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Display until February 12, 2012 /// N0. 31
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Nation Pins Hopes on Hard-working Dahlan Iskan In his capacity as minister for state enterprises, he often made field trips to state companies around Indonesia to inject motivation and spirit to the managements. At the same time, he is also not reluctant to scold managements whom he considered lazy and lacking efforts to improve their performances. Dahlan Iskan refuses to accept his salary and facilities offered by the state; he even pays his assistant with his own money and uses his own car to carry out state duties. He is a hard worker who stays in his office until late at night. The President Post/Nandi Nanti
JAKARTA (TPP) – State Minister for State Enterprises Dahlan Iskan visited three East Javanese cities on 13 January, namely Magelang, Solo and Madiun—in less than 24 hours.
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e took off from Jakarta to Semarang on a 6 a.m. flight. Upon arriving in the Central Javanese capital, he went straight to Banaran and arrived there at 8 a.m. He visited the Borobudur temple at 11.30 and went to Solo at 3 p.m. and continued with his journey to Magetan via Madiun at 5 p.m. using a train. Dahlan Iskan visited the Borobudur temple to see prospects for development of the tourism area that will provide wider job opportunities for residents living in the surrounding area. On that occasion, the minister also inaugurated Banaran Resort in Bawen, Semarang, and visited Muhammadiyah 2 Borobudur vocational school, the school in Solo that successfully assembled the Kiat Esemka car. In Madiun, he went to see the state railway company PT INKA.
His visit to Ungaran was the first leg of his trip to Central Java to inaugurate a new resort built by state plantation company PTPN IX. The inauguration was attended by among others the Central Java governor. On that occasion, Dahlan Iskan expressed his appreciation to the company’s president director over his initiative to build the resort. Meanwhile, Jababeka President Director SD Darmono who accompanied the minister, said he learned a valuable lesson during the trip. “My journey with State Minister for State Enterprises Dahlan Iskan, from Semarang to Borobudur, is a valuable experience,” said the boss of Jababeka, a company that owns and operates the biggest industrial estate in Southeast Asia. “I am very impressed with him. He is a very practical person, whom we can pin our hopes on to bring
this country forward,” he added. Dahlan Iskan regularly writes for Rakyat Merdeka in a column called “Merekayasa Harapan” (Reengineering Hopes”). His writings mostly depict his meetings with managements of state enterprises which are now under his supervision. He would wisely listen to the views of the top management and even the office boys. Dahlan Iskan (61), was born in Magetan, East Java. He started his career in journalism in 1975 as a reporter of a newspaper based in Samarinda; in 1976 he moved to Tempo magazine and has headed Jawa Pos in Surabaya since 1982. He successfully bolstered the paper’s daily circulation from 6,000 to 300,000 copies in just five years’ time. Five years later, he set up the Jawa Pos News Network (JPNN) which comprises a total of 134 newspapers, tabloids, and magazines, plus a printing network which consists of 40 printing houses across the country. In 2002, he founded a local TV station called JTV in Surabaya, then Batam TV in Batam and Riau TV in Pekanbaru. In 2009, he was named commissioner of PT
Fangbian Iskan Corporindo (FIC), which initiated the development of Submarine Cable Communication System (SKKL) to connect Surabaya, Indonesia with Hong Kong. At the end of 2009, he was put at the helm of state electricity company PLN and made several breakthroughs, including a sixmonth program to free Indonesia from power outages and a one-day movement to bring electricity into one million houses. On 17 Oktober 2011, Dahlan Iskan was appointed the state minister for state enterprises, and set up SOE asset restructuring program and slashed the number of companies. Dahlan Iskan is a person with a humble background who climbed the ladder of success, marked with his achievement to become a media mogul and head of several companies. It was his management skill that got President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to choose him to lead PLN. He made drastic changes within PLN and made the state electricity company able to supply electricity needs for the country. In his capacity as minister for state enterprises, he often made field trips to state companies around Indonesia to inject moti-
Foreign Consultants Eye Soekarno-Hatta Railway Project A number of foreign consultants have been eying Indonesian infrastructure projects, including the project of state railway company PT KAI linking Soekarno-Hatta airport and Manggarai. "After we held a tender on the Soekarno-Hatta airport, five foreign investors showed an interest in the project. They are from United States, France, Spain, Cana-
