The President PostT H E S P I R I T O F I N D O N E S I A www.thepresidentpost.com

December 2013Vol. 2 No. 12

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OPINION

The NetworkDiplomacyMillennium – Page A2

BUSINESS

Pertamina, Chevron, Star Energy to Develop Geothermal Projects– Page B2

Quotes and ThoughtsMochtar Riady, Founder of Lippo Group

“A tree planted in pots or in houses will never grow higher, but it would be otherwise if they are

planted in large areas.”

Liem Sioe Liong, Founder of Salim Group

“If you only listen to what people say, you will go crazy. You have to do what you believe in.”

Bradley Sugars, Founder ActionCoach

“As an entrepreneur, it is dangerous when you make decisions based solely on perspectives.”

RI Economic Growth 2013-2014 Designed to Slow Down

“The figure will be be-low 6%, be-tween 5.5% to 6%, at the

most 6.1% in 2014. Higher eco-nomic growth may be achieved in 2015 by the new government, “ he said at the Investor Summit and Capital Market Expo 2013 held on November 27-28 in Ja-karta.

He added that Indonesia’s eco-nomic growth has been stable in the last five years at an average rate of 5.9%, ranked second af-ter China with 7.8%.

He said Indonesia’s econom ic fundamentals are strong, but the country is included in the ‘Frag-ile Five’ (together with India, Tur-key, South Africa and Brazil) be-cause of “perception”.

The tapering off by the U.S. on the monetary stimulus known as Quantitative Easing (QE) drove foreign investors to sell their stocks and has put pres-sure on developing countries, in-cluding Indonesia.

Indonesia’s current account

Key success in investing in the stock market, according to Kheng Ho, is “do not buy a cat in a sack. Learn about the compa-ny’s stocks by reading the news, financial reports and prospec-tuses. Then look for stocks that are cheap but from good compa-nies.”

In addition to that, Giring Ga-nesha (a member of the band Ni-dji) said, also look at the manage-ment of the company concerned.

“If the people are qualified, most likely the company will grow well.”

If Kheng Ho focuses in invest-ing on the trading floor, Giring prefers to diversify by investing not only in shares but also in mutual funds, gold and proper-ty. The habit of investing is sup-posed to be a lifestyle of Indone-sians today, he said.

“This makes future more se-cure and our lives will be hap-pier.”

deficit is quite large at $8.4 bil-lion in the third quarter of the year but is estimated to decline to $3.1.

According to Budi Hikmat, an economist at PT Bahana Securi-ties, the deficit is mainly due to the increase of consumption of the middle-class whose number has increased significantly.

“For example, in property now people use lightweight steel roofs while domestic production is not sufficient. So it must be import-ed,” he said.

To reduce imports of consum-er goods, the government has recently raised the tax on the sales of imported luxu ry goods by 150%. Meanwhile, to encour-age the improvement of domestic production, the government has launched a number of packages of fiscal incentives.

Until now, consumption is still the dominant element in supporting economic growth in Indonesia. Ideally, to sustain growth export-based invest-ments should be the main pil-lar, said Ito Warsito, President

Investment in the Stock MarketAll this time, investment in

the stock market is known to be ‘high risk, high return’.

“High risk is basically caused by ignorance of investors con-cerned, “ said Lo Kheng Ho, an individual investor who has been on the trading floor for 24 years and now has assets worth tril-lions of rupiah, making him the largest individual investor today.

“There is no investment instru ment that can match re-turns provided by stocks. For ex-ample, I bought Charoen Pok-phand’s stock at Rp400 per sheet in 2002. Now the price is Rp5.200. Due to the stock split several times before, the total stock value becomes 6000 times higher than the original one. Which investment instru ment can give such big benefits? We seem to have a moneymak ing machine,” he said.

JAKARTA (TPP) – Finance Minister Chatib Basri has said that Indonesia’s economic growth in 2013 and 2014 has beeen designed to slow down to overcome the deficit in state budget revenues and expenditure. One of the ways is by reducing imports of luxury goods consumption.

Various step have been taken to increase domestic investment, especially in the stock market, through education and socialization by ways of seminars, exhibitions and gallery investments in campuses; facilitating the engagement of individual investors with intensified online selling stock; simplification of trading rules such as the size of one lot, which will be reduced to 100 from 500.

The renovation of Kota Tua is gaining momentum as Jakar-ta Governor Joko Widodo has issued an instruction to form a consortium to revitalize Jakar-ta’s historical district.

Setyono Djuandi Darmono, President Director of PT Jababe-ka, has invited national figures in the fields of business and cul-ture to take part in the effort by forming PT Pembangunan Kota Tua Jakarta (PEMKOT).

Together with the experts on architecture and art history un-der the Jakarta Endowment for Art and Heritage (JEFAH), PT PEMKOT will has up three short-term targets. First, to revitalize Fatahillah Square. Second, im-plement the re-usage of the Fa-tahillah Post Office –to serve as a visitor center—and the Jakar-ta Museum of Contemporary Art. Third, to hold Kota Tua Fi-esta at the Fatahillah Square in the form of performing arts, cu-linary festivals and community gatherings.

The program is supported by PT Pos Indonesia as corporate sponsor.

In the Kota Tua area as many as 134 Dutch colonial buildings are found. Only five buildings are owned by the Jakarta Provincial Government, namely the Jakar-ta History Museum, Maritime Museum, Conservation Center, Puppet Museum and the Muse-um of Fine Arts and Ceramics.

To attract more tourists to Kota Tua, the area will also fea-ture various facilities such as ho-

tels, restaurants, and galleries. Street vendors (PKL) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be given a place to develop their businesses.

JEFAH is chaired by Goe-nawan Mohamad, with Advisor on Institutional Relations Sofyan Djalil (Former Minister of SOEs), Advisor on Fine Arts and Mu-seum Oei Hong Dijen, and Ar-chitecture and Heritage Advisor Han Awal as members. Mean-while, President Director of PT

Tycoons, Experts Take on Revitalization of Kota Tua

PEMKOT is Lin Che Wei, who is concurrently Director of JE-FAH, and Teten Masduki (Indo-nesia Corruption Watch) as Dep-uty Director JEFAH.

In the Board of Trustees (stockholders) are SD Darmono (Jababeka), Edwin Soeryadjaya (Saratoga), Hendro Gondokusu-mo (Intiland), Trihatma K. Hal-iman (Agung Podomoro), Har-un Hajadi (Ciputra), Alexander Kusuma (Agung Sedayu), Boyke Gozali (Plaza Indonesia), Murda-

ya Poo (Central Cipta Murdaya Group) and others.

In the Board of Advisors of JE-FAH representing the Jakarta government are Deputy Gover-nor for Tourism and Culture Syl-viana Murni, Head of Jakarta Disparbud Arie Budiman, and Deputy Governor of the Spatial Planning and Environment Sar-wo Handayani.

SD Darmono said, “This group was formed to ease the burden of the government of Jakarta to

handle Kota Tua, which is complicated and time-con-suming.”

He added that revitaliza-tion of Kota Tua is a joint ef-fort and is supported by the private sector, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta.

“In addition, in the future we also hope to form work-ing groups involving stake-holders and community groups who care for Kota Tua,” said Darmono.

Regarding funding, Gov-ernor Joko Widodo sepa-rately said that the govern-ment will provide funds up to Rp 150 billion.

“The renovation of Kota Tua will be funded entirely by the city’s budget. Private and state-owned buildings will be repaired by sepa-rate budgets. And for this project Jakarta Provincial Government will spend ap-proximately Rp 150 billion to revitalize Kota Tua as an exclusive region,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Di-rector of PT PEMKOT Lin Che Wei said that each shareholder will spend $10 million on PT Pengemban-gan Kota Tua Jakarta. So far, at least ten entrepre-neurs have signed up.

“The government budget will be channeled through local work units,” said Head of Tourism Arie Budiman.

bloomberg.com

Finance Minister Chatib Basri said that to reduce imports of consumer goods, the government in the near future will raise tax on imported luxury sales goods by 150%. Meanwhile, to encourage the improvement of domestic production, the government has launched a number of packages of fiscal incentives.

Director of Indonesia Stock Ex-change.

“At this time, only a third of investment is accounted for the rate of economic growth.”

Various step have been tak-

en to increase domestic invest-ment, especially in the stock market, through education and socialization by ways of semi-nars, exhibitions and gallery in-vestments in campuses; facilitat-

ing the engagement of individual investors with intensified online selling stock; simplification of trading rules such as the size of one lot, which will be reduced to 100 from 500.

In the Kota Tua area as many as 134 Dutch colonial buildings are found. Only five buildings are owned by the Jakarta Provincial Government, namely the Jakarta History Museum, Maritime Museum, Conservation Center, Puppet Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics.

SPECIAL REPORT

Developing Tourism,Developing the Nation– Page C1

Mari Elka PangestuMinister of Tourism and Creative Economy

(Menparekraf)

On August 30, 1963, the Moscow-Wash-ington hotline be-came operation-al as a response to

the October 1962 Cuban mis-sile crisis. Its primary purpose was to prevent a nuclear conflict that could result from a misun-derstanding between the Soviet Union and the United States. It also offered a fast, secure chan-nel of communication in case of other emergencies.

The first hotline used teletype and encryption and wasn’t ac-tually a telephone at that time, but it was considered revolution-ary and more reliable and less prone to interception than a reg-ular transatlantic phone call. The connection established in 1963 was for written communi-cations only. A voice component was added decades later as the system evolved from an under-sea telegraph cable to today’s ex-

hotline is still operational. Its ad-vantages include safety and re-liability, as well as the possibil-ity of written communication, which is particularly important in times of crisis, when stakes are high and every word needs to be chosen with care.

Most of the operating hotlines exist among major nuclear pow-ers because they provide a di-rect and secure communication channel in relations where every mistake or delay could be fatal. However, with technical prog-ress new options for the use of hotlines appear. The U.S. and Russia plan to establish a direct link in order to prevent a poten-tial conflict in cyber space. On the one hand, this indicates the importance of securing cyber-space and resolving the infor-mation security problem. On the other hand, it emphasizes the importance of direct communi-cation between the states and the creation of special and se-cure channels.

So, in the dynamic, complex and highly interconnected inter-national political system of to-day, hotlines remain an effective diplomatic instrument. In many ways, they complement the pos-sibilities offered by Internet diplo-macy. Moreover, new problems that gain prominence on the in-ternational agenda of Asia Pacif-ic, such as information security, require hotlines and direct com-munication links of their own in order to stabilize interstate rela-tions.

By Prof. Anak Agung Banyu Perwita, PhD

The Network Diplomacy Millenniumeration and trust. Today, U.S. and Russian leaders prefer to communicate by telephone.

In 2008, an e-mail line was also established. It uses a dedi-cated and encrypted computer line, based on modern technol-ogies such as satellite and fiber optic cable. This line provides chat facilities for coordination among users as well as e-mail for text messages. There’s no in-formation whether this e-mail connection among leaders has ever been used, and according to the media, the telephone line seems to be much more conve-nient and frequently used.

U.S. and Russian leaders con-tinue to make telephone calls in extraordinary situations when they arise, while foreign minis-tries are responsible for the rou-tine process of dialogue between countries. Typically, the hotline is necessary in cases that re-quire personal communica-tion, such as in the aftermath of large-scale terrorist attacks and tragedies, when the leaders are committed to personally ex-press condolences. For example, Putin and his American coun-terpart Barack Obama spoke on the telephone after the terrorist attacks in Boston.

Hotlines also exist among major nuclear powers, such as the U.S. and China, the U.S. and UK, China and France, In-dia and Pakistan, etc. Original-ly, hotlines were intended for the exchange of information and

consultations in case of crisis. The Moscow-Washington hotline is a classic example of Cold War diplomacy, and its purpose was to provide a channel of commu-nication for the leaders of states locked in conflict, mistrusting each other and with only limit-ed interaction. But since then, the diplomatic practice has changed.

With the end of Cold War at the end of the twentieth centu-ry and the increased interdepen-dence of states, the diplomatic practice has changed, reflecting the transformation of contempo-rary international politics. Inter-national relations in the twenty-first century are multilevel and multifaceted, the number of in-ternational actors has increased and new channels for communi-cation have appeared. Such fo-rums as the G8, G20, BRICS, and APEC provide an opportuni-ty for leaders to discuss bilateral and global problems face-to-face. The new term “networked diplo-macy” was included in the offi-cial Concept of the Foreign Pol-icy of Russia for such high-level diplomacy.

Moreover, public diplomacy, aimed at citizens of other states, has emerged as an effective practice. Presently, diplomats and even heads of states use so-cial networks and the Internet in order to communicate with the wider public. This practice is called ‘e-diplomacy’ or ‘digital diplomacy’. In 2010 Obama jok-

ingly proposed that he and then-Russian President Dmitry Med-vedev abandon the hotline in favor of communication by Twit-ter.

The information revolution and emergence of new Internet technologies has changed both public and official diplomacy, which at present is conducted through mobile phones, e-mails and social networks in addition to traditional telephones and tele-types. However, the WikiLeaks incident as well as NSA former contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about methods of American intelligence-gather-ing operations, indicate that the problem of information securi-ty remains prominent. E-mails and telephone calls can be inter-cepted, resulting in reputational as well as strategic costs. Thus, in the era of wide information ac-cess through the Internet, a way to conduct secure diplomacy is still relevant.

The reliability of communica-tion channels is especially impor-tant if national and internation-al security issues are discussed. That’s why most of the “hotlines” established back in the Cold War are still in use. Moreover, in 2011 the United States offered to host such a hotline with Iran in order to stabilize the relationship be-tween the states and prevent the escalation of conflict in the Mid-dle East.

The Moscow–Washington

Hendra Manurung is currently is Permanent Lecturer of International Relations at Faculty of Business and International Relations, President University, City of Jababeka, Cikarang, West Java, Indonesia. He graduated from Sankt Petersburg State University, the Russian Federation.

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Opinionwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

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The values in the Dasasila Band-ung, which were the strategic output from the 1955 Asia-

Africa Conference, still have im-portant meaning and are still contextual in the current region-al and global interactions. These values became the foundation of cooperation between Asian and African nations in their fight against neo-colonialism in the political, economic and social-culture sectors. Ties with Afri-can nations are deemed a high priority as evident with President Susilo Bambang Yud-hoyono’s recent visit to Africa.

In the ever changing dynam-ics of international relations, Asian-African nations are faced

donesians and Africans were rel-atively still limited.

That’s why the need to en-hance and improve dialogs among groups in various formal and informal meetings must also involve various community groups, including academicians both in Asia and Africa. Such di-alogs could lead to the establish-ment of some kind of center for African studies in various uni-versities across the country.

In other words, communi-ty groups in Asia and Africa and non-governmental organi-zations in their respective com-munities have to play a role as “agenda initiators” and as “agen-da con¬trollers” to boost interac-tions among them while at the same time complement the offi-cial interactions in the govern-ment level.

By Hendra Manurung

RI and Strategic PartnershipChallenges in Africa

with three major challenges: economic development, security and global peace, and global po-litical restructuring.

In the efforts to enhance eco-nomic and trade interactions be-tween Asian and African coun-tries, especially with Indo¬nesia, there are at least two agenda that need to be addressed.

First, Asian-African nations have to strengthen their infor-mation networks on trade and investment in order to under-stand the market dimensions of both continents more compre-hensively. Indonesia also needs to strengthen its information network to improve its compet-itiveness among several neigh-boring countries that are aim-ing to expand their markets in Africa.

Secondly, institutional regu-

lations between both continents should also be improved in order to strengthen strategic dialogs between Asian and African na-tions to build a new awareness about business opportunities for Asian-African entrepreneurs.

High economic cost, limit-ed infrastructure and insuffi-cient number of trained human resources and the complicat-ed legal system in many African countries will become the main obstacles in enhancing trade and investment volumes between In-donesia and several big African countries.

In the political sector, the de-mand to reform the United Na-tions’ Security Council, espe-cially from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations, will depend on the willingness of de-veloping countries to reach a

consensus to reach a common stance. In many cases, NAM has proven to be “a house divid-ed” when handling matters re-lated to multilateralism, includ-ing the UN.

Given the developments men-tioned above, the chance to build a new Asia-Africa strategic part-nership is still open wide. How-ever, the increase of level and in-teraction intensity will not only rely on the traditional “G to G” relations but it will also involve “G to Business”, “B to B” and even “People to People” relations. The globalization phenomenon with its multidimensional ele-ment needs to function as the motor to create a more system-atic intersociety interaction that offers mutually beneficial inter-actions between Indonesia and Africa. The interactions between the Asian society, including In-

The new strategic partnership with Africa offers many challeng-es and opportunities. Globaliza-tion has provided alternative op-tions in developing the relations level and intensity between Indo-nesia and Africa. However, to op-timize the new strategy options, a high political commitment is needed.

Indonesia is expected to make this as one of its foreign policy priorities in order to enhance in-teractions with African nations so that the new strategic part-nership can be implemented re-alistically to promote economic, social and political developments in the new international rela-tions era.

The writer is head of the International Relations Studies program, President University, Jababeka, Cikarang.

The new strategic partnership with Africa

offers many challenges and opportunities.

Globalization has provided alternative options in

developing the relations level and intensity

between Indonesia and Africa. However, to

optimize the new strategy options, a high political commitment is needed.

The information revolution and emergence of new Internet technologies has changed both public and official diplomacy, which at present is conducted through mobile phones, e-mails and social networks in addition to traditional telephones and teletypes. However, the WikiLeaks incident as well as NSA former contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about methods of American intelligence-gathering operations, indicate that the problem of information security remains prominent.

change of data by both satellite and fiber optic cables.

By 1990, U.S. presidents had used the text-only hotline more than fifteen times. President Lyndon B. Johnson notably used it during the six-day Arab-Israe-li war in 1967 in order to prevent internationalization and escala-tion of the conflict.

Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counter-part Mikhail Gorbachev were the last leaders who exchanged messages via the hotline. In 1991, the Kremlin and the White House established a direct tele-phone line, which was often used by George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin. Since then, telephone calls have replaced written mes-sages as the preferred mode of communication between the na-tions’ leaders. The line proved helpful in the improvement of bi-lateral relations. Vladimir Pu-tin’s call to Bush after the events of September 11, 2001 became famous as a step towards coop-

in the dynamic, complex and highly interconnected international political system of today, hotlines remain an effective diplomatic instrument. In many ways, they complement the possibilities offered by Internet diplomacy. Moreover, new problems that gain prominence on the international agenda of Asia Pacific, such as information security, require hotlines and direct communication links of their own in order to stabilize interstate relations.

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Internationalwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Minister of Environment Bal-thasar Kambuaya and the Min-ister of Environment of Poland, Marcin Korolec, signed an MoU on cooperation in the environ-mental field (20/11). The MoU was signed by both parties on the sidelines of the 19th COP held in Warsaw, Poland.

The Memorandum of Under-

standing is expected to be the basis to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in terms of environmental protec-tion and improvement, particu-larly in terms of climate change, environmental technologies, sustainable environmental de-velopment, as well as the protec-tion of the ozone layer.

According to Indonesian Am-bassador to Poland Darmansjah Djumala, the MoU is the basis for the development of Indonesia-Poland cooperation in the field of the environment and as a follow-up and results of the Indonesian president’s visit to Poland in ear-ly September this year.

“The two countries agreed to implement the MoU in the form of cooperation in the field of waste management and water treatment in the various regions and provinces in Indonesia,” he said in a release to the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s portal.

The signing of the MoU in the field of environment, said Am-bassador Djumala, was time-ly because in recent years there have been a number of Indone-sian and Polish companies sign-ing cooperation agreement in the field of green technology, such as wind turbines, biomass produc-tion, and waste management plant.

Indonesia, Poland Sign Cooperation in Environmental Field

Indonesia and Iran once again sat at the negotiating table to continue discussions on efforts to increase market and trade ac-cess. The discussions were made in Ahad (11/17), at the Iranian Central Office Trade Organiza-tion.

“This meeting is very impor-tant with the aim to consolidate perception and form a common ground for the next negotiation stage,” said a release by the Teh-ran Indonesian Embassy to the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s web-site.

This meeting is also impor-tant for showing goodwill of both parties in efforts to advance bi-lateral cooperation in the sector of trade, after this meeting had been postponed several times since 2010.

In this meeting, the Indo-nesian Delegation was led by Syamsul Bahri, Director of Bi-lateral Cooperation of the Indo-nesian Ministry of Trade, com-prising representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Ministry of In-dustry, and the Tehran Indone-sian Embassy.

Based on Indonesian Em-bassy’s notes, Indonesia-Iran trade value grew significantly in the last five years. However, 2012 saw a decrease caused by a wrong mindset and excessive concern from the stakeholders in Indonesia following the unilater-al sanction on Iran.

Recorded in 2012, besides the decrease in value, bilateral trade surplus was on Iran’s side.

“The Tehran Indonesian Em-bassy, in line with its function, will continue to advance bilat-eral cooperation for national in-terest. In 2013, the Indonesian Embassy succeeded in pushing for the founding of the Iran Per-manent Committee to the Indo-

nesian Chamber of Commerce, and the Indonesian Joint Busi-ness Council to the Chamber of Commerce of both nations.”

In addition, the Indonesian Embassy also managed to facil-itate the visit of hundreds of Ira-nian business people to Indone-sia, primarily to the Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) 2013 event, and the biggest foreign trade mission visit in the history of the Cham-ber of Commerce, which was to Iran.

During dinner with the Indo-nesian Embassy’s “Big Family” at Wisma Duta, Indonesian Am-bassador to Iran Dian W. said that each trade negotiation will bring actual benefit to stakehold-ers in Indonesia, and not just to fulfill a political commitment.

“So that our efforts to cash-in on good sustainable diplomat-ic relations can also be enjoyed by the people in the homeland,” said Ambassador Dian.

Indonesia, Iran to Increase Market and Trade Access

“As an archipela-go country, In-donesia has huge interest in strengthen-

ing maritime cooperation espe-cially to handle illegal fishing issues (IUU Fishing) and mari-time connectivity development nationwide or in ASEAN”. This was confirmed by Jose Tavares, the Director of ASEAN Politics-Security, Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation (KSA), the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the opening ceremony of ASEAN-European Union (EU) Summit Dialog on Maritime Co-operation in Jakarta (18/11).

According to him, further handling on both issues could make use of the existing regional mechanisms, including ASEAN-European Union cooperations.

Also giving opening speech-es were Le Luong Minh, ASE-AN Secretary General, and Ugo Astuto, Director of South and Southeast Asia, European Union External Action Service (EEAS). Also present was Olof Skoog, Head of EU Delegation to Indo-nesia, Brunei Darussalam, and ASEAN.

The dialog was held in cooper-ation between Directorate Gen-eral of KSA, the Indonesian Min-istry of Foreign Affairs and EEAS as well as Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (READI), which was held by the Habibie Center.

ASEAN, EU Meet for Maritime Cooperation Dialogue

The dialog was held with the purpose of giving opportuni-ties to related stakeholders to exchange views to strengthen maritime cooperation between ASEAN and the EU.

The dialog participants were government officials, academi-cians and researchers from the think-tank institutions of In-donesia and all other ASEAN countries, as well as the EU.

M.I. Derry Aman, Acting Di-rector of Speaking Partner and Inter Region, Directorate Gener-al of KSA, the Indonesian Min-istry of Foreign Affairs, especial-ly pointed out the importance of following up the results and rec-ommendations of the dialog in order to get acknowledgement and approval either in Senior Official Meeting (SOM) or ASE-AN and the EU Foreign Minis-ters.

Hence, the discussion results might be used as official refer-ence and benefited as advanc-ing maritime cooperation of the two parties in the field of mari-time cooperation.

As part of the Dialog, a Public Forum was also held in Jakarta on 19 November 2013. This Pub-lic Forum took the theme of “To-wards an Integrated Maritime Cooperation: Exchange of Les-sons and Experiences between ASEAN and the EU”. This Pub-lic Forum was an open discus-sion forum which involved stake-holders and society as well as the media.

In the Public Forum, Ambas-sador Agus Sriyono, Deputy in the Coordination of Foreign Pol-itics, the Indonesian Coordinat-ing Ministry of Politics Human Rights and Security, gave the remarks which basically point-ed out the need of implementing

concrete maritime cooperation between ASEAN and the EU.

This was as mentioned in Bandar Seri Begawan Plan of Action to Strengthen the ASE-AN-EU Enhanced Partnership 2013-2017 where both parties were expected to be able to share knowledge and experiences.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, the Dep-uty Secretary of Vice President in Politics, the Secretariate of In-donesian Vice President, who is also chairman of the Institute of Democracy and Human Rights, the Habibie Center, said that maritime issues had two impor-tant aspects, source of income as well as source of conflicts.

Based on Indonesian Embassy’s notes, Indonesia-Iran trade value grew significantly in the last five years. However, 2012 saw a decrease caused by a wrong mindset and excessive concern from the stakeholders in Indonesia following the unilateral sanction on Iran.

deplu.go.id

Maritime issues were al-ways critical and had many challenges which were nec-essary to handle through regional cooperations. The EU involvement was further seen as inspiration not role model to ASEAN. The fo-rum could create holistic-integrative-comprehensive perspectives and contribute to the solutions which were beneficial to all parties.

Maritime cooperation is-sues included many tradi-tional and non-traditional issues, among others were illegal fishing; sea security; navigation security; piracy and robbery at sea; efforts of maintaining sea environ-ment, conservation of sea biodiversity sources, sea tourism, and maritime con-nectivity.

Other important issues were efforts of overcoming border bilateral or regional disputes, including peace-settlement efforts in relation to South China Sea.

The participants of the Dialog and Public Forum thought that the efforts of strengthening maritime co-operation should be carried out by realizing the nature of maritime issues which were complex and cross-cutting involving many oth-er areas.

“Therefore, the handling shall and need to be con-ducted through more holis-tic and comprehensive ap-proaches by involving the related stakeholders”.

The dialog was held with the purpose of giving opportunities to related stakeholders to exchange views to strengthen maritime cooperation between ASEAN and the EU.

The dialog was held in cooperation between Directorate General of KSA, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and EEAS as well as Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (READI), which was held by the Habibie Center.

The MoU was signed by both parties on the sidelines of the 19th COP held in Warsaw, Poland.

According to Indonesian Ambassador to Poland Darmansjah Djumala, the MoU is the basis for the development of Indonesia-Poland cooperation in the field of the environment and as a follow-up and results of the Indonesian president’s visit to Poland in early September this year.

kemlu.go.id

Darmansjah DjumalaIndonesian Ambassador to Poland

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ASEAN Reviewwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Asean Position In The Global Economy

With a total population ASE-AN is among the largest and at-tractive market in the region, af-ter China and India. It has a very fast increasing middle class with rather high purchasing power. In addition ASEAN has a huge, but still less-developed group of SME’s (small & medium enter-prises).

While in terms of economic growth, until 2011 ASEAN has been rated to be among the fast-est in the world with an average growth of more than 5%.

ASEAN economic development has thus far shown an upward trend, particularly in the areas of GDP growth, GDP per capita and increased trade. Current ac-count balance and inflation has been under control.

ASEAN is strategically located in East Asia which is becoming the center of gravity of the glob-al.

ASEAN Trade Since the year 2000 ASE-

AN trade statistics shows that the trade performance has been quite remarkable. Total trade was only $576 million in 2000 but went up immensely to $2.3 trillion in 2011 and went slight-ly up to $2.4 trillion in 2012. The 2013 figure is expected to be low-er because of the uncertain de-velopments in the global econo-my affecting most countries in the world.

The main trade partners in 2011 are: Intra-ASEAN 25%; China 12%; Japan 11%; EU-27

10%; USA 8%; and ROK (South Korea 5%). The Intra-ASEAN trade figure is considered too small; it is important to boost up Intra-ASEAN trade. Especial-ly for countries like Indonesia which is one of the smallest con-tributor of intra-regional trade.

Exports

The top 10 ASEAN exports by products show that electron-ics, electrical machinery con-tributes the largest share, fol-lowed by mineral fuels and oils and also machinery, applianc-

It will be recalled that ASEAN was established some 46 years ago on 8 August 1967 by Indone-sia, Malaysia, Thailand,

the Philippines and Singapore. Since then ASEAN’s member-ship has expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Viet-nam and Myanmar. It has now become the well-known ASEAN 10.

With all its many shortcom-ings, ASEAN has slowly but surely become a regional group-ing of 10 nations with a sizeable aggregate economic size. The fol-lowing comparative GDP data shows that ASEAN has devel-oped to become the 5th largest economy in the global economy. After the European Union, USA, China and Japan.

No. Country GDP($ billion)

1 European Union 27 17,578

2 USA 15,094

3 China 7,298

4 Japan 5,869

5 ASEAN 2,178

6 Russia 1,850

7 Canada 1,737

8 India 1,676

9 Australia-New Zealand 1,650

10 South Korea 1,116

Source: ASEAN Sec, IMF

By Atmono Suryo

es and nuclear reactors. It is not clear why they are included and which countries are the export-ing countries. Rubber & appli-ances are among the 10 largest export products.

FDI (foreign direct investment)In addition to trade foreign di-

rect investment (FDI) is of cru-cial importance to ASEAN. The cumulative FDI net inflow to ASEAN, during the period 2006-2011 is as follows:

Until 2011 the major FDI source countries are: EU, ASE-

AN, Japan, USA and China, while the main receiving coun-tries are Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia

ASEAN Economic CommunityA strategic step was taken

by ASEAN with its decision to move towards regional integra-tion and in particular to estab-lish the ASEAN Community by 2015, underpinned by three pil-lars: the ASEAN Political-Securi-ty Community, the ASEAN Eco-nomic Community (AEC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Com-

munity. Basically ASEAN aims to provide peace, security, eco-nomic growth and social prog-ress for its member countries.

The ASEAN Economic Com-munity aims to establish the fol-lowing goals: a) a single market and produc-

tion baseb) a highly competitive economic

regionc) a region of equitable economic

development d) a region fully integrated into

the global economy

ASEAN single market concept includes the Free flow of goods – services – investment and skilled labor. The question is whether the single market and the free flow concepts will also be able to increase sufficiently intra-ASE-AN trade and investment and strengthen ASEAN’s collective and integrated economy in fac-ing the challenges of the global economy.

Tasks ahead• ASEANhasachieved consid-

erable progress. But it is re-alized that the tasks ahead in the area of regional eco-nomic development are still enormous. They are mani-fold and in a way very com-plex;

• TheimmediatetaskforASE-AN, however, is to beef up its efforts to establish the ASE-AN Community by 2015;

• TheASEANcommunity,(in-cluding the political commu-nity, which is not eager to promote economic integra-tion) must be fully aware that ASEAN will be facing a very competitive external econo-my in the Asia-Pacific region and in the global economy;

• Through closer cooperationand economic integration ASEAN has the potentials to become another power-house in the Asia-Pacific re-gion. And to play an increas-ingly active role in the global economy.

The writer is former ambassador to the EU.

With all its many shortcomings, ASEAN has slowly but surely become a regional grouping of 10 nations with a sizeable aggregate economic size. ASEAN has developed to become the 5th largest economy in the global economy. After the European Union, USA, China and Japan.

ASEAN Trade, 2011 - 2012 (as of July 2013)

value in US$ million; change in percent

Country2011 2012 Year-on-year change

Exports Imports Total trade Exports Imports Total Trade Exports Imports Total Trade

Brunei Darussalam 12,362.3 2,460.0 14,822.3 13,182.2 3,674.1 16,856.3 6.6 49.4 13.7

Cambodia 6,710.6 6,133.6 12,844.1 7,434.9 11,228.8 18,663.7 10.8 83.1 45.3

Indonesia 203,496.7 177,453.6 380,923.3 190,031.8 191,689.5 381,721.3 (6.6) 8.0 0.2

Lao PDR 1,746.5 2,209.4 3,955.9 2,655.2 3,503.5 6,158.8 52.0 58.6 55.7

Malaysia 226,179.1 187,542.8 415,721.9 227,387.3 196,615.5 424,002.8 (0.3) 4.8 2.0

Myanmar 8,119.2 6,805.9 14,925.1 7,509.8 6,525.9 14,035.7 (7.5) (4.1) (6.0)

The Philippines 48,042.2 63,709.4 111,751.6 51,995.2 65,386.4 117,381.6 8.2 2.6 5.0

Singapore 409,443.5 365,709.1 775,152.6 409,772.1 380,986.8 790,758.9 0.1 4.2 2.0

Thailand 228,820.7 230,083.6 458,904.4 229,524.2 247,777.7 477,301.9 0.3 7.7 4.0

Vietnam 95,365.6 104,216.5 199,582.1 114,510.7 113,282.5 227,703.3 20.1 8.7 14.1

ASEAN 1,242,266.4 1,146,305.9 2,388,592.3 1,254,003.6 1,220,670.7 2,474,674.3 0.9 6.5 3.6

Source: ASEAN MerchandiseTrade Statistics Database (compiled/computed from data submission, publication and/or websites of ASEAN Member States’ national, ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) units, national statistics offices, customs departments/agencies, or central banks)

Top 10 ASEAN exportsby products (2011)

Electronics, electrical machinery (20.2%)Mineral fuels, oils (18.4%)

Nuclear reactors, machinery & appliances (10.9%)Rubber & articles (4.2%)

Business services & misc. repairs (4.1%)Animal/vegetable oils & products (3.8%)Plastics & articles (3.0%)

Organic chemicals (3.0%)

Vehicles & parts (2.5%)

Precious stones, jewelery (2.1%)Source: ASEAN Stats, ASEAN Secretariat

The cumulative FDInet inflow to ASEAN2006 - 2011

by major source country by receiving country

Notes: 2011 data are pre-liminary figures and exclude Myanmar’s data and Singa-pore’s data on inter-company loan for 2011 with intra/extra-ASEAN breakdown shown are estimated by the ASEAN Secretariat since the data are presently not available.

Source: ASEAN FDI Database

EU19.5%

ASEAN 16.5%

Japan 12%USA

9%

Others39%

China 4%

Indonesia 13.1%

Lao PDR 0.4%

Malaysia 9.9%

Myanmar 0.8%

Philippines 2.6%

Singapore 50.9%

Thailand 11.3%

Vietnam 9.3%

BruneiDarussalam 0.7%

Cambodia 1.0%

A5

Law & Regulationwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Not all documents need a stamp duty stamp and please bear in mind that there is no requirement

to have a stamp duty on a letter of agreement in order to make it lawful.

The Use of Stamp Duty in Documents

a. A letter of agreement and oth-er letters that were needed as evidence of an action, reality or situation;

b. Documents from notary pub-lic, including the copies;

c. Documents made by an offi-cial who had been given the authority to issue land certif-icates (Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah) including the copies;

d. A letter that involved mon-ey worth more than Rp1,000,000,- (one million):• Whichstatedthatthemon-

ey had been received;

f. Securities under whatev-er name or form if the nom-inal is worth more than Rp1,000,000,- (one million ru-piah).

Aside from regulating the types of documents that need to have a stamp duty, it also regu-lated documents that didn’t need a stamp duty related to internal corporate transactions, related to tax payment and state docu-ments such as:

A document that serves as ev-•idence on the storage of goods,

evidence on the delivery of goods for sale that were paid by the sender and other let-ters.Any form of certificate.•Salary receipt, waiting fee, •pension fund, allowance and other payments related to works and letters that were submitted to get the payment.Receipt related to the state •money, regional money and from banks.Receipt on any tax and other •state, regional and bank in-come.

By Paulus Khierawan

Almost every indi-vidual has used a stamp duty stamp on letters or doc-uments that con-

tain sales-purchase agreements, leasing agreements, contracts of work and others. Many consid-er that an agreement without a duty stamp is invalid and thus take the trouble to renew their agreement with a stamp duty. But is an agreement without a stamp duty really invalid?

The validity of an agreement has been stipulated under Civ-il Code (KUHPdt) Article 1320 KUHPdt, which requires one to meet these four conditions:• That they made a binding

agreement;• They have competence to

make an agreement;• It contains a certain issue;

and• There iscause thatmakes it

valid.

It is clearly stated that an agreement that had met the re-quirements under article 1320 of KUHPdt is valid even with the absence of a stamp duty. The next question is, is it necessary to have duty stamps on docu-ments?

The use of stamp duty is reg-ulated under Law No.13/1985. The regulation stated that the customs imposed on the stamp duty is treated as tax for the doc-ument. Article 1 clause 2 of Law No.13/1985 stated that a docu-ment is a paper that contains a writing that has a meaning or intention of an action, or that explained a situation or reali-ty of an individual and/or par-ties concerned. Article 2(2) ex-plained the types of documents that need to use stamp duty:

• Which stated a financialstatement or saving in a bank account;

• Which contains informa-tion of a savings balance in a bank;

• Which contains a confes-sion about a total amount of debts or that some of them had been repaid or were be-ing calculated;

e. Valuable notes such as prom-issory notes and checks with nominal worth more than Rp1,000,000,- (one million ru-piah);

The use of stamp duty is regulated under Law No.13/1985. The regulation stated that the customs imposed on the stamp duty is treated as tax for the document. Article 1 clause 2 of Law No.13/1985 stated that a document is a paper that contains a writing that has a meaning or intention of an action, or that explained a situation or reality of an individual and/or parties concerned.

Many consider that an agreement without a duty stamp is invalid and thus take the trouble to renew their agreement with a stamp duty. Receipts issued for internal or-•ganization needs.Documents about savings, •payment by a bank, coopera-tives and other bodies in the related sector to the bank ac-count holder.A pawn letter issued by the •state-owned pawnshop com-pany Perum Pegadaian.

As such it is clear that not all documents need a stamp duty stamp and please bear in mind that there is no requirement to have a stamp duty on a letter of agreement in order to make it lawful.

A6

Propertywww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

By Andri MarsetiantoThe constant increase of Indonesia’s property

value in line with regional economic

growth showed that property investment

in Indonesia is one of investors’ favorites, for both local and foreign

investors, aside from capital market

investments.

Property as a FavoriteInvestment in 2013

Such condition is also contrib-uted by the stable macro-eco-nomic condition and a relatively stable benchmark banking rate at 5.75%.

The constant increase of In-donesia’s property value in line with regional economic growth showed that property invest-ment in Indonesia is one of in-vestors’ favorites, for both lo-cal and foreign investors, aside from capital market invest-ments. Developers and schools overseas have expressed their readiness to build cooperation with Indonesian developers to develop property projects in po-tential areas. Toyota Group and Lippo Karawaci in Cikarang, Bekasi developed apartments-houses, AEON-Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) built a shopping center in BSD city, Tangerang and Lotte Group with Cipu-tra in Jakarta, furniture retail-er (IKEA with Alam Sutera in Tangerang, premium houses by BSD with Land at BSD city, Tangerang and an education park in Jababeka.

However, our property inves-tors’ optimism will be loomed by inflation risks which will in-crease in line with the govern-ment’s plan to increase subsi-dized fuel price. The policy will bring impacts on the house-ownership/apartment-owner-ship (KPR/KPA) loan rate and it will increase prices of staples and building materials. Proper-ty sales will be affected in the

short term to medium term and developers will anticipate sub-sidized fuel price adjustments. Bank Indonesia will likely adjust the BI rate to curb inflation rate caused by the price increase and the public’s weaker purchasing power, especially ahead of Idul Fitri.

That’s why amid the optimism of foreign investors, developers and retailers about our country’s economic and property pros-pects we should have more con-fidence to start mapping several potential areas before the con-dition changes after the govern-ment adjusts the subsidized fuel prices in the near future. The value in property investment is not determined international-ly as in the prices of other in-vestment commodities (such as gold). The prices are local, based on property demand and offer in the areas and based on the prop-erty project development concept on whether it would develop a city or whether the orientation was merely as the main support-ing facility.

“Know Your Value,Know Your Property”

Our national media often run adver-tisements on prop-erty in Australia, Singapore, Malay-

sia, New Zealand and others. This shows that Indonesian in-vestors are highly potential tar-gets in line with the growth of our middle-income class that have reached 50–60 million peo-ple. We are given property in-vestment options in our neigh-boring countries, but this can also be seen as an indicator that property markets in those coun-tries are stagnant. On the other hand, property investment op-tions (in Jabodetabek) no lon-ger offer plots of land but rath-er residences, apartments, and commercial spaces with all their supporting facilities

The good news is that some of our major property developers such as Bumi Serpong Damai, Agung Podomoro, Lippo Kara-waci and Alam Sutera man-aged to post corporate earning growths of more than 50% on average and net profit growth of more than 100% in the first quarter of 2013. The income growth was contributed by sales growth in the development of ar-eas (houses, shop-houses, plots of land), increasing hotel occu-pancy rate, higher leasing price and occupancy of commercial properties and joint property de-velopment with foreign investors.

Amid the optimism of foreign investors, developers and retailers about our country’s economic and property prospects we should have more confidence to start mapping several potential areas before the condition changes after the government adjusts the subsidized fuel prices in the near future.

www.atlant-invest.ru

A7

Infrastructurewww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Oil and Gas Infrastructure:Master Plan Prepared

The government itself has five oil and gas projects with great potential, and these have be-come the government’s foothold to meet domestic demand; these include the East Natuna Block, which has gas reserves of up to 46 trillion cubic feet (TCF) with an estimated total investment of US$ 41 billion, and which will start producing after being de-veloped for 10 years.

Then, there is Donggi Seno-ro, with a total investment of $1.7 billion, which is targeted to operate in 2015. Next is Tang-guh Train 3, with an investment amounting to $ 12 billion and a target production in 2018.

Subsequently, there is Mase-la project with total reserves of 9.18 TCF and total investment of

IGN Wiraatmaja, Expert Staff to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Re-sources on Institutional Relations and Strategic

Planning, said the issue of infra-structure is a very serious mat-ter for connecting producers and consumers of gas. All this time, the oil and gas infrastructure is still inadequate and it often be-comes an obstacle to the optimi-sation of the use of gas.

“Our effort is to map the prob-lems, then make a development

master plan. So we will create a master plan that is integrat-ed from the upstream sector, in-frastructure, and demand,