorata tree. The famous educator and child defender, Dr. Seto Mulyadi planted a nyamplung tree, Chrysophylum innophylum that is largely known as the energy source of the future.

Most of the trees at gardens relate closely with the need of the industry. The former rector of The President University, Prof. Dr. Muliawati G. Siswanto planted a Cola nitida, the main ingredient of a very popular soft drink, Coca Cola. We may also plant our favorite trees when we visit the Gardens. Among the well groomed industrial trees we could met now are: Tectona grandis – the famous teak wood, the keben tree – Barringtonia asiatica that is known as medicinal material for cataract treatment, and the palm oil trees that become the healthy and prosperous symbol of Jababeka.

Through these special species of industrial trees, students and other visitors are expected to remember and learn what particular trees are needed for our daily life. “When you drink water, remember the one dug the well.

When you are enjoying a chocolate, remember its trees and its farmers who planted it.

gistics have to transit at Sungai Lagoa station.

“From there, it will continue to Tanjung Priok using trucks,” said Noor Yusuf, Director of CDP. Bambang Susantono said the main obstacle of the CDP road system development to Tanjung Priok is the unresolved land ac-

quisition for both railways and roads connecting Jababeka with national, provincial or district roads. Uncompleted land acquisitions for railway lines are in the area of hHll 21 and 22.

“There are about 40 families still living there and the value of acquisitions is around Rp 30 bil-

lion,” said Bambang.

That access is the responsibility of the Bekasi local government.

For that, Vice Minister of Public Works Hermanto Dardak urged the Bekasi local government to immediately provide high-quality road access in order to bolster Bekasi’s economy.

He added that based on data and the progress report, the railway will start to operate next April.

“All fittings and preparation are ready, but the installation of the project and the rail bed is still in process,” he said.

He said that the most important thing is to see container trains reducing the burden on roads and facilitating the flow of logistics distribution.

“If we have reliable container trains, the burden on our roads will be eased,” he said.

The President Post

A8 February 17, 2011

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Insight New Dawn for Indonesia What was the factor that kept Indonesia’s economy afloat amid the global economic crisis? The answer to this is Indonesia’s huge population, the fourth biggest in the world, which had driven domestic consumption and thus bolstered domestic market and pushed economic growth.

By Choi Sang Min

A

lmost every country across the globe, including the United States, is experiencing a prolonged crisis, economic slowdown and shrinking revenues.

But that’s not the case with Indonesia. Indonesia’s economy remains stable and tends to increase although not too significantly.

And this has caught the world’s attention.

What was the factor that kept Indonesia’s economy afloat amid the global economic crisis? The answer to this is Indonesia’s huge population, the fourth biggest in the world, which had driven domestic consumption and thus bolstered domestic market and pushed economic growth.

Foreign Police, an advertising icon in the United States, said that market players in Indonesia this year are mostly influenced

by India and China. The same also applies to BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), which also receives goods from Indonesia. When Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was re-elected President

The President Post OFFICE Menara Batavia 25th Fl. Jl. K.H. Mas Mansyur Kav. 126 Jakarta 10220, Indonesia Phone : (021) 572 7337 Fax : (021) 572 7338 Email : ceo@thepresidentpost.com Web : www.thepresidentpost.com

of the Republic of Indonesia for a second term a few years ago, he said that in 2014 and will become BRICI or Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia.

Indonesia has worked on pushing for growth for a long time because US giant financial company Goldman Sachs Group once predicted BRIC would grow and that Indonesia would enjoy the impact of the economic growth especially given Indonesia’s vast oil, gas, coal and timber resources.

Indonesia is also the fourth biggest labor-producing country in the world as it makes up almost 40% of ASEAN’s total populations. So, even if a crisis shakes the world’s economy, Indonesia will remain stable due to its export GDP target percentage of only 18%, while its domestic market reaches 60%. In 2007, Indonesia saw its economy grow by 6.3%, 6% in 2008, 4.5% in 2009, thanks to stability, and 6,1% in 2010 despite the economic crisis.

However, Indonesia’s income per capita of only US$2,362/per annum puts it in the lower middle income countries (LMICS)

group. Although labor is cheap, unemployment rate remains high amid rapid domestic market growth. Labor percentage in Indonesia is 60%, dominated by a productive age group of below 39 years old with professional work system and better income that contributed to higher consumption growth.

Indonesia’s economy continues to improve, thanks to the reelection of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as President of Indonesia, as he managed to maintain stable political and economic conditions. In 1997, Indonesia experienced a financial turmoil that pushed the country into a state of emergency, and in October 2004, the government and the public held a presidential election which reelected SBY who helped regained international confidence by providing economic security and invited investors in.

Since then, Indonesia has seen the number of investors growing.

6.4% economic growth target in 2011 Indonesia has revamped its economic organization which helped reduce the state’s debts to a GDP ratio of 28%, brought fuel pric-

PUBLISHED BY PT Sarana Pratama Pengembangan Kota CEO & EDITOR IN CHIEF Ali Basyah Suryo CONTRIBUTORS Atmono Suryo Cyrillus Harinowo Hadiwerdoyo Thomas W. Shreve Jeannifer Filly Sumayku Eka Putri

EDITORIAL & CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Srimay Noviani LAYOUT & DESIGN Mohamad Akmal SALES & MARKETING Detia Rais PHOTOGRAPHER Nandi Nanti

es to a stable level, boosted the stock index to the 2,000 level since 2009, making it the best performer in ASEAN. Shares in 2010 gained 40%, in October 2010 the Jakarta index reached 3667 points, while stock investment reached US$22 billion.

Higher stock prices would draw more investors to Indonesia and further improve domestic market conditions and bolster productions. Meanwhile, banks are also providing relatively low lending rates and under very easy terms.

The government is also always monitoring foreign investors in Indonesia by providing a new, safe system which is convenient for investment in Indonesia.

Countries like Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar and other ASEAN countries are also vying to lure foreign investors into their countries. This condition has caught the Indonesian government’s attention. In 2007, the government tried to fix the legal system aimed to boost investment.

Indonesia’s-South Korea’s trade volume ranks second highest in the world with profits reaching US$200 million.

Indonesia’s investment system

has much improved and thus has attracted many South Korean, Singaporean, Dutch, Japanese, British investors. Indonesia is the fourth biggest investment recipient country in the world. More than US$40 billion had been invested in Indonesia in 2010 by 1,350 major companies employing 500,000 Indonesian worjers.

In June 2007, ASEAN’s free trade agreement took effect and in 2010, ASEAN countries agreed during the ASEAN Special Summit to set export-import target of US$1,500 billion by 2015. Meanwhile, the South Korean government plans on opening more big companies in Indonesia in the future. This is because Indonesia is now deemed as one of the safest economies due to among other things, its vast and cheap raw materials. South Korea has the EDCF program aimed at helping developing countries to develop their markets through a loan mechanism. In 2010, 17 Indonesian-Korean projects were initiated with a total investment cost of US$4 billion. The South Korean government is planning on collaborating on huge projects with all ASEAN countries, including Indonesia.

Indonesia is the fourth biggest investment recipient country in the world.

More than US$40 billion had been invested in Indonesia in 2010 by 1,350 major companies employing 500,000 Indonesian worjers.

Business BUSINESS BRIEFS Bank Mandiri to open branch in Shanghai Bank Mandiri will open a branch in Shanghai, China, by the end of June at the latest as part of its expansion plan, its president director, Zulkifli Zaini, said.

“Now we are still finishing the preparations including renting an office, seeking consultants, preparing the information technology and recruiting workers. By the end of June they are expected to be finished,” he said here last week.

He said the opening of the branch was part of the business plan of the state-owned bank for 2011 and it was also linked with the additional funds from the rights issue in February.

Bank Mandiri also plans to expand its operations by developing remittance and funds transfer services for Indonesian citizens in the Middle East and South Korea to increase its remittance service in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Regarding Bank Indonesia`s demand for national banks to increase operational efficiency Zaini said Bank Mandiri`s efficiency has continued to improve since 10 years ago.

“Since 10 years ago the cost of our efficiency ratio kept declining from 50 percent to 40 percent. We are continuing to become more efficient from day to day,” he said.

Aneka Tambang sees 3.084 tons production Bank Kesawan recently announced the conclusion of the bank`s rigPT Aneka Tambang (Antam) is targeting gold production in 2011 to reach 3.804 tons, up compared to last year`s 2.78 tons, the company`s corporate secretary Budi Satriyo said here recently.

He said the production target is expected from Pongkor and Cibaliung gold minne, each of which produced 2.007 tons and 1.797 tons.

“Last year`s production of 2.78 tons came from Pongkor (2.485 tons) and 295 Kg of Cibaliung,” he said.

According to Bimo Satriyo, gold sales in 2011 is expected to reach 7.304 tons, up compared to last year`s 6.561 tons.

In 2010, gold sales in 2010 reached Rp2,35 trillion with an average price of US$1227.52 per troy ounce.

Nickel ore production in 2011 is targeted at 7.65 million wet metric tonnes (wmt) consisting of 4.5 million wmt of high grade nickel ore and 3.15 million low-yield wmt.

For nickel ore sales, the target is 5.86 million with 3.71 million wet metric tons (wmt) of high grade and 2.15 million wmt of low grade nickel ores.

Bimo added, in 2010, Antam produced 104,692 wmt and sold 191,615 wmt of bauxite earning an income of Rp34 billion.

In total, Antam`s unaudited sales reached Rp8,72 trillion in 2010, a small increase compared to Rp8,71 trillion in 2009.

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B

RI to Have 500,000 New Entrepreneurs Currently, the number of Indonesian entrepreneurs is around 0.24 percent of the country`s total population.

T

he number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia is expected to increase by at least 500,000 within the next four years.

Future entrepreneurship programs would be designed to produce creative, innovative and globally competitive entrepreneurs, Dr Handito Joewono, head of the coordinating economic ministry’s national coordinating team of creative entrepreneurship promotion, said here last week.

“Within the next four years, we hope there will additional new 500,000 entrepreneurs in Indonesia,” he said.

He also hoped that by 2025 the number would multiply to five million entrepreneurs.

Currently, the number of Indonesian entrepreneurs is around 0.24 percent of the country`s total population.

Sociologist David Mc Cleiland said, that to develop a country`s advanced economy, the number of entrepreneurs should be at

least two percent of the population 4.8 million entrepreneurs for the total Indonesian population.

As comparison, the number of entrepreneurs in Singapore is 7.2 percent of its total population, Malaysia 2.1 percent, Thailand 4.1 percent, South Korea 4.0 percent, and the United States 11.5 percent.

It would take up to the year 2030 for Indonesia to have 4.8 million entrepreneurs or 2 percent of its current total population, he said.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

Industrial Electricity Tariff Hike As of January 2011 basic electricity tariffs rose by up to 20-30%, leading businessmen to protest as the decision made their products more expensive.

Bank Kesawan Conducts Rights Issue Bank Kesawan recently announced the conclusion of the bank`s rights ssue, and received rights issue fund of Rp 734 billion (US$ 73 million dollars), a press release received here on Friday stated.

“The fund increased the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and reached 61,19 percent from previously 11.43 percent (unaudited

as per year 2010 end). Under the current CAR, we will have more room to grow,” said Gatot Siswoyo, President Director Bank Kesawan.

Post rights issue condition marks the beginning of Qatar National Bank (QNB) ownership in the Indonesian banking industry through Bank Kesawan.

QNB is now the majority share-

holder of the bank representing 69,59 percent of the shares. Other shareholders above 5 percent shares ownership are Adhi Tirta Mustika with 9,01 percent and other institutions and the public with 21,4 percent.

Gatot added that QNB presence will bring added value to the bank. QNB global experiences will enhance the bank`s perfor-

mance.

“Arqaam Capital acted as the exclusive financial adviser on this transaction, and has offered excellent service in facilitating Bank Kesawan looking for investors,” said Gatot.

Established in 1913 as a local bank in Medan as The Chinese Trading Company Limit-

ed, Bank Kesawan later moved its head office to Jakarta in 1990 as a national player.

The bank now operates 36 branches across Indonesia with total assets of approximately Rp2,5 trillion (US$270 million).

Qatar National Bank is the largest bank in Qatar with a market share approaching 40 percent of banking sector assets.

The President Post

B2 February 17, 2011

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Business PTPN III Plans to Raise Rp3t through IPO antaranews.com/Yudhi Mahatma

PTPN III posted a net profit of Rp1.002 trillion last year, jumping from Rp707.08 billion the year before.

S

tate-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) III plans to raise Rp3 trillion through an initial public offering of 25-30 percent of its shares this year.

“We hope the IPO can materialize this year,” PTPN III President Director Amri Siregar said on Saturday.

PTPN III President Director Amri Siregar said the planned IPO would enable the company to expand its business and allow its employees to hold shares.

He said the company submitted a plan to conduct IPO to the committee of privatization team two years ago. But it put the plan on hold in 2009 because of unfavorable capital market condition.

“This year we will submit an-

Indovision to list shares to finance operations

other proposal to the committee of privatization team to conduct IPO,” he said.

He said the planned IPO would enable the company to expand its business and allow its employees to hold shares.

“Our equities currently reach Rp7.3 trillion so that we can raise an estimated Rp3 trillion in funds (through IPO),” he said.

He said Rp1.8 trillion of proceeds from the issuance of shares through the planned IPO would be used to finance the company`s business expansion, including construction of oil palm processing plant.

“We, along with PTPN I also develops 9,300 hectare oil palm plantations in the three districts of East Aceh, North Aceh and Aceh Tamiang,” he said.

PTPN III posted a net profit of Rp1.002 trillion last year, jumping from Rp707.08 billion the year before.

themercedeslounge.com

The Remarkable New Mercedes-Benz CL 500 CGI PT Mercedes-Benz Indonesia has announced the commencement of sales of the New Generation Mercedes-Benz CL 500 CGI, a premium coupe that leads in innovation and exclusivity in its class.

The CL-Class has improved its quality with a series of major changes in exterior and interior.

President and CEO of PT Mercedes-Benz Indonesia Rudi Borgenheimer said that the CL-Class is a commitment of Mercedes-Benz to always present the most advanced innovation cars in its own class.

“The CL-Class is a symbol of the ability of MercedesBenz to develop a tradition of excellence. This coupe has high exclusivity because it is made by experts who understand the meaning of quality,” said Rudi.

The CL 500 CGI, which made its presence in Indonesia last December, has become the new standard of technology innovation and luxury in coupes.

Compared to previous generations, the latest CGI CL

500 has a different exterior and interior design, and gives a touch of the latest technology innovations, including the use of highly efficient gasoline engine series M 278 BlueDIRECT V8.

Satellite television provider PT MNC Sky Vision (Indovision) plans to list its shares at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) this year to raise funds to finance its business expansion.

“We will appoint underwriters in the near future,” Robert Satrya, investor relations officer of PT Global Mediacom Tbk (BMRT) said here last week.

PT MNC Sky Vision, the business unit of BMRT which is engaged in the pay-TV industry, still has a promising future as Indonesia is among Asia-Pacific countries which have the lowest pay-TV penetration reaching less than 5 percent, he said.

Quoting data from Partners Asia, he said Indonesia was also expected to see a 30-percent growth of pay-TV subscribers, the highest among other Asia Pacific countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.

MNC Sky Vision, with Indovision & Top TV as its two leading brands, currently holds more than 78 percent share of the domestic pay-TV market. The number of Indovision and Top TV subscribers reached more than 800,000 at the end of last year.

Last year MSV posted income totaling Rp1.44 trillion, a 36 percent increase compared to Rp1.06 trillion the year before.

Semen Gresik targets Rp4t profit in 2011 State cement maker PT Semen Gresik is trying to reach a profit of Rp4 trillion this year, which would be a 10-15 pct increase compared to last year`s Rp3.63 trillion.

“In 2010 the company had raised its efficiency, and also this year,” the company`s president director Dwi Sutjipto said here earlier this week.

Dwi said that this year`s profit Dwi Sutjipto will be raised by boosting production and the start of the operation of two new plants by the end of this year.

The two new plants are located respectively in Tonasa, South Sulawesi,and Tuban, East Java, with a total capacity of 5 million tons.

He said that with the two new plants total capacity will reach 25 million tons of last year`s 18.5 million tons.

“Last year we grew 5-10 pct, compared to Rp3.3 trillion in 2009,” he said.

Last year`s income may reach Rp14 trillion.

He added that last year`s production was relatively stagnant due to the natural disasters disrupting production.

However, in 2011 income may increase 10 pct to Rp15.4 trillion.

Private firm helps West Sumbawa to buy Newmont shares

The Mercedes-Benz CL 500 CGI has become the new standard of technology innovation and luxury in coupes.

Interior New Generation CL-Class is emphasizing changes in order to improve perfection of quality and exclusivity in the interior so that the CL-Class may fulfill the demands of high sportsmanship needed on a luxury coupe.

The CL-Class offers many exclusive menu options for every consumer who expects a luxury character of its own.

Mercedes-Benz has deployed skilled craftsmen who are not only able to produce excellent work to look at but also soft when touched.

fidence and a sense of privilege, and provides stability to its users.

The exterior reveals the harmony between smooth surfaces and classic elegant lines with sportsmanship.

The new CL-Class also has a different design on the front and rear, as well as increased length of the body to 30mm.

Besides to improve its appearance, the body elongation is emphasized for the CL-Class to be more dynamic.

Changes to the front are shown through contour lines (bonnet) that are more assertive, accompanied by a large and wide incision.

Exterior The new CL-Class is designed to exude more self-con-

Other striking features are shown on the advanced design and high-quality headlights. On

the front bumper is a pair of LED daytime on both sides, as well as a wide air intake with a chrome line.

On the body side, MercedesBenz changed the design of the new CL-Class coupe by strengthening its character by improving of the roof line and adjusting the flow lines of the door with the roof. All windows are surrounded by a chrome line, giving it a luxurious appearance.

Performance Mercedes-Benz CL 500 CGI is reinforced with high-tech engine series M 278 BlueDIRECT V8. Engine with 4.664cc capacity with V8 configuration is capable to produce a maximum power up to 435 hp (320kW)

on 5.250rpm and 700Nm of torque at 1,800-3.250rpm.

With this engine CL 500 CGI only takes 4.9 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h, and is able to reach a maximum speed of 250 km/h (limited-speed system).

The high-tech engine promises efficient use of fuel.

To drive in the city the CL 500 CGI requires fuel supply of only 13.5-13.9 liters per 100 km, while out of town te figure is 7.2-7.6 liters per 100 km.

Contacts: Yuniadi Hartono Phone/Fax: 30003612/30003662 Mathilda Jeanette Phone/Fax: 30003636/30003662

Sumbawa Barat district`s government has decided to cooperate with PT Titan Metals to buy seven percent of US-based gold mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara`s divested shares for 2010 worth 271,6 million dollars or Rp2,4 trilliun, a spokesman said.

“We have already conducted a `beauty contest` which was won by one of four companies that took part in it, namely Jakarta-based PT Titan Metals. The company will help us buy seven percent of Newmont shares up for divestment in 2010,” KH Zulkifli, Sumbawa Barat district chief, said here recently.

PT Titan Metals, a national mining company with head office in Jakarta, was the winner of the beauty contest and PT Sumbawa Maju Jayao, a mining company owned by an NTB businessman, the alternate winner.

The contest, participated in by PT Titan Metals, PT Sumbawa Maju Jaya, PT Bayu Kemayoran Karya and PT Maju Jaya Valco, was organized by an independent consultant in front of the leadership and memebrs of the Sumbawa Barat district legislative council last January 2011.

Zulkifli said PT Titan Metals would provide the funds needed by the district administration to buy the seven percent stake in PT Newmont.

He said PT Titan Metals would later obtain dividends on PT Newmont`s profits for as long as the company was operating in Sumbawa Barat district.

The President Post

www.thepresidentpost.com

February 17, 2011 B3

Investment RI to Attract Rp240 t Investment this Year

INVESTMENT BRIEFS Korean investors interested in building hotels in Palembang Korean investors expressed interest in building hotels in Palembang city, South Sumatra, because the city is considered advanced and rapidly growing, a member of a Korean investor team, Fark, told Palembang mayor H Eddy Santana Putra, here recently.

The investors were also interested in establishing luxury apartments, he added.

The 2011 investment climate would largely depend on the domestic political and economic conditions which had of late been very conducive

The Korean investor team accompanied

by Sub Division Head of Promotion and Cooperation Regional Investment Coordinating Board (BKPMD) of Palembang city, Elyani Wirza, said they came to ask for the mayor`s approval for investment in the city.

“We are interested in building luxury apartments with a total investment of around Rp300 billion to Rp500 billion,” Fark said.

He added, in addition to build apartments and hotels, they were also interested in establishing a taekwondo school in Palembang city to support the implementation of the SEA Games in November 2011 which will provide funds estimated at Rp50 million to Rp40 million.

The Palembang mayor, Eddy Santana Putra, said the city administration was basically very supportive of the Korean investors to build apartments and hotels.

T

Eddy Santana Putra

he Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has set a target of luring Rp240 trillion of investment this year, up 15 percent of the realized investment of Rp208.5 trillion last year.

“We will achieve the 2011 investment target by improving policies related to investment, providing better services, granting fiscal facilities, and accelerating the development of infrastructure projects,” BKPM Chief Gita Wirjawan said on Sunday.

Japanese investor keen on investing in kesambi oil

He said investment was expected to continue to rise this year after growing significantly by 54.2 percent to Rp208.5 trillion from Rp135.2 trillion a year earlier.

The 2011 investment climate would largely depend on the domestic political and economic conditions which had of late been very conducive, he said.

If the economic growth could be maintained at a range of 6-6.5 percent and the inflation rate reached 6-7 percent this would give positive signals to investors, he said.

Gita Wirjawan

and a number of Middle Eastern countries.

Gita said since Pohang Steel and Iron Company (Posco) of South Korea signed a cooperation agreement with Indonesia`s stateowned steel maker PT Krakatau Steel to make an investment of Rp6 trillion, more and more South Korean investors had expressed interests in investing in the country.

In 2010, foreign investment inflows reached Rp148 trillion, a 52 percent increase compared to Rp97.4 trillion the year before.

Meanwhile, domestic investment rose to Rp60.5 trillion in 2010 from Rp37.8 trillion a year ago.

One of them was tire maker Hancook Corp which would build a tire plant at a cost of US$1.2 billion in Bekasi, West Java, this year. The plant was expected to be completed in 2014, he said.

Most of the foreign investors came from South Korea, India

Investment in 2010 up 54.2 pct BKPM recorded the domestic

(PMDN) and foreign (PMA) investments in Indonesia in 2010 increased 54.2 percent from Rp135.2 trillion in 2009 to Rp208.5 trillion, its chief said.

He said that of the total investment, Rp148.0 trillion was foreign investment (PMA) and Rp60.5 trillion was domestic one (PMDN).

“Compared with the target this year at Rp160.1 trillion, the investment realization exceeded the target by about 30.2 percent,” Gita said.

In accumulative terms, the increase in the PMDN in 2010 contributed 29 percent while in 2009 it only contributed 28 percent (Rp37.8 trillion), he said.

The PMDN thus increased 60 percent in 2010.

Bec Japan, a Japanese investor, wants to invest in kesambi oil (Schleichera oleosa) in East Nusa Tenggara province, Vice Governor Esthon Foenay said here Tuesday.

The investment plan Kesambi seed was conveyed by President Commissioner of Bec Japan, Hiroyuki Hanzawa, along with his partners, Director of the Bogor Agro Lestari (BAL), Sarwo Budi, and Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher, Dr.Joko Sulistio, at a meeting with the East Nusa Tenggara Vice Governor here last week.

All this time, kesambi seed has no economic value at all.

“The presence of the investor is expected to make the kesambi seed have economic value and continue to push up market prices,” he added.

The director of Bogor Agro Lestari (BAL), Sarwo Budi, explained, a LIPI research showed that kesambi in East Nusa Tenggara has the potential to be developed as bio-diesel.

According LIPI, there are approximately 24 million kesambi trees in East Nusa Tenggara. One tree produces 10 kilograms of wet kusambi seed, he said adding that four to five kilograms of dry kesambi seed could produce one liter of bio-diesel oil.

“Bec Japan which is ready with an investment of approximately 50 billion rupiahs. We will start this year and it will take place for 20 to 30 years,” Budi said.

The cooperation agreement will be followed by the implementation of a bio-diesel processing project with kesambi seed as raw material.

Garuda Indonesia goes public PT Garuda Indonesia conducted an initial public offering (IPO) of about 40% of its ownership. Garuda targeted an income of Rp 3-4 trillion from the IPO.

Korean investors to build dam in Bali

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

Korean investors are interested in constructing a dam in the Unda river`s estuary which was once a mining location, in Gunaksa village, Klungkung district, Bali, a local official said.

“There has been a discussion between the Klungkung district administration and the Korean investors about the latter`s wish to fund the dam project. But this time we are still conducting a survey on the location,” Tjokorde Gede Agung, Klungkung district deputy chief, said here last week.

Tjokorda Agung said the location of the proposed dam was once a sand mining site in Gunaksa village, Dawan sub district.

“About 100 hectares of land are needed for the project,” he added.

The water reservoir was expected to meet the need of people in Gianyar district and Denpasar city,” Tjokorda Agung said.

“To supply waters to the two areas, the investor will install pipe which will be in an approximately 38 kilometers long,” he explained.

He said that if the survey is going according to the plan, the construction will hopefully start this year.

“We hope in 2013 the dam will be operated and supply waters to Gianyar and Denpasar. The income from this project is expected to go to the Klungkung district`s original income,” Tjokorda Agung said.

Besides receiving Unda river`s water, the dam will also be developed as a water tourist site, he added.

Philippine Firm to Build Cacao Processing Plant A Philippine investor is set to invest in West Sulawesi by building a cacao processing plant in Mamuju this year.

“We just had a meeting in Jakarta to follow up on the result of a cooperation with a Philippine investor on a plan to build a cacao processing plant,” Governor H.Anwar Adnan Saleh said herelast week.

He said the Philippine investor was very serious in building

a cacao processing plant in West Sulawesi because the region is a heavy chocolate consumer.

He said special machinery will be installed in Mamuju in the early days of the building of the processing plant this year.

The governor said that the Philippine investor decided to build the cacao processing plant in West Sulawesi because the area is a chocolate producer contrib-

The President Post

uting 20 pct to the national output.

“We are merely supplying the cacao of the farmers in West Sulawesi for processing at the plant which will be built. The result of the processing will be sent to their country,” he said.

He said another consideration which made the Philippine investor to become interested in building the plant is the availability of power in West Sulawesi

as this year several investors will be building hydro-electric power plants (PLTA) there.

Anwar said West Sulawesi is expected to produce 500,000 tons of cacao per year in the next few years, so that Indonesia will be able to produce one million tons per year.

He added that Indonesia can produce one million tons of cacao per year, it will take over the

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position of the Ivory Coast as the world`s biggest cacao producer.

“The cacao planting program boosted by the government in West Sulawesi is by planting 7.1 million cacao somatic embriogenesis trees in 332,902 hectares,” he said.

“If the spreading of the SE seeds reached 332 hectares in West Sulawesi, the province may be able to reach a production of 500,000 tons per year,” he said.

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The President Post

B4 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Markets Prices of Rice and Chili on the Rise, Again The President Post/Nandi Nanti

It looks like most of the price increases were caused by a combination of bad weather negatively affecting domestic production and distribution, and the delayed policy response to import rice.

Jan-11 (Actual)

Jan-11 (Fcast)*

Jan-11 (Cons.)

Dec-10

Nov-10

Headline CPI (% chg y-o-y)

7.02

6.76

6.81

6.96

6.33

Headline CPI (% chg m-o-m)

0.89

0.65

0.71

0.92

0.60

Headline CPI (% chg y-t-d)

0.89

0.65

0.71

6.96

5.98

Core CPI (% chg y-o-y)

4.18

n.a.

4.30

4.28

4.31

Source: Bloomberg, CEIC, *Danamon Estimates

2010

Dec-10

Nov-10

Oct-10

Sep-10

Export Growth (% y-o-y)

35.4

25.7

42.3

17.6

23.8

Import Growth (% y-o-y)

40.1

27.1

48.3

28.5

13.4

Trade Balance (US$bn)

22.1

3.69

2.27

2.28

2.53

By Helmi Arman

J

anuary CPI headline inflation was announced at 0.89% mo-m or 7.02% y-o-y, which is higher than our forecast and consensus (6.81%).

Inflation was again pushed up by food prices especially rice and chili, while prices of cooking oil and fish also picked up. It looks like most of the price increases were caused by a combination of bad weather negatively affecting domestic production and distribution, and the delayed policy response to import rice.

Up to January 2011, however, the persistence of these food price increases have not started to creep through into core inflation yet. Prices of most of the processed food have been relatively stable; only rice meals and cigarettes have inflation. Note that core inflation was relatively stable in January 2011 at 4.18% yo-y vs 4.28% a month ago, and the slight decrease was probably due to the decline of gold (accessories) prices.

Source: CEIC, BPS

Inflation was again pushed up by food prices especially rice and chili, while prices of cooking oil and fish also picked up.

Yet inflation at the wholesale level is still relatively stable (7.3%y-o-y in Jan-11) and is not too far above CPI inflation, and manufacturers have not passed through the costs increase to customers yet. However, BI’s December 2010 consumer survey has shown an increasing trend of consumer’s expectation of inflation. The growth of money supply has also risen rather rapidly (+15%y-o-y), which may push core inflation to rise.

Going forward, one key risk to watch with regard to inflation is the government’s forthcoming plan to ration subsidized fuel, which may not be effectively implemented. Our biggest

concern is more on the widening price discrepancies (between subsidized and market price of fuels), which have generated arbitrage activities, that push up subsidized fuel consumption beyond the allocated quota.

Meanwhile, the trade data for December 2010 registered a surplus of $3.69bn, which still looks robust, with non-oil and gas exports and imports continue to post strong growth, at 5.42%mom and 4.33%mom, respectively.

It is still inconclusive that export growth is trending down, despite the fact that export growth in December 2010 is down to 25.7% y-o-y from around 42.3%

in November. Coal exports shrunk amid slower demand from China, although exports of iron ore and palm oil continue to rise. Meanwhile, non-natural resource exports (e.g. electrical machinery and clothing) have been faring relatively well, although going forward they may also be impacted by the slow-down in developed economies.

Similarly the slowdown of import growth in Dec-10 is also inconclusive. It looks like the Nov10 growth number was a little bit odd.

Note that the growth in capital goods imports is now stronger than that of raw materials (1.85%mom vs. 0.32%mom in

Dec-10), as local businesses continue to invest in new machinery.

Despite the improvements of trade balance, we still think that the current account will likely shrink, as the income and services accounts in the balance of payments continue to rise due to profit and interest repatriation and higher costs of freight.

Policy Implications Headline inflation is again above BI’s 4– 6% comfort range, and will likely remain that way in the several months to come.

Although core inflation is once again relatively stable and on the low side, we think that it would not be permanent. We expect core inflation to rise rather rapidly towards the second half of the year, and may increase to around 5.5%yoy by the year-end. There-

fore, we think that the higher than expected January 2011 inflation would trigger BI to raise its policy rate sooner (this Friday, 4-Jan-11, as oppose to our previous expectation of Apr-11), at a gradual pace of increase (25bps) twice and consecutively. Thus, we maintain our BI rate forecast by the year end at 7.0%.

The priority for BI right now is tackling the increasing inflationary pressures, not managing capital inflows nor pushing bank to lend more. BI’s policy action to raise foreign currency reserve requirement from currently 1% to 5% in March and to 8% in June 2011 is not a substitute for policy rate hike at all. It is mostly intended to reduce its cost of monetary operation as it can absorb US dollar liquidity from the banking sector relatively free, compared to

doing foreign exchange sterilized intervention in the midst of massive capital inflows.

With the move to raise its policy rate now, financial investors will likely response positively, and thus we may see a rebound in the prices of financial instruments.

The writer is Economist/Econometrician Treasury & Capital Markets PT. Bank Danamon, Tbk. Menara Bank Danamon, 8th Floor, Jalan Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav E IV No. 6, Mega Kuningan, Jakarta 12950, INDONESIA Phone: direct: +62 21 5799-1563; +62 21 5799-1001 Ext. 1128; Fax: +62 21 5799-1045/46; Mobile: +62 817 9123-111 E-mail: anton.hendranata@danamon.co.id

Coordinating Ministry of Political Legal and Security Affairs Republic of Indonesia

Ministry of Defense Republic of Indonesia

Indonesian National Defense Forces

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JIDD - JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE DIALOGUE 2011 23-25 MARCH 2011 BALAI SIDANG JCC INDONESIA

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JIDD Speaker Faculty to Include include • HE Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia* • HRH Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Brunei Darussalam • HE Dr. Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Minister of Defense, Republic of Indonesia • Mr. Gerald Howarth MP, Minister for International Security Strategy, UK • Ms. Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, USA* • General Khalid Shamim Wyne HI (M), Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan Armed Forces • Dr. Stefanie Babst, Acting Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, NATO

• Vice Air Marshal Eris Herryanto, Secretary General, Ministry of Defense, Republic of Indonesia • Mr. Shri Satyajeet Rajan, Chairperson, Defence Offset Facilitation Agency (DOFA) of Ministry of Defence, India • Colonel Ömer Faruk Demircioğlu, Director, Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism, Turkey • Mr. Neil K. Rutter, European, Legal and Strategic Planning Committees, Global Offset & Counter Trade (GOCA) • Professor Christopher Andrew, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, University of Cambridge, UK, Official Historian of the British Security Service (MI5) * to be confirmed

JIDD Event Secretariat: Jl. Salemba Raya no 14, Jakarta Pusat 10430, Indonesia | T +62 21 367 43951

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alongside and in support of JIDD 2011, APSDEX serves as the exclusive showcase to support the topics being discussed within the conference. This unique pairing of conference and showcase creates a 3-D approach to explore the latest and greatest opportunities to develop a stronger industry in support of security and defense.

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The President Post

B6 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Property 2010 Performance, 2011 Property Prospects and Recent Condotel Development in Bali Condusive economic conditions carry implications for the improved performance of the property market in 2010.

T

he Indonesian economy charted significant accelerated growth in 2010.

The economy grew by 6.1% in 2010 with contributions from the investment sector higher than the previous year. Other economic indicators also showed positive trends, such as the value of rupiah that continues to strengthen and attractive interest rates. The inflation escalation that occurred in 2010 was controllable.

Condusive economic conditions carry implications for the improved performance of the property market in 2010. This is shown by several indicators below: • More active construction activities • Increasing number of new projects • Increasing number of leased and sales transactiond in most property market sectors • Occupancy and sales rate increased averagely • Lease and selling prices showed positive fluctuations Jakarta Office Market Senior Vice President of research and consultancy of Coldwell Banker Indonesia, Tommy Bastamy, explained that “the Jakarta Office Market continues to show more positive indicators with higher contribution from business expansions and new established companies.”

Net absorption of leaseable office space in Jakarta was 208,000 sqm in 2010, which increased occupancy by 3.3% to 89.7%. The market office activities at CBD remains dominant with absorption about 80% of total take-up.

Meanwhile, the absorption in non-CBD areas were mostly absorbed by developments in South Jakarta.

Improved demand and occupancy level of leaseable office in Jakarta resulted in an increase in rent price by 2.4% in IDR or 6.9% in US dollar.

Office market performance is estimated to increase in the next two years in line with the progress of macroeconomic conditions and the increased investment realization, both foreign and domestic.

Rental and selling rates are expected to accelerate following an improvement in demand and occupancy level.

99.300sqm in 2010, lower than in the previous year. Nevertheless, limited new supply in 2010 made permanent occupancy rate rise to 87.9% or an increase of 1.5% over the previous year. New dwellings in newly completed centers such as Gandaria City and Central Park were the main contributor to the absorption in 2010. F&B outlets, Department Stores, Hypermarkets and entertainment venues were main contributors to leasing activities during 2010.

The influx of new supply in Jakarta will lead to a more competitive market. This leased retail market will remain tight in the next two years. The occupancy rate is expected to rise in 2011 but decrease in 2012 following the entry of new supply. The rental rates are expected to experience a slight increase due to adjustment of established leaseable retail projects.

Greater Jakarta Strata Condominium Market and Leased Apartment • Strata Condominium Vice President of Research and Consultancy Coldwell Banker Indonesia, Dwi Novita Yeni, revealed, “the strata condominium market in Jakarta recorded positive performance in terms of supply and demand in line with developers’ active expansion.”

The net demand of condominium market in Jakarta reached 8.950 units, growing by 148% in 2010. Most of this absorption, which is 83.6%, are derived from condos that are still in under construction, while the remaining 16.4% came from existing projects. Growth of take-up rate was followed by increasing sale price reaching 9.4% for under construction projects and 4.3% for existing projects.

Strata-titled office also showed improved performance in 2010.

Stock in existing buildings was limited as most strata-title office space was absorbed by the market. Under-construction projects and newly completed buildings dominated strata title office space transactions in 2010.

Office market performance is estimated to increase in the next two years in line with the progress of macroeconomic conditions and the increased investment realization, both foreign and domestic. Rental and selling rates are expected to accelerate following an improvement in demand and occupancy level.

The take-up rate for under construction projects are mostly units that were launched in 2010, which is a continuation of development of some super-blocs that re-marketed new towers. The projects generally target the middle-upper segment such as Kemang Village with Tower Intercon, St.Moritz with Royal Tower 2, Casablanca City with Montreal Tower and others.

Strata condo market performance is expected to increase in the next two years mainly supported by stable interest rates at low level. Though there is a possibility that interest rates might increase due to inflation, it is estimated to remain within the limits of tolerance and will not inhibit the take-up rate to rise. Selling price is expected to increase along with increasing absorption.

Jakarta Retail Market Regarding the retail market, Tommy Bastamy explained that “The absorption of leaseable retail space in 2010 was hampered by limited new supply.”

Leaseable retail market in Jakarta recorded an absorption of

• Leased Apartment Dwi Novita Yeni further revealed that “the leaseable apartment market is showing positive growth demand that grows moderately thanks to expatriates from Asian countries.”

Demand for lease apartment

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Consistent innovation and breakthroughs are tradition that bring Coldwell Banker to stay ahead and be the best option for clients who require independent and strategic navigation of property market development in decision making process.

Based on that philosophy, Coldwell Banker focuses its services into two brands, namely Coldwell Banker Commercial (CBC®) and Coldwell Banker Property (CBP®).

Coldwell Banker Property business networks are in 50 countries with 98.000 real estate agents at 3.600 offices. Coldwell Banker Commercial has 220 companies and more than 3.400 employees worldwide.

Coldwell Banker has been in Indonesia since more than ten years as the representative for both CBP® and CBC®.

Coldwell Banker Commercial is a solution to the research and consulting services, investment, valuation, project concept development, marketing, leasing, auctions, property management and construction for various sectors of property.

Coldwell Banker Property aims to provide purchasing services and various property investment such as residential and land properties, landed residential and apartment on secondary and primary markets. CBP in this case also provides propert business opportunities for companies and individuals who want to have achievements in the real estate.

For further information, please contact: Tommy Bastamy, Senior Vice President - Research & Consultancy at 0818 0890 4700 Dwi Novita Yeni, Vice President - Research & Consultancy at 0815 9538 731 Dini Priadi, Vice President - Marketing Communications & Franchise at 0811 88 1165 / 088 1165 1872 Phone +62 21 255 39 388 / Fax +62 21 255 39 399 Website: www.coldwellbanker.co.id E-mail: tommybastamy@coldwellbanker.co.id dnovita@coldwellbanker.co.id dpriadi@coldwellbanker.co.id

market in 2010 reached 544 units and led the average occupancy to rose by 3.2% to 73.5%.

Based on its location, lease apartment in CBD area remains the most preferable area as most multinational companies are based in this area. As for non-CBD area, the absorption is mainly in South Jakarta, which has reasonably good access to the business corridor on Jl.TB Simatupang. Leased apartment in CBD recorded a higher occupancy level of 77,7%, whilst secondary recorded 70,7% at 2010. Rental rate remained stable during 2010 as a consequence of low occupancy rate.

Rising foreign investment realization in 2010 and the possibility of continued growth in the next two years is expected to affect the demand for leased apartment. Sales rate is estimated to decrease due to massive additional supply in the next two years.

Some additional supplies of condominium and leased apartment will appear in areas with large scale residential estates that actively undertake commercial development, such as the plan of service apartments development under the management of Aston in Serpong.

Dwi Novita Yeni explained that “the residential market recorded a positive demand growth in all market segments, especially the middle-up segment which recorded highest growth in demand.”

Greater Jakarta Landed Residential Market On landed residential market,

Condotel in Bali The Bali Condotel development has been on the rise and

The absorption of residential market in 2010 grew 23.2% with the number of sales reaching 6.671 units backed by stable mortgage at a low level.

Based on market segments, the highest sales growth is recorded by the upper market segment (≥ Rp. 500 million) which increased by 5 7.5%. This is due to the upper market segment being relatively more stable against interest rates changes and its higher purchasing power.

Housing sales in 2010 was dominated by the lower market segment, which contributed 50.6% of total sales, followed by middle and upper market with 26.4% and 23.0% The residential market is expected to continue to rise in the next two years. From the supply side, developers are starting to expand by launching clusters and new products in 2011.

buoyant since 2006. Though some Condotel projects were there before 2006, the Condotel concept and implementation was not really popular.

“The concept of Condotel in Bali in recent years was dominated by local investors and is expected to further increase, although almost 90% Condotels in Bali have a system does not allow the owner to occupy them,” described Fransiska Hendri Managing Partner Svarga Property Coldwell Banker Bali.

Nevertheless, the concept of Condotel is considered to provide greater benefits to investors relative to other concepts. The benefits in the Condotel system is that an investor has a unit managed like at least a three-star hotel with an attractive return on investment. And if the Condotel units are sold back then the return on investment capital is usually high.

The weakness of owning a Condotel is that owners are required to follow the management system by the operator, including booking procedures which have been agreed by both sides. The reputation and credibility of hotel managers are an important factor that will guarantee Condotel owners’ satisfaction and comfort.

The concept of Condotel is considered to provide greater benefits to investors relative to other concepts.

The benefits in the Condotel system is that an investor has a unit managed like at least a threestar hotel with an attractive return on investment.

And if the Condotel units are sold back then the return on investment capital is usually high.

The President Post

www.thepresidentpost.com

February 17, 2011 B7

Technology Microsoft Stands as a Leader on Cloud Computing Microsoft once again proved itself to be the leader in Cloud Computing. On January, Microsoft held Cloud Summit 2011 in Jakarta as part of a series of road shows since November 2010. Cloud Summit 2011 was also held in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Australia.

By Jeannifer Filly Sumayku

C

loud computing greatly simplifies the processes involved in managing complex, customized, expensive IT infrastructures and solutions, and the large in-house IT teams that support them. By leveraging on the power of Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), cloud computing frees companies from the need to have specialized teams or services that handle software, platforms, and infrastructure.

“Microsoft has more than 15 years experience in Cloud Computing and has total commitment to continue to develop it. Cloud Summit is one form of commitment and our investment to im-

The Most Comprehensive IT Solutions: On-Premises to the Cloud

prove public knowledge about Cloud technology”, said Sutanto Hartono, President Director of PT Microsoft Indonesia.

An analyst Gartner, who was featured as one of the speakers at the event, said that CIOs in Asia look at virtualization and cloud computing as a top priority in 2011, in contrast with the main priorities of information technology since 2007 and 2008, i.e. around business intelligence and enterprise applications.

Cloud Computing allows businesses to reduce their concern on IT infrastructure maintenance and will focus on business growth efforts. Changes that are supported by qualified information technology like cloud computing will become a strategic element for business actors to adapt unforeseen challenges and to take advantage of existing opportuni-

ties.

Chris Sharp, Regional Strategist Cloud Microsoft Asia Pacific and Japan, explained, “With the development of cloud computing as an important business tool, Microsoft believes that the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a -Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), can provide benefits for the company through several ways: changes of demand for ‘capacity’ to demand for ‘capabilities’; reduce the cost of computing resources, not only in terms of hardware but also related to space and power; to facilitate changes of technology use into value-in use or benefit consumption; and to get profit from paying only what it is used.”

Brian Prentice, Research VP, and Gartner gave details about Cloud services around the world that reach US$68,3 billion on

2010, an increase of 16,6% from 2009’s turnover of US$58,6 billion. On 2014, the number is projected to reach US$148,8 billion. “Companies apparently will spend US$112 billion cumulatively for SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS within five years in the future,” he said.

Gartner sees 76% of companies taking Private Cloud strategy in 2011, in which 75% of them will invest more on Private Cloud in IT organization as reported by Gartner Data Center Conference Polls on December 2009.

Sutanto explained that Microsoft invited the company to choose the best scenario for the company; to use Public Cloud and Private Cloud, or even combine them in Hybrid Cloud environment.

“Microsoft is very flexible, we designed plans and systems ac-

cording to the needs businesses,” he said.

To serve the needs of Public Cloud, in Indonesia Microsoft is partnering with PT Telkom as the largest telecommunications company in Indonesia, Agit. which offers a number of virtual services and private online, Greenview, which focuses on infrastructure services, and PT Infynis System Indonesia, which offers integrated online communication services and Online Exchange.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Private Cloud service is strengthened by Hyper-V technology and System Center, which has a number of advantages such as easy to connect with Public Cloud immediately whenever the user wants, capable of handling a variety of hypervisors from several vendors at once - across all Cloud environments.

Microsoft Private Cloud is highly profitable, while the value of investment needed is only onethird compared to that offered by competitors. In addition, Microsoft has local and regional partners ready to assist corporate consumers of Cloud.

“Currently we have 17 corporate consumers who are building Private Cloud architecture using Hyper-V technology and System Center,” said Sutanto.

“We are very proud that consumers are starting to understand how Cloud can be used to meet their business needs. Microsoft is not saying that everyone should start using Cloud now.

Nevertheless, we think consumers should begin to evaluate and consider the use of Cloud for specific jobs to see the possibility on how Cloud can yield an improvement over other models,” he concluded.

CLOUD SERVICES PRODUCTIVITY

COMMUNICATION

COLLABORATION

BUSINESS APPS

ON-PREMISES

IDENTITY

PLATFORM

“Microsoft has more than 15 years experience in Cloud Computing and has total commitment to continue to develop it. Cloud Summit is one form of commitment and our investment to improve public knowledge about Cloud technology.”

Sutanto Hartono President Director of PT Microsoft Indonesia

The President Post

B8 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Executive Highlights Economy accelerated by 6.1% Y-O-Y for the full year 2010, slightly higher than the market consensus of 6% and higher than the government’s target of 5.8%, driven by rising investments, exports and solid domestic demand.

Household consumption, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the economy, grew by 4.6%.

Fixed investments saw growth of 8.5%. Investments as a percentage of GDP reached 32.2% as of end-2010, up from 31.1% in 2009 and 27.7% in 2008, highlighting Indonesia’s growing attractiveness as an investment destination for global firms. Net exports also grew by 7.5%, driven by higher commodity prices as well as higher export volume. Government consumption, meanwhile, increased by only 0.3% in 2010 compared to 15.7% growth in 2009, highlighting the removal of stimulus measures last year as well as state spending that continues to be hampered by bureaucratic log jams. Looking at the Q4 2010 numbers on a sector-bysector basis, non-oil and gas manufacturing industries grew at its highest pace in four years at 6%.

Growth in basic metals industries hit a seven-year high of 10.7%, while the textile and footwear industries grew at its fastest rate in three years at 6.8%. The 2010 economic data also showed GDP per capita surpassing US$3,000 (Rp27 million) for the first time, putting Indonesia into the category of “middle-income nations” as defined by the World Bank. The government is projecting growth of 6.4% for 2011.

bank is finally serious in fighting inflation. Better than expected 2010 GDP figures, meanwhile, underscored the positive outlook for the economy.

Bank Indonesia said it would stop monthly auctions of its SBI debt with tenors of less than nine months.

The bank said the move was part of measures to reduce the risks of foreign capital flows, deepen the local financial market and reduce commercial banks’ reliance on BI’s short-term paper to manage excess liquidity. The latest move comes following previous measures implemented since June last year, including a onemonth minimum holding period for its SBI’s, ending auctions of one-month SBI’s and issuing term deposits – which are not tradable and must be held to maturity. As of 1 February, foreign investors held Rp142.7 trillion of SBI’s, down from Rp200.1 trillion in the first week of January.

Analysts expect BI’s measures to encourage more investors to invest in government bonds while encouraging commercial banks to increase loans instead of parking their money in BI paper.

NGs, Boeing 777-300 ERs ing for more than 1.1 million Denko. Construction is slated to Garuda Indonesia has 800 and Airbus A330s by 2015 from motorcycles this year, up 17% start this quarter, with commersigned a deal with 87 currently. from the 940,000 motorcycles fi- cial production set for Q1 2014. nanced in 2010. Summit Oto is Japan’s Tsukishima Kikai and loStandard Chartered majority owned by Japan’s Sumi- cal firms Wijaya Karya and Nutomo Corporation. The firm fo- santara Energi Abadi have been Bank for financing cuses mainly on low and middle- contracted to build the plant. the purchase of 10 income consumers. The IFC is Under the joint venture agreethe private lending arm of the ment between Antam and Showa Boeing 737-800 Motorcycle financier World Bank.

Denko, two-thirds of the output Next Generation (NG) summit OTO Finance from the Tayan facility will be exported to Japan, with the remainaircraft. has secured US$200 der to be sold on the Indonesian spot market. million in funding Financial details were not dis- from the International closed. The airplanes are schedBank Negara uled to be delivered between De- Finance Corporation Indonesia (BNI) cember 2011 and May 2012, (IFC). and are part of a total of 25 737has signed a loan 800 NGs that Garuda has ordered from Boeing. Simon Per- The funding will be divided into agreement worth Kangean Energy kins, managing director of two tranches: a US$25 million US$150 million with has signed sales and Standard Chartered Bank’s avi- loan with a three-year term proation finance division, said the vided by IFC, and a US$125 mil- the U.S. Exim Bank. purchase agreements deal reflected the bank’s ability lion, five-year term loan sourced to supply 300 million and commitment to support cli- from a number of private funds ents’ business growth and expan- and managed by IFC. It is Sum- BNI corporate director Krishsion, and underscored the bank’s mit Oto’s second credit facility na Suprapto said the loan facili- cubic feet per day multi-product capabilities. Gar- from the IFC, following a US$75 ty would support small business- of gas to three uda chief executive Emirsyah Sa- million deal last year. Funds es and entrepreneurs in getting tar said the financing agreement from the latest loan will be used better access to working capital companies: would support the carrier’s ongoing fleet expansion, which is expected to bring its fleet to 153 aircraft including Boeing 737-

to finance Summit Oto’s credit expansion this year. Company president Djohan Marzuki said the firm aimed to extend financ-

Selected Instant Indicators GDP GROWTH (%)

%

Index* 2000=100

By Quarter

Year on Year 8

165

7

155

6

145

5

Bank Indonesia (BI) raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 6.75% this February, the first increase in 18 months from a historic low of 6.5%.

The move was a surprise to market players, most of who predicted that rates would be left unchanged. It underscores efforts by the central bank to show it is serious in fighting inflation amidst the perception it has been behind the curve relative to other countries in Asia that have already begun monetary tightening. Consumer prices increased by 7% in January, 100 basis points above BI’s indicative range of 4-6%.

Food prices surged 16% and made up half of the January headline inflation figure. In its February policy statement, the central bank also asserted that it would adopt measures to “strengthen its exchange rate policy” and better manage market liquidity to contain inflation. Many analysts see this as a fundamental shift in tone by BI to allow for a significantly stronger rupiah, after the bank spent a large part of 2010 fighting currency appreciation.

The bank also underscored the importance of coordinating policy with the government to address inflation pressures. On the economic front, the BI forecast growth of 6-6.5% this year on the back of strong domestic demand, rising investment and increasing exports in line the global economic recovery. It is projecting growth of 6.4% in Q1.

The government raised Rp5.5 trillion in its latest bond auction earlier this week, slightly higher than the Rp5 trillion initially targeted amid renewed demand from foreign investors. The finance ministry sold Rp900 billion in oneyear treasury bills with a yield of 6.55%, Rp1 trillion of five-year bonds yielding 8.22%, Rp1.5 trillion of 15-year bonds yielding 9.54% and Rp2.1 trillion of 20-year bonds yielding 10.01%.

Bid-to-cover ratios on the 20year bonds were more than twice that of last month’s auction with yields around 10 basis points lower, highlighting renewed interest from investors reassured of BI’s policy tightening and hawkish rhetoric on inflation. Proceeds from the bond sale will be used to help finance the budget deficit, which is projected to reach 1.8% of GDP this year. The government is looking to sell a total of more than Rp200 trillion in local and foreign debt this year to fund the deficit.

135

4 3

125

2

115

1

105

0

95 05

07

06

09 Q1 08

Q3 Q2

Q1 Q4

2005

Index

Q3 Q1 Q2

Q4

Q3 Q2

2006

Q1

Q4

2007

Q3 Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3 Q1 Q2

2008

Q4

Q3 Q2

2009

2010

INFLATION 66 CITIES

109 107.0

General Food WPI

106

105.5

103

100

97 J 10

F

Mar

A

M

Jun

J

Aug

S

O

Nov

D

J 11

O

N

Dec 10

2010

EXPORT AND IMPORTS (US$ Million) Exports

16,000

State energy firm Pertamina said it was allocating US$4.1 billion in capital expenditures this year, up 86% from 2010.

Imports

14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0

Dec Jan 09 10

F

Mar

A

M

Jun

J

Aug

S

2010

*Q4 2000=100

The rupiah has strengthened to a three-month high of around Rp8,910 to the dollar as of 9 February.

BI deputy governor Budi Mulya said recently there was a good chance the rupiah would appreciate below 8,900 in the near-term amidst rising capital inflows. Analysts say several factors have come into play to drive the currency’s appreciation.

BI’s unexpected rate hike earlier this month plus its bullish tone on the rupiah has boosted investor confidence the central

Company investment planning director Frederick Siahaan said around US$1 billion of this was earmarked for acquisitions, noting that it was already engaging in talks with domestic and overseas oil and gas firms for potential asset purchases. The executive said Pertamina was looking for assets at the production or development stage with a minimum production of 5,000 barrels of oil per day or 100 million cubic feet of gas per day. The company also plans to drill 76 exploration wells and 221 production wells this year. Pertamina is looking to produce 470,310 barrels of oil equivalent per day this year, up 6% from 2010. It also projects to increase oil and condensate output to 208,000 barrels per day, up 8.3% from a year earlier. Natural gas output, meanwhile, is projected to rise by 4.4% this year to 1.52 billion cubic feet per day.

and purchasing U.S. products.

He said the loan deal implemented a MoU signed last year by the U.S. Exim Bank and 11 national banks for a credit facility worth more than US$1 billion for Indonesian businesses purchasing U.S. goods. Other banks that are expected to receive financial support from the U.S. Exim Bank include Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Danamon, Bank Panin and Bank CIMB-Niaga. The U.S. Exim Bank views Indonesia as a top priority, along with eight other emerging markets, to expand its financing.

COMMODITY PRICES

Sumatran Light US$/barrel 93

Mal$ per metric ton 4,000 M$ 3,8140

Crude Oil-LHS Palm Oil-RHS

88

$89.5

3,750 3,500

83

3,250 3,000

78

2,750

$72.9

73

2,500 M$ 2,450 68

2,250 J 10

F

Mar

A

M

Jun

J

Aug 2010

S

O

N

D 10

J 11

State miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) said it was extending a US$140 million loan facility to its subsidiary Indonesia Chemical Alumina.

Antam president director Alwin Syah Loebis said the money would help fund work on a planned chemical grade alumina processing facility in Tayan, West Kalimantan. The plant is slated to produce 300,000 tons of alumina per year. The facility is 80% owned by Antam and 20% owned by Japanese firm Showa

state power utility PLN, Pertamina Gas (Petragas) and private firm Indogas Kriya Dwiguna (Indogas).

Under the terms of the deal, PLN will purchase 369 trillion British thermal units (tbtu) of gas at a price of US$5.15/million metric British thermal units (mmbtu) for a period of 16 years starting 2012. Petragas will buy 221 tbtu of gas at US$5.15/mmbtu over a period of nine years starting 2012. Indogas will purchase 79 tbtu of gas also at US$5.15 over a period of 10 years starting 2012. The gas will be supplied from Kangean’s Terang Sirasun Batur fields located offshore East Java. Imam Agustino, the president director of Kangean Energy’s parent firm Energi Mega Persada, said the deal would have a significant impact on the company’s future cash flows, but declined to provide details. Kangean Energy’s production sharing contract area has gas reserves estimated at nearly two trillion cubic feet.

Singapore telecommunications firm Spice i2i has acquired indonesian mobile handset producer and distributor Affinity

Group in a US$175 million deal.

Affinity owns the “Nexian” brand mobile phones that control around 20-25% of the domestic market. The group also distributes and sells handsets for companies like Blackberry, HTC and Motorola, as well as mobile phone connections through its network of branches and independent retailers. Affinity reportedly generated revenues totaling more than US$600 million as of end-2010.

Spice i2i said the acquisition was part of its strategy to establish an integrated telecoms business into the Southeast Asia region. ANZ Singapore and DBS Bank advised Spice i2i on the deal, while Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor for Affinity.

U.S. retail giant WalMart is reportedly in talks to partner with Matahari Putra Prima to develop its “Hypermart” hypermarket chain.

Matahari is controlled by the Lippo Group. Wal-Mart was reportedly on the short-list to purchase Matahari, together with South Korea’s Lotte Shopping and France’s Casino Guichard Perrachon, before Lippo scrapped the sale last month due to low bids.

Lippo is now looking to expand Hypermart through a strategic partnership that could still include a significant stake sale in Matahari. Matahari currently generates around US$1 billion in revenue from more than 50 Hypermart outlets operating across the country. A key issue for Matahari has been to strengthen its logistics operations to improve efficiency in face of increasingly tight margins.

Business Highlights are contributed to The President Post

by CASTLEASIA/PT Jasa Cita from information supplied to members of their CEO Forum, the Indonesia Country Program.

They are reprinted here with permission. For more information about CASTLEASIA programs, please contact Juliette or Wijayanti at 62 21 572 7321 or email castle@castleasia.com subject CEO Forum

SECTION

The President Post

Education

C

Display until March 17, 2011 /// N0. 21 www.thepresidentpost.com

Teaching Revolution as New Software Enters Classroom Software developers have now introduced a new approach to teaching—using the love of Facebook as a magnet to boost learners’ attitude toward learning. This is based on the belief that nowadays most students live on Facebook, so study tools that act like social networks should be student magnets.

By Widya Sanjaya

A

t least that’s the idea behind a new crop of Web services sprouting up across higher education institutions in America.

Education observers in Asia believe that very soon this will drive the way in which teachers prepare their classroom presentation material.

In North America today, colleges, entrepreneurs, and publishers, all drawn by the buzz of social media, are competing to market software that makes sharing class notes or collaborating on calculus problems as simple as updating your Facebook status.

In countries like Indonesia, this will be very attractive given the fact that most high school and university students sit in front of their laptops and personal computers for hours every day to update their social networking accounts.

These young people generally can easily get bored of learning in the classroom but not so when they study while relaxing on their social media sites.

Already the teaching-learning revolution is changing the ways in which American university professors approach their daily assignments. This is why educators believe that this pedagogical revolution will soon inspire the rest of the world to follow suit.

According to Jeffrey R. Young who writes for The Chronicle, many of the social-learning sites are, like OpenStudy, for-profit companies—or at least they aspire to be so once their services take off. And some of their business plans rely on a controversial practice: paying students for their notes.

Students preferred using it for things like looking at friends’ photos. Many students, in fact, prefer sticking to their own notes on courses, rather than trusting friends.

Despite those concerns, more than a dozen sites are racing to sign up users for their socialstudying services. Here’s a look at four of the most interesting teaching-learning forums Asian schools are now exploring: FinalsClub What it does: Free site for sharing Harvard University course notes that plans to expand to other elite universities.

When Andrew Magliozzi posted his notes from a Harvard course on a public blog, the professor told him to stop because he was disturbing the intimacy of the classroom.

Magliozzi, who declined to identify the professor, took the notes down. But the incident spurred him to create a nonprofit Web site, FinalsClub.org, that aspires to disturb the intimacy of classrooms across America’s elite colleges.

Magliozzi chose the name as an ironic nod to Harvard’s final clubs—those elite organizations, immortalized in the film about the founders of Facebook, The Social Network, which are rumored to maintain private caches of study guides for Harvard courses.

Now students don’t need to join an exclusive club, or even attend Harvard, to get the notes to lectures given by star professors.

Those few who slam their classroom doors on Internet note sharing, however, can be vehement in their objections. Some consider it intellectual-property theft.

One, the economist Greg

Mankiw, told The Boston Globe that he turned down FinalsClub because he didn’t want to help students skip class.

OpenStudy What it does: Links learners who want to study free online educational content like MIT’s OpenCourseWare.

With thousands of independent students enrolling in gigantic open online courses, why not vast online study groups, too?

OpenStudy, a start-up company spun off by Georgia Tech and Emory, is betting that the demand exists.

Its Web site is the latest effort to create a social platform for independent learners who want to help one another study the huge trove of educational materials published free online by universities like MIT and Yale.

The free site has 11,000 users so far, including a pilot project with MIT that points users to OpenStudy from the Web sites of several of the university’s open, noncredit course-content sites.

The company hopes to make money by offering a premium version of the software with more features.

In countries like Indonesia, however, application of such technological approach requires provision of technology-savvy teachers which itself is a big problem to solve.

Here’s how OpenStudy works.

Users build personal study networks by following other students and joining groups.

When they have a question, the site pushes it out to their extended network and matches them with people available to work with them.

Similarly, if users come to the site, ask their question, and there’s no one around to answer it, they’ll quickly leave and probably not come back.

When most early users exhibit this ‘lame party’ behavior, how do you get the critical mass your site needs to succeed?”

OpenStudy understands that risk, and its founders say they hope to build up critical mass by working with university content providers beyond MIT. GradeGuru What it does: The note-sharing site is run by a major textbook publisher, McGraw-Hill Education, and pays students small rewards—in cash or gift cards— based on the popularity of their notes. The site makes all of the notes free to visitors.

The draw here, for many, is getting paid for something they already did. “I take all my notes on my computer,” says Tarun Gangwani, a senior majoring in cognitive science at Indiana University at Bloomington.

“They’re on my hard drive, so it’s not like I’m making any big hassle.”

So far he has posted notes from 65 lectures to the site, on courses such as “Neuroanatomy” and “Early Chinese Philosophy.” For his trouble, he’s made about $200 in credit to his PayPal account.

(He also could have opted to be

paid in gift certificates for Starbucks or other retailers.)

“At the end of the day, the cash is nice,” he says.

He has given his notes to friends for years for no payment, he says, and though he knows some professors might object if they knew about the site, he sees no problem in making public something that might help others study.

The site has had to work to distinguish itself from online services that give away or sell term papers and exam answers.

All posted documents are reviewed within 48 hours, she says, and any exam answers and term papers are removed. Yet some things do slip through. On a recent afternoon, an exam, with answers, from a course at Georgetown University was listed as one of the highest-rated items on the site, and had been online for months.

To build interest in the site, McGraw-Hill has designated “campus ambassadors” at 50 colleges who have agreed to promote the service.

On some campuses, they have sent e-mails to the mailing lists of their fraternities or sororities asking friends to give it a try.

Ms. Sawtell says the student representatives are not paid, although they are eligible for prizes from the company. The publisher hopes that colleges will end up endorsing the site and pointing students to it. To encourage that, the company is planning to add an institutional-subscription service in January.

Mixable What it does: Lets students share notes and coursework as well as form study groups within Facebook, using a free application developed at Purdue University.

“We’re looking to take advantage of the students’ native environment,” says Kyle D. Bowen, director of informatics at Purdue and one of the leaders of a university project to build a new study tool. That natural habitat was Facebook, focus groups of students told him.

So Bowen and his team built Mixable, an application that plugs in to the social network. (A Web version also exists that allows non-Facebook users to try it.) Project leaders think that students are more comfortable now than two years ago—when Inigral’s Facebook Courses project flopped—with the idea of blending work and play.

Anyone on the campus can download Mixable free and add it to his or her Facebook profile by simply clicking on a link and agreeing to allow the application to run.

Then they can invite Facebook friends to install it as well. Once the application is enabled, students can upload notes or other documents through it, thanks to the university’s partnership

with an online file-storage service called Dropbox.

Brittany Robertson, a junior studying elementary education at Purdue University was quoted as saying recently by The Chronicle that she usually is on Facebook at least four or five hours each day,

and that she appreciates that Mixable uses the same familiar interface and lets her easily shift from study to socializing.

Given the fact that this pedagogical revolution is taking place, teachers in Asia need to make necessary adjustments otherwise

they will be left behind by students’ mastery of the information and communication technology (ICT).

In countries like Indonesia, however, application of such technological approach requires

provision of technology-savvy teachers which itself is a big problem to solve.

But, like it or not, since the world is heading in this direction, teachers only have one option— upgrade their expertise to boost the quality of teaching.

The President Post

C2 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Education Khan Academy, a Successful One-Man Show with 50,000 Followers The most popular educator on YouTube today does not have a Ph.D. He has never taught at a college or university. And he delivers all of his lectures from a bedroom closet.

By Tania Wiryopratomo

P

erhaps the biggest evidence of this era’s pedagogical revolution is best seen in Khan Academy, a successful one-man show on YouTube with more than 50,000 followers as of this month.

Yes, this is very unique; because the most popular educator on YouTube today does not have a Ph.D. He has never taught at a college or university. And he delivers all of his lectures from a bedroom closet.

An article published recently on The Chronicle by Jeffrey R. Young reveals that this upstart is Salman Khan, a 33-year-old who quit his job as a financial analyst to spend more time making homemade lecture videos in his home studio that is now leading the trend in what is called technologically-driven teaching.

His unusual teaching materials started as a way to tutor his faraway cousins, but his lectures have grown into an online phenomenon—and a kind of protest against what he sees as a flawed educational system.

“My single biggest goal is to try to deliver things the way I wish they were delivered to me,” he told me recently.

The resulting videos don’t look or feel like typical college lectures or any of the lecture videos that traditional colleges put on their Web sites or YouTube channels.

For one thing, these lectures are short—about 10 minutes each.

And they’re low-tech: Viewers see only the scrawls of equations or bad drawings that Khan writes on his digital sketchpad software as he narrates.

The lo-fi videos seem to work for students, many of whom have written glowing testimonials or even donated a few bucks via a PayPal link.

The free videos have drawn hundreds of thousands of views, making them more popular than the lectures by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, famous for making course materials free, or any other traditional institution online, according to the leaders of YouTube’s education section.

Khan calls his collection of videos “Khan Academy,” and he lists himself as founder and faculty. That means he teaches every subject, and he has produced 1,400 lectures since he started in 2006. Now he records one to five lectures per day.

He started with subject matter he knows best—math and engineering, which he studied as an undergraduate at MIT. But lately he has added history lectures about the French Revolution and biology lectures on “Embryonic Stem Cells” and “Introduction to Cellular Respiration.”

If Khan is unfamiliar with a subject he wants to teach, he gives himself a crash course first.

The Khan Academy explicitly challenges many of highereducation’s most sacred assumptions: that professional academics make the best teachers; that hour-long lectures are the best way to relate material; and that in-person teaching is better than videos. Khan argues that his little lectures disprove all of that.

In a recent talk he explained how he prepared for his lecture on entropy: “I took two weeks off and I just pondered it, and I called every professor and everyone I could talk to and I said, Let’s go have a glass of wine about entropy. After about two weeks it clicked in my brain, and I said, now I’m willing to make a video about entropy.”

Some critics have blogged that this learn-as-you-go approach is no way to run an educational project—and they worry that the videos may contain errors or lead students astray.

But to Khan, occasional mistakes are part of his method. By watching him stumble through a problem, students see the process better, he argues.

Sometimes they correct him in comments on his YouTube videos, and he says this makes students more engaged with the material.

“Sometimes when it’s a little rough, it’s going to be a better product than when you over-prepare,” he says.

Educators in Asia, especially Indonesia, can make use of similar forums to modify their approach to teaching, given that teachercentered learning that is commonly practiced here is no longer suitable in a technologydriven society.

The resulting videos don’t look or feel like typical college lectures or any of the lecture videos that traditional colleges put on their Web sites or YouTube channels. For one thing, these lectures are short—about 10 minutes each.

The Khan Academy explicitly challenges many of higher-education’s most sacred assumptions: that professional academics make the best teachers; that hour-long lectures are the best way to relate material; and that in-person teaching is better than videos.

Khan argues that his little lectures disprove all of that.

Watching his videos highlights how little the Web has changed higher education. Many online courses at traditional colleges simply replicate the in-person model—often in ways that are not as effective. And what happens in most classrooms varies little from 50 years ago (or more). Which is why Khan’s videos come as a surprise, with their informal style, bite-sized units, and simple but effective use of multimedia.

Voting With Their Checkbooks Lately, several prominent technology entrepreneurs have taken an interest in Khan’s model and have made generous contributions to the academy, which is now a nonprofit entity.

Khan said that several people he had never met have made $10,000 contributions. And Ann and John Doerr, well-known venture capitalists, gave $100,000,

making it possible for Khan to give himself a small salary for the academy so he can spend less of his time doing consulting projects to pay his mortgage.

Over all, he said, he’s collected about $150,000 in donations and makes $2,000 a month from ads on his Web site.

I called up one of the donors, Jason Fried, chief executive of 37signals, a hip business-servic-

es company, who recently gave an undisclosed amount to Khan Academy, to find out what the attraction was.

“The next bubble to burst is higher education,” he said. “It’s too expensive for people—there’s no reason why parents should have to save up a hundred grand to send their kids to college. I like that there are alternative ways of thinking about teaching.”

The Khan Academy raises the question: What if colleges could be retooled with new technologies in mind?

College from Scratch Khan is not the only one asking that question these days. Clay Shirky, an associate teacher at New York University and a popular Internet guru, recently challenged his more than 50,000 Twitter followers with a similar thought exercise: “If you were going to create a college from scratch, what would you do?”

Bursts of creativity quickly Twittered in, and Shirky collected and organized the responses on a Web site. The resulting visions are either dreams of an education future or nightmares, depending on your viewpoint: All students should be required to teach as well, said @djstrouse.

Limit tenure to eight years, argued @jakewk. Have every highschool senior take a year before college to work in some kind of service project away from his or her hometown, said @alicebarr.

Some Twittering “brainstormers” even named their fictional campuses. One was called FailureCollege, where every grade is an F to desensitize students to failure and encourage creativity.

Another was dubbed LifeCollege, where only life lessons are taught. When the writer caught up with Shirky recently, he described the overall tone of the responses as “bloody-minded.” Did that surprise him?

“I was surprised—by the range of responses, but also partly by the heat of the responses,” he said. “People were mad when they think about the gap between what is possible and what happened in their own educations.”

Shirky declined to endorse any of the Twitter models or to offer his prediction of how soon or how much the colleges will change. But he did argue that higher education is ripe for revolution. For him the biggest question is not whether a new hightech model of higher education will emerge, but whether the alternative will come from inside traditional higher education or from some new upstart.

For more information : 6340078

No one I talked to saw Khan Academy as an alternative to traditional colleges (for one thing, it doesn’t grant degrees). When I called a couple of students who posted enthusiastic posts to Facebook, they said they saw it as a helpful supplement to the classroom experience.

According to The Chronicle, Khan has a vision of turning his Web site into a kind of charter school for middle- and highschool students.

Educators in Asia, especially Indonesia, can make use of similar forums to modify their approach to teaching, given that teacher-centered learning that is commonly practiced here is no longer suitable in a technologydriven society.

The President Post

www.thepresidentpost.com

February 17, 2011 C3

Education Smartphone Applications to Improve Teaching and Research

A handful of colleges are running expensive pilot projects in which they give out iPhones or iPads to students and professors to see what happens when everyone goes mobile.

Some of the most innovative applications for hand-held devices, however, have come from professors working on their own.

They find ways to adapt popular smartphone software to the classroom setting, or even write their own code.

That’s what I discovered when I put out a call on Twitter, as well as to a major e-mail list of college public-relations officers, asking about the areas in which professors and college officials are making the most of their mobile devices.

Here are the six scenarios that people mentioned most often. I have highlighted the apps in each category that got users’ highest marks.

Taking Attendance Calling roll may not seem like an activity that needs an upgrade.

But David M. Reed, a professor of computer science at Capital University, in Ohio, saw his iPhone as a way to streamline the process and keep a digital backup.

“I used to use a piece of paper,” he said.

“What would happen is invariably I would lose that piece of paper halfway through the semester.”

He couldn’t find any software to keep those paper check marks on a smartphone, so he wrote his

Collecting Data A professor at the University of California at Davis is asking drivers to help him with his research on roadkill by logging any dead squirrel, possum, or other critter they see along the highway.

At first he asked people to write down the location and details about the carcass on a scrap of paper and upload the information to a Web site when they got home.

Then the research team built an iPhone app to let citizen-scientists participate at the scene.

It’s more convenient, and it gives the researchers better data, because a phone’s GPS feature can send along exact location coordinates (and the app encourages users to take a picture with the phone’s camera).

The lead researcher at Davis, Fraser Shilling, in the department of environmental science and policy, said the app should hit the iTunes store any day now, though he and his colleagues haven’t decided whether the name will be WildlifeObs or simply Roadkill.

That’s just one of many research projects adding smartphone interfaces to so-called “crowd science,” in which the public is invited to add structured data to an online database.

“For crowd science, I think it’s definitely the next step,” Shilling told me, although he says he prefers logging road-kill with pen and paper, which he thinks encourages more colorful writeups than an app. “My kids tell me that I’m a Neanderthal,” he jokes.

Reading Scholarly Articles Instead of clicking print when saving an article for later reading, many professors now send the document to their phone or tablet computer. Those I talked with cited a range of apps designed for the task, though Dropbox was cited most frequently.

The commercial app is avail-

Other options for building a personal virtual library are GoodReader and Evernote, both of which allow readers to highlight and take notes on any PDF saved to the system.

Students, too, say they find the services useful. Shep McAllister, a junior at Trinity University, in Texas, who writes for the HackCollegeStudent blog about students’ use of technology, said he turns to the iPad version of GoodReader for much of his assigned reading, because his university’s electronic reserve offers documents in PDF, so he can easily transfer them to the service.

Recording Notes Just having a camera on hand can sometimes help in the classroom. Aaron Delwiche, an associate professor of communication at Trinity, often uses the camera built into his Android phone to snap a picture of his whiteboard before he erases it.

When he breaks the class into groups for a project, the photos remind him who was on each team and what they came up with.

High-end whiteboards offer a function to print out or e-mail their contents, but some professors say their phone cameras do just as well.

McAllister, the student blogger at Trinity, uses his iPhone’s camera as a document scanner, with an app called JotNot Pro. After he takes a picture of a page of text, the app (which costs 99 cents), can turn it into a PDF file for easy review later.

“If I get a handout from a professor, I’m always afraid I’m going to lose it,” he said, noting that he tries to scan any class-related documents with his phone.

Using Textbook Tools Cellphone screens are tiny compared with textbook pages, but several publishers now offer apps to read their e-textbooks on mobile devices. CourseSmart, a company that sells electronic versions of textbooks from major publishers, offers a free iPhone app to read books purchased through its service.

It may not be ideal for long reading sessions, but it could be a handy way for professors to look over the material to remember what their students are reading.

Textbook publishers see the iPad and other tablets as a better medium to one day replace printwww.macworld.com

Taking Attendance Calling roll may not seem like an activity that needs an upgrade.

But David M. Reed, a professor of computer science at Capital University, in Ohio, saw his iPhone as a way to streamline the process and keep a digital backup.

without: that messy ballpoint pen.

m

For many on campus, checking e-mail on the go is the first killer app of the hand-held world.

The downside: Having that ability can mean working more than ever—answering student e-mails while in line at the grocery store, responding to a journal editor during lunch.

There can be benefits, though.

Some professors say they find that carrying the Inter­net in their pocket helps them collaborate, teach, and collect data in new ways that include e-mail but go far beyond it.

Several professors said their favorite feature of the app (which now sells for $4.99) is a flashcard function that helps them learn the names of their students. It literally puts names to faces, if professors add photos supplied by the college.

Some professors take pictures of their students on the first day of class and put them in the app.

An iPad version takes advantage of the larger screen of Apple’s tablet computer.

Brainstorming for classroom talks has gone high-tech with “mind mapping” software that encourages arranging thoughts and ideas in nonlinear diagrams.

These programs h a v e been available f o r years o n lapt o p s a n d desktop computers, but some professors say the touch-screen interface of smartphones or tablet computers enhances the process, letting scholars toss around ideas with a flick of the finger.

Gerald C. Gannod, director of mobile learning

at Miami University, in Ohio, recommends Thinking Space for Android devices, MindBlowing for the iPhone, and Popplet for the iPad. For professors who shift to the app world, there’s one gadget they can do

s.co set ras

N

ot long ago, it seemed absurd for aca­demics to carry around a computer, camera, and GPS device every­ where they went. Actually, it still seems absurd. But many professors (and administrators) now do just that in the form of all-in-one devices.

Smartphones or tablet computers combine many functions in a hand-held gadget, and some users are discovering clever ways to teach and do research with the ubiquitous machines.

own app about two years ago, in a two-week burst of coding.

He called his task-specific app Attendance and put it on the iTunes store for other professors, charging a couple of bucks (and adding features as colleagues suggested them).

So far he has earned about $20,000 from the more than 7,500 people who have virtually shouted “Here.”

David Parry, an assistant professor of emergent media and communications at the University of Texas at Dallas, said he uses Dropbox for both scholarly reading and keeping track of documents for the courses he teaches.

“The key for me is I store all my syllabuses there,” he told me.

“Anytime someone has a question about a syllabus, I have it— anywhere.”

So when a student e-mails to ask about an assignment deadline while Parry is at the grocery store, he knows.

ed textbooks completely.

A company named Inkling creates textbooks made for iPads, with interactive features and videos—things that paper volumes cannot do.

e awk w.g

By Jeffrey R and Dian Sasmita

able for iPhones, iPads, and for smartphones or tablets running Google’s Android operating system.

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Smartphones or tablet computers combine many functions in a hand-held gadget, and some users are discovering clever ways to teach and do research with the ubiquitous machines.

Textbook publishers see the iPad and other tablets as a better medium to one day replace printed textbooks completely.

The President Post

C4 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Education The Race to Become a World-Class University President University

World class is defined by the dictionary as ‘ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence.’ Based on that definition, clearly a world-class university must be one that is legally listed on some agreed-upon world ranks. The problem is, who is credible enough to make that ranks?

By Jhanghiz Syahrivar

A

s a country advances in terms of social, economic and technological development, it is pertinent to raise its various industries to a ‘world-class’ level. One of the industries referred to is education, comprising stateowned and private higher educational institutions.

In the race to become a so called world-class university, unfortunately, few attempts have been done so far to clearly define the term ‘world-class’ itself. What defines a world-class university?

What characteristics make up a world-class university? Is the term ‘world-class’ only some kind of public relation attempts? Therefore, since there is no clear definition concerning the terminology, many state-owned and private universities claim themselves to be of world-class standard.

World class is defined by the dictionary as ‘ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence.’

Based on that definition, clearly a world-class university must be one that is legally listed on some agreed-upon world ranks.

The problem is, who is credible enough to make that ranks?

Niland (2000), Liverpool (1995) and Water (2005) agreed that a worldclass university is “utilizing information technology” by making information pertaining to the university (academic, admission, tuition, event, etc) accessible to internal and external parties all over the world.

A research conducted by Henry M. Levin, Dong Wook Jeong, Dongshu Ou from Columbia University on two international universities, the Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJU) and the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), suggests each applies different criteria. This explains why Columbia University is ranked differently.

In the end, the question remains: what is a ‘world-class university’? Perhaps an attempt to define the terminology requires collecting some definitions from experts in order to better understand it as a whole.

Niland (2001) argued, “For universities, world-class standing is built on reputation and perception – often seen as subjective and uncertain – and it requires outstanding performance in many events.” Clearly, based on Niland’s point of view, worldclass is a matter of reputation and perception in the minds of global societies. Further, he said, “The title of world class won’t come at a discount price, and without

world-class funding the goal of reaching, and preserving, that high standard will be rhetoric alone.”

Hobbs (1997) argued, “If a university wishes to attain worldclass status, its faculty and students must understand the divergent cultures that inhabit the world.” Meanwhile, Wang (2001) argued, “World class universities recruit first-rate professors and enroll students from throughout the world.” And finally, King (2003) asserted, “We are world class in that we have students from all over the world and, importantly, we have partnerships with universities, colleges and businesses all over the world.” From the three arguments, we can imply that an internationalization process must occur in universities that claim to be world-class universities. That is why oversees students, a multicultural environment and collaboration with international organizations must be some of the essential elements that make up world-class universities.

The Asian Development Bank (2001) argued that “Most graduates are ill-equipped to work in a market economy which requires skills in interpreting and applying information. The statement implies that ‘practical skills’, apart from ‘theoretical skills’, is one of the key elements to of world-class university’s graduates. Min in Jiang (2001) seemed to adhere to ADB’s definition by stating, “Although [research] is integral to the perception of being deemed a world-class institution, the true measurement is in the success of a university’s graduates.”

Lastly, Niland (2000), Liverpool (1995) and Water (2005) agreed that a world-class university is “utilizing information technology” by making information pertaining to the university (academic, admission, tuition, event, etc) accessible to internal and external parties all over the world.

President University, as one of Indonesia’s prestigious private higher educational institutions, attempts to become a world-class university by 2017. In doing so, the University recruits students from all over the world to study in Indonesia. The majority of its international admissions every year come from Asia, namely China, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and many others.

No distinct treatment is made between local and overseas students, hence communication becomes a crucial factor in President University. English is used in daily conversation and cultural tolerance is nicely embedded in most of the subjects taught in the University.

Apart from recruiting international students, which now make up 30% of President University’s students every year, the University also actively collaborates with other higher educational instiPresident University

President University recruits students from all over the world to study in Indonesia. The majority of its international admissions every year come from Asia, namely China, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and many others.

tutions all over the world such as Waseda University of Japan, Deakin University of Australia, Guang Xi University of China, ULSA University of Vietnam, International Pacific College of New Zealand and many more.

President University’s official website is quite sophisticated in the sense that all students from all over the world can find complete information about the University, register online, download brochures, check their placement test scores, and see the University’s environment in 3D from their home. The last feature is hardly found in other local universities’ websites.

What makes President University unique is not just the fact that the University has an international atmosphere or that it supports digital access to make learning activities interesting, but the fact that two semesters (ranging from 8-12 months) out of 10 semesters studying program are designed to pursue practical skills and learning experiences in 1,500 of its affiliates. It is noteworthy that all students could complete their studies plus some practical skills within three-year and fourmonth programs. Suffice to say, President University guarantees its graduates employment within six months after their graduation ceremony.

Jhanghiz Syahrivar is a Senior Education Consultant and an Assistant to Lecturer of Faculty of Economics, President University

President University actively collaborates with other higher educational institutions all over the world such as Waseda University of Japan, Deakin University of Australia, Guang Xi University of China, ULSA University of Vietnam, International Pacific College of New Zealand and many more.

The President Post

www.thepresidentpost.com

February 17, 2011 C5

Pictorial Events The Inauguration of Juwono Sudarsono as Chairman of President University Foundation Present at the event were RI Vice President Boediono, Minister of State Enterprises Mustofa Abubakar, Minister of Fishery and Marine Fadel Muhammad and prominent business people Ciputra, Arifin Panigoro, Mien Uno, S.D. Darmono and others.

Jababeka also launched President Executive Club at the event.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

Breakfast Dialogue at The Financial Club Jakarta

“Embracing The Future: TIME BUSINESS”

The Financial Club held its regular breakfast dialogue themed “Embracing The Future: “TIME BUSINESS” with Rinaldi Firmansyah, the President Director of PT TELKOM INDONESIA. Present at the breakfast were prominent businessmen and professionals, among others, Mien Uno and Giusseppe Nicolosi.

Breakfast Dialogue at The Financial Club Jakarta

“Railways in Indonesia”

The financial club held its regular breakfast dialogue themed “Railways in Indonesia” this month, featuring Ignasius Jonan, President Director of PT KERETA API INDONESIA, as the speaker. Present at the breakfast were prominent businessmen and professionals, among others, Azwar Anas, Atmono Suryo and others.

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The President Post/Nandi Nanti

Microsoft IMulai 3.0

Microsoft launched the program IMulai 3.0

IMulai stands for Indonesia Mulai, which is a competition in business innovation based on ICT, held by Microsoft Indonesia and USAID. The President Post/Nandi Nanti

The President Post

C6 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Living Your Mobile Phone is Becoming Your Wallet Welcome to the dawn of mobile currency.

The looming game-changer in mobile payments is a technology called “Near Field Communication” (NFC), which swaps data over very short distances.

F

or years, tech companies have demoed flashy prototypes of systems that let customers use their mobile phones in place of cash or credit cards. This year, those systems are heading out of the labs and into the real world.

“There’s a lot of money at stake if it’s done right,” says Omar Green, director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit (INTU).

Soon at Starbucks stores throughout the U.S., the cashier can now scan your phone to deduct payment for your latté from the balance on your pre-loaded Starbucks card. Splitting the dinner bill with a friend? Download Bump, and you can beam over the cash from your PayPal account.

Those transactions are small slivers of a global mobile payments market analysts estimate at $69 billion in 2009, the latest year for which data is available, according to research firm Generator Research.

But by 2014, it expects mobile payments to reach $633 billion annually, with 490 million customers using their phones to move cash around.

The battlefield: The mobile payments space right now is a primordial soup. Both new and entrenched players are battling about fundamental aspects of how the market will work.

PayPal created an empire for itself by making it easy for consumers to send money online to friends and merchants. Rivals like Google Checkout and Revolution Money never gained much traction.

“We are already the leader in mobile payments,” says Laura Chambers, senior director of PayPal Mobile.

“We’re going to continue to innovate, and we’re getting very aggressive about mobile payments in the next two years.”

PayPal, a unit of eBay, processed $700 million in mobile payments in 2010, according to Chambers. While that’s a small fraction of the more than $70 billion a year PayPal handles, it’s an increase of almost 500% increase over the prior year’s $141 million mobile total. PayPal’s platform is an easy one for developers to build on top of, and the company has been actively striking integration deals.

But PayPal sits in the commerce

10 Best Travel Apps Ever?

Switch your iPhone on and your brain off. These top travel apps will book your flights, work out where you’re eating and even pack your bags.

F

irst music replaced calling as the coolest function of the iPhone. Then gaming replaced music. Now you can use your iPhone (or your iPod or iPad) to find restaurants, book flights, predict the weather and even pack your bags, thanks to a bunch of new travel apps nominated for a 2010 Best App Ever Award.

The list below includes, in no particular order, some nominees from the top 10 travel apps contest for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

1

Where To?

What it does: Near-omniscience for sale at a mere US$2.99. Like a traditional GPS device, this app enables you to locate almost anything nearby, including the nearest ATM, burger joint, medical provider, et cetera.

The app has information on 700 customizable categories and 2,400 brands, which sometimes allow users to get away with not typing at all when they’re trying to find addresses and directions.

That said, some people have complained that the app occasionally lists wrong or outdated information.

2

The Cartographer

What it does: Because looks matter, this app gives Google My Maps a makeover by transplanting it in a pretty antique map interface … but wait, there’s more.

The Cartographer allows you to access their customized maps offline to save roaming charges. You can also drop markers on their maps to record their travel information.

3

Airbnb

What it does: With its current pool of 50,000 listings covering more than 8,000 cities, it appears that Airbnb has grown leaps and bounds from its roots as a couch-swapping website for budget travelers.

Users of the website’s new iPhone app can now book accommodation with a few clicks from their iPhones, with choices ranging from an extra mattress to a private island. The app’s “Find a Place Tonight” feature allows people to locate properties available near them on a map with one click.

The “What’s My Place Worth?” feature gives hosts rough assessments of the market value of their pad.

Practical? Maybe. Boredom relief? Definitely.

4

Zagat to Go

What it does: Buy 1, get 44 free. Zagat to Go packs in restaurant reviews of 45 guides around the world into one nifty app, for the price of one guide. Their offline mode, which allows you to continue browsing even when you’re in areas without reception, has won rave reviews among critics.

Zagat to Go also has a GPS feature that allows users to find restaurants nearby, as well as suss out top rated restaurants in different categories in each city. The app’s augmented reality function allows you to see restaurant ratings through your iPhone camera.

The app is available in major U.S. cities, as well as major cities outside the States including London, Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

5

The Weather Channel App

What it does: All you will need to know about weather, any way you want it. The Weather Channel App includes full screen radar weather maps, seasonal information and weather news.

The iWitness Weather function allows users to upload pictures of “exciting weather” to share online. Don’t we all love watching exciting weather online.

6

FlightTrack Pro

What it does: FlightTrack Pro is almost perfect for the obsessive air traveler. It can import flight data from airline confirmation emails. It has realtime status updates for gates, delays and cancellations for over 4,000 international airports. It allows users to find alternative flights at a click. Its inbuilt live flight tracker maps work even when the phone is offline.

Heck, it’s even supposed to predict the future for you, by projecting flight delays based on airport warnings and historical delay forecasts.

However, there’s been customer complaints that the app had incomplete and incorrect information since its update.

7

KAYAK Flight, Hotel Search

What it does: The multitasking Kayak.com app allows travelers to track flight statuses, book their travels, as well as find flight, hotel and car rental deals -- all for free.

Public opinion of this app swings wildly from adulation to criticism of how app developers neglected to add the “My Trips” functionality.

8

Packing Pro

What it does: A godsend for the absentminded traveler. The app’s Expert List Assistant creates packing lists based on the number of adults, children and days. The functionality also takes into account temperature, destination, food preparation and even clothes-washing preferences. Excellent. We never have to think for ourselves again.

Those who like to be a bit more hands-on can use the app to create, edit and check off customized packing lists.

9

Fotopedia Heritage

What it does: This app, developed jointly by Fotonauts and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, allows those who have wanderlust (or are just plain bored) to flick through more than 25,000 photos of heritage sites with information for each location. The app also links directly to Trip Advisor for booking spur-ofthe-moment trips.

Criticisms include slow loading, crashes and that it drains battery carnivorously.

10

Trip Journal

What it does: With Trip Journal, users can now do scrap-booking anytime, anywhere. Trip Tracking has an inbuilt GPS route-tracking function that also records points along a journey. It supports geo-tagged photos and videos.

It allows users to store as many recorded journeys as they want. And best of all, the app is wired to major social media portals, making it supremely easy to show off your travels to family and friends back at home.

Foto: www. soft32.com

market’s shaky middle ground. It doesn’t control the financial network payments run through – that’s in the hands of companies like Visa and MasterCard – and it doesn’t control the devices consumers use, or the data networks their transactions happen on.

The companies that do control those things are determined to get their piece of the action.

Three of the nation’s biggest wireless carriers -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile -teamed up in November to create Isis, a new mobile commerce network the carriers hope to have up and running within 18 months.

Working around the Visa/MasterCard duopoly, they picked Discover Financial Services as their financial services partner.

What happens next: The looming game-changer in mobile payments is a technology called “Near Field Communication” (NFC), which swaps data over

very short distances.

Put a NFC chip – for example, one built into in your smartphone – near an NFC reader and you don’t need to awkwardly scan a bar code on your phone or send a text message to transfer money.

“The lifecycle of a phone is fast: 18 months. If some of the big players – like Apple, RIM, Google and Motorola – all get going with NFC, it could be a standard within two years,” says VeriFone CEO Doug Bergeron.

The 30-year-old company makes point-of-sale systems that are used by millions of U.S. merchants. VeriFone is experimenting with the pay-by-phone market, striking partnerships with many of the field’s pioneers, including PayPal and Bling Nation.

“We’re going to play the role of Switzerland,” Bergeron says. “The more the merrier in our view.”

“There’s no cut and dry ‘this is how to do it’ approach,” says Nick Holland, a Yankee Group senior analyst. “In the U.S., it’s going to be the Wild West, since anyone can play in this space.”

Quick-moving startups are charging in. Last week, investors poured $27.5 million into Square, a venture launched in 2009 by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey. Square lets mobile merchants accept credit-card payments on their phones.

Holland predicts there will be much noise before clear winners emerge: “There’s going to be quite a lot of fragmentation.”

We’re still in the early days, and it’ll be years before smartphones are ready to completely wipe out cash and credit cards.

But don’t be surprised if sometime this year, you find yourself handing over your iPhone to pay for a Frappuccino.

Put a NFC chip – for example, one built into in your smartphone – near an NFC reader and you don’t need to awkwardly scan a bar code on your phone or send a text message to transfer money.

The President Post

www.thepresidentpost.com

February 17, 2011 C7

Living Important Financial Moves All Couples Should Make

By Suze Orman

Get Acquainted You must talk money before your relationship becomes serious—a person’s financial habits are an incredible insight into his values and ethics. That doesn’t mean a lousy credit score is a reason to break up, but if you find that your new love interest doesn’t handle money responsibly, you have to question what else he isn’t going to be upright about.

If you’re the one with the issues, be honest about your shortcomings. A good relationship is one in which each party helps the other make better choices—and you and your beau might be able to help each other become smarter about money.

Meet in the Middle Whether you are newly engaged or suddenly find a longterm relationship challenged by a financial setback, support each other. Retreating to your corners does not help. Nor does finger-pointing; blame doesn’t help your balance sheet. To address any money problem, you need to work together to come up with a game plan.

Consider Yourselves Equals Who makes what is irrelevant.

Do you hear me, stay-at-home moms? The size of your paycheck does not determine your role in the family finances. Respect each

Hashing out monetary matters may not make for romantic pillow talk, but a little financial planning can do a lot for your love life down the line. Here are a few pointers to help you stay smart when following your heart. other as equal partners, with an equal say in money management.

Put It in Writing I know there’s nothing sexy about legal forms. But ensuring that you have the correct documents in place to safeguard you and your assets is a must. A prenuptial agreement will clearly delineate what is solely yours before marriage, meaning you will be protected if you divorce. For those contemplating a second marriage, the only way to protect the assets you bring to the table—especially if you want them to go to children from a prior marriage—is to create a legal trust. That document will spell out what portion of your personal assets will pass to your children, rather than to your new spouse.

Fools Rush In Debts you had prior to marriage are yours alone—unless you actively merge them. When you wed, don’t automatically rush to combine everything. You can help each other out by chipping away at your loans without becoming officially responsible for each other’s.

Divide and Conquer Here’s how I suggest every cohabiting couple organize their cash flow: Create three accounts—one for you, one for your partner, and one joint fund.

Once you’ve determined the total cost of your shared living expenses, both of you should contribute your portion of these costs to the joint account each month, based on your share of household income. (For example, if you make $60,000 and your partner makes $40,000, you’re responsible for 60 percent of household expenses.) Whatever money doesn’t go toward these costs stays in the individual accounts, to be used at each person’s discretion.

Extra Credit Every woman also needs one credit card in her name only. If you become divorced or widowed, an individual credit history will enable you to get a loan and open utility accounts without leaving a deposit, and may even help you land a job (some employers check applicants’ credit during the hiring process).

Ties That Bind After you marry, every asset ei-

www. mindblob.typepad.com

7 Internet Sins that could Make You Go Viral with Your Friends (CNN) – When trapped within the confines of a particularly dreary workday, a carefully chosen GIF, cat video or gallery of terrible My Little Pony tattoos can act as a ray of luminous sunshine, breaking through the dark cloud structure of your mood and touching your black heart with the playful soul of levity.

Thank the nondenominational higher power for the internet, right? Yeah, unless everyone’s laughing at you.

Memes and viral videos are an increasingly integral part of our web culture – hell, The Cheezburger Network (of LOLcats fame) just scored $30 million in funding and 4chan founder Christopher Poole (aka “moot”) joined New York City seed fund Lerer Ventures as a venture adviser.

Now tell us, what’s at the root of many of those stimulating shareables? Fumbles, travesties, the hot, red-faced soul of human folly. In short: Most of these people are being laughed at.

Not to suck the delicious marrow from the bones of these meaty morsels and leave you with a dry, dusty skeleton, but inherent in these memes and vids is an instructional manual on how not to act online – if you’re looking to avoid public humiliation, that is.

So, next time your boss catches you surfing YouTube at work, just tell her you’re trying to better yourself. We’re sure she won’t fire you for that.

Without further ado, here are seven online sins that will make you go viral with your friends:

1. Poor spelling/grammar

Last week, a hilarious video titled “dotdotdot” featuring a gamer’s enraged rant went viral – after a voiceover actor and a designer brought the words to life, that is. Granted, the comment was likely penned by a 13-year-old, but a very important lesson can be gleaned from this vid: No one will take you seriously if you use nonwords like “beacuase.”

Many a browser underlines spelling errors in bright, glaring red – take heed, or everyone will (rightly) laugh at you.

2. Vanity

Yes, it’s great to have self-esteem! We know because our school nurse had copious posters proclaiming as much.

Still, tweeting incessantly about how you’re a “rock

star” or posting to Facebook Photobooth picture after Photobooth picture of yourself looking seductively into the webcam will, ironically, result in your friends feeling the inverse about you. Heed the lesson we learned from many a prideful teen lifecaster: Attempt to be beautiful on the inside, or be prepared to face the trolls.

3. Irritating fanboyism

Remember that “Leave Britney Alone” kid? Yeah, that’s what you look like when you get into vitriolic fights in the comments section about how your Droid Incredible is so much better than the iPhone 4.

4. Being stupid

Before being allowed to compose a status update, one should be forced to read Failbook in its entirety. Especially people who are friends with their parents on Facebook.

5. Being a sad sack

The Sad Keanu meme (pictures of Keanu Reeves holding various objects like sandwiches and cupcakes, looking sad) went so incredibly viral in part because Reeves’ alleged melancholia seemed so ridiculous: Who could possibly look so unhappy while holding a cupcake?

So, before you respond to an e-mail detailing exciting weekend plans with an Eeyore-esque comment about how you have a pounding headache and you’re not sure you can have fun at a concert when animal testing is still going strong, think of Keanu, and the wise words he uttered in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”: “Party on, dudes!”

6. Getting really, really ridiculously angry

It’s pretty easy to use the web and various social media tools as an outlet for your overwhelming rage.

However, the question becomes – in the wake of such a message – does anyone really care about your (totally justified) ire?

Well, take a look at Rageguy – a comic character that grew popular via 4chan – who basically just screams “ffffuuu” when something goes awry. He may be funny on the internets, but we wouldn’t want to hang with him in real life.

7. Being adorable

Wait, how did that get in there?

www.plussizebridetobe.com

ther of you acquires is jointly held.

That’s why you both need to be in sync on your long-term financial goals, from paying off the mortgage to putting away for retirement. Ideally, you should talk about all this before you wed. If you don’t, you can end up deeply frustrated and financially spent.

Discussing money with the man you hope to spend the rest of your life with doesn’t mean you don’t love him. It means you love him and yourself.

Don’t Hide Your Head in the Sand A lot of women fall into the habit of letting their partner handle the money. If you are one of those women, that’s not your spouse’s fault; it’s yours. Your husband may be doing a fabulous job with your money—that’s not the point. You need to understand the family finances and weigh in on all decisions. The fact that women tend to live longer than men means they may need to rely on the money longer and will also find themselves managing it at some point. The longer you wait to engage, the bigger the surprises you may find down the line.

(O, The Oprah Magazine)

Consider Yourselves Equals

Respect each other as equal partners, with an equal say in money management.

The President Post

C8 February 17, 2011

www.thepresidentpost.com

Health Foto: www.eheandme.com

Tired, crabby, snoring?

It might be apnea If you’re not sleeping well, if your partner complains that you snore loudly or you’re finding yourself excessively tired and having trouble concentrating during the day, you may have sleep apnea. It’s a common disorder that should be diagnosed by a doctor.

By Lisa Shives

The two most-often diagnosed types are obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. The bottom line for both is that your breathing is disrupted while you sleep, waking you up sometimes dozens of time during the night, depriving your brain of oxygen and often resulting in fatigue, difficulty focusing and even worse physical problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.

If you have sleep apnea, chances are, you’ll be told you need to sleep with a continuous posi-

tive airway pressure machine, or CPAP. Positive airway pressure is like blowing air into a balloon but in this case the balloon is the patient’s throat; when there is air in the balloon (the throat), then the sides of the balloon (the soft tissues in the throat) cannot collapse and the tissues in the throat are propped open. The forced air functions much as a stent would.

It is not oxygen therapy, but oxygen can be added.

Sleep apnea is usually adequately treated with a CPAP even if oxygen levels were quite low. When oxygen is added, it is usually be-

cause patients have another lung or heart disorder that contributes to low oxygen at night. If patients have emphysema, congestive heart disease or neuromuscular disorders, they will need specialized PAP machines, and may need oxygen as well.

If you have obstructive sleep apnea, your upper airway collapses, either partially or completely, during sleep and the oxygen level of your blood is often low.

You’ll also have frequent very brief awakenings, called microarousals, that disturb the quality of sleep and stimulate the sym-

5 Secrets Not to Keep from Your Cardiologist According to a General Electric study looking at the disconnect between patients and providers, about 28% of Americans say they sometimes lie or omit facts when talking to their health care provider about their care.

C

arolyn Hennecy had a suspicion about what was happening to her when she started having shortness of breath and tension in her left arm and jaw.

She was working as a legal assistant at a busy law firm in Lakeland, Florida, and had witnessed her boss experience the same symptoms shortly before he had a heart attack one year earlier.

Hennecy thought her heart might be in trouble, too, but she didn’t rush to her doctor’s office or schedule an appointment with a cardiologist to address her own symptoms.

“I ignored it for two or three months because I thought it would be OK,” she explains.

“I needed to lose weight, and I figured it had to be my weight, something stress related or a figment of my imagination.”

The symptoms continued to get worse, and eventually Hennecy felt as if an elephant were sitting on her chest.

“When it got to the point where I couldn’t get out of my car and walk into the building without losing my breath, I figured it was time to deal with the elephant.”

Hennecy scheduled an appointment with her general practitioner, who ran a battery of tests. All the results were normal, but her doctor knew something was wrong. She was urged to see a cardiologist.

“The cardiologist immediately scheduled a treadmill stress test,” Hennecy says. “When I got on the machine, I began having discomfort and pain in my chest within a minute. I collapsed over the handle.”

Hennecy has to take a combination of pills “Find a doctor everyday.Hennecy was having a heart attack. She that you have a was rushed to the cardiac good working catheterization laborarelationship tory for more testing.

Hennecy learned that with, that you her left anterior descendtrust and who ing artery was almost completely blocked, and listens. That doctors would need to makes it easier insert a stent, a tube that to open up and is placed into the artery to improve blood flow to be honest.” the heart muscle.

Hennecy, whose mother died of a heart attack at age 66, and whose father, brother and paternal grandfather had all experienced heart problems at relatively young ages, knew that genetic coronary artery disease ran in her family, but hoped she would be different.

“Denial is my biggest enemy” she says. “I was going to be the exception to the rule.”

Hennecy, who now blogs about her battle with heart disease, admits it was hard confessing that her heart wasn’t in the condition she wanted, but says it’s almost equally as hard to be honest with herself and the cardiologist about ongoing care.

“When the cardiologist asks, ‘How are things?’ my general response is ‘Just peachy,’ which can mean anything from absolutely wonderful to oh my God I’m going to die.”

According to a General Electric study looking at the disconnect between patients and providers, about 28% of Americans say they sometimes lie or omit facts when talking to their health care provider about their care.

Providers say they think the number is much higher.

The GE study found 77% of providers say more than a fourth of their patients omit facts or lie to them about their personal health.

“There are a variety of reasons why patients withhold information,” says Dr. Nieca Goldberg, director of the Women’s Heart Program at New York University. “Sometimes they are ashamed. Sometimes they can’t afford

the medications. Sometimes they feel like they might upset the doctor.”

Dr. Alfred Bove, past president of the American College of Cardiology, says there is another reason patients may not be as up front as their physicians would like.

“I think a lot of patients won’t tell you details or symptoms because they are not aware of what the important details to share are,” he says.

“So they deny or ignore it and the next thing they just drop over.”

68 million Americans are taking medications to lower high blood pressure, a condition that increases the risk of coronary artery disease and can lead to heart attacks.

It’s never a good idea to withhold information from any doctor whom you entrust with your care. However, cardiologists say there are specific concerns that can prove to be fatal when they aren’t informed.

Here are five secrets you should not keep from your heart doctor.

1. If you are taking vitamins or supplements

Alternative medicine and herbal remedies may be great for some to help manage chronic conditions, but cardiologists warn certain supplements can pose serious risks to people who are also taking medications for heart disease.

From alfalfa to yohimbine, a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology lists more than two dozen herbal products patients with cardiovascular disease should avoid.

2. If you have undergone tests from other doctors Patients may sometimes be shy about admitting to their physician that they have received a second opinion or additional testing, says Dr. Richard Stein, a national spokesperson for the American Heart Association.

“Your goal walking out is to get the best health care – not to make the doctor feel good,” he says. If you’ve had a blood test, EKG, echocardiogram or angiogram, Stein says to keep your own patient file and bring it with you to your appointment.

3. If you have skipped your medications

“Patients often lie about taking blood pressure or cholesterol medication,” says Goldberg. She says sometimes they believe these drugs aren’t necessary if they alter their diet. While that may be true in the long term, the effects of diet change are not as immediate, and the patient may be prolonging the problem.

4. If you are going through hard times

Hennecy says during the time of her first heart attack, she had been grappling with years of domestic violence and abuse, and she was at a breaking point.

However, it wasn’t until 2007, one year after having another stent implanted, when she finally brought this up to her doctor.

“When you’re under stress you have extra adrenaline that can stimulate the heart to skip beats and have palpitations,” says Bove.

5. If you haven’t really stuck to your diet

“Everyone wants to put their best foot forward, so it’s easy to come in and say you’ve started an exercise program when it really didn’t happen,” says Goldberg.

“But just saying you exercised doesn’t improve your cardiovascular health.”

In fact, it could be harmful, says Stein.

“If a patient tells me they don’t have chest pains, but they are doing nothing in terms of physical activity, then I’m not getting an accurate picture of the shape their heart is really in,” he explains. “I may want to do a stress test to see what really happens when you exercise.”

“Find a doctor that you have a good working relationship with, that you trust and who listens,” she says.

“That makes it easier to open up and be honest.”

pathetic nervous system (that is the adrenalin, fight or flight response). This puts stress on the heart. The most common symptoms are snoring and daytime sleepiness or fatigue.

Central sleep apnea occurs when the brain, that is the central nervous system, does not signal properly to the diaphragm, the muscle that controls your breathing. The most common symptoms are frequent awakenings at night and daytime sleepiness or fatigue.

The CPAP is the gold standard therapy for both obstructive and central sleep apnea, although the devices used for CSA function a bit differently from the standard CPAP. Honestly, I couldn’t make up the things that people have said to me in their attempt to praise the CPAP and to describe how good they feel after starting this therapy. One patient likes to call CPAP his “happy pill.”

Another woman told me that she felt “20 years younger” after one month using her CPAP. Today I saw a patient who said that it CPAP was “life changing.”

The best to date is an older patient who said that putting on his CPAP mask at night gave him great comfort, “as though some-

one is cradling my face.” Seriously, could I make that up?

CPAP, for the uninitiated, involves wearing a mask that at the very least has some nasal prongs - yes, they go up your nose, and at the most has a mask covering most of your face. Many patients wear something in between, a mask that covers only the nose.

Studies have shown that usage patterns are set early in the course of CPAP treatment. Patients need very close follow up in the first few weeks or months

of treatment. That is why I handle all the CPAP machines and masks at my sleep center.

The mask is chosen based on patient comfort, but, at first, patients need the recommendations of knowledgeable sleep professionals. They need to have available to them many masks to try, and I mean take home and sleep with for a week or two. When patients find the right mask for their face and their sleeping positions, the battle to get accustomed to CPAP is usually won.

The CPAP is the gold standard therapy for both obstructive and central sleep apnea, although the devices used for CSA function a bit differently from the standard CPAP.