OPINION
Towards a Closer Relationship with Singapore The Indonesian embassy in Singapore and its entire staff have an important role as the spearhead of strengthening diplomacy and cooperation between Indonesia and Singapore in terms of national interests. PAGE A2
da and Japan," President director of PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (SMI) Emma Sri Martini told a discussion about Indonesia Infrastructure Outlook 2012 in Jakarta Thursday. Earlier, Emma said, on November 10, 2011 SMI has signed an MoU with the cooperation project authorities to accelerate the implementation of the project. "We
BUSINESS
PTDI to Produce N-219 Planes
Several regency administrations have expressed their interest to operate the N-219, which is very suitable for flights between the different regencies and remote places in the country. PAGE B1
estimated that the building of the project can be started in 2014. Right now we are still waiting for a proposal from the consultant," Emma said. On the funding, Emma said she offered two choices, public private partnership and e-procurement. "It is not for us to make the decision, but the relevant authorities. We are merely helping with mak-
INVESTMENT
Foreign Investment in 2012 Predicted at $19.2 billion
Economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 may reach 6.5%, with the support of the still strong household consumption and investment with exports still being PAGE B3
ing the preparations of the infrastructure project, including a railway project," Emma said. Emma hoped the chosen consultant would be able to help valuate the coalition status, legality and land license which will become the location of the location of the Bandara Soekarno-Hatta-Manggarai railway project.
INTERNATIONAL
“Taiwan and Indonesia to Enhance Economic Relations” Statistics show that Indonesia’s trade volume with Taiwan from January to August 2011 reached $8.3 billion, an increase of 24% per year. Indonesia’s exports value to Taiwan reached $3.3 billion, up by 14%. PAGE C1
State Minister for State Enterprises Dahlan Iskan (2nd from right) along with President Director PT. Jababeka SD. Darmono (2nd from left) and Directors of PT. Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur visited the temple to see prospects for development of the tourism area that will provide wider job opportunities for residents living in the surrounding area. vation and spirit to the managements. At the same time, he is also not reluctant to scold managements whom he considered lazy and lacking efforts to improve their performances. Dahlan Iskan refuses to accept his salary and facilities offered by the state; he even pays his assistant with his own money and uses his own car to carry out state duties. He is a hard worker who stays in his office until late at night.
“He wears very modest clothes and uses sports shoes to the office. He is a role model for other cabinet ministers to remain humble, work hard and fully dedicated to building the country. I only have praise for him,” said SD Darmono, who is also the president comissioner of PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko, the company that operates the areas in the vicinity of the temples.
RI Doubles Exports in Five Years' Time: Minister Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said Indonesia was able to double its overall exports in only five years` time from $100.79 billion in 2006 to $203.62 billion in 2011, "This is a remarkable achievement as many other countries needed more than five years to do it," Gita said in an expose on Indonesia`s export performance at his office here Wednesday. Gita said Saudi Arabia needed 26 years to double its exports, Singapore 10 years, South Korea 9 years, Malaysia and China seven and six years respectively. Countries that equalled Indonesia in this respect were Belgium, Russia, Switzerland, the United States and Brazil. He said the constant increase in Indonesia`s exports
Trade Minister Gita Wirjawa
"This is a remarkable achievement as many other countries needed more than five years to do it." was fueled by an upward trend in the value of its oil/gas and nonoil/non-gas commodities. Within the last five years, the value of Indonesia`s oil/gas exports rose 96.09%, from $21.21 billion
in 2006 to $41.59 billion in 2011 while that of non-oil/ non-gas exports increased 103.59%, from $79.58 billion in 2006 to $62.02 billion in 2011. The minister noted that Indonesia`s exports over the past five years mainly consisted of natural-resourcebased commodities such as coal, crude palm oil, rubber and rubber goods. "But we are now striving to increase the proportion of commodities with added value by pushing export of industrial goods such as footwear, electronic goods and textiles," he said. He was optimistic that within the next five to 10 years Indonesia`s exports would no longer be dominated by raw materials but by products with high added value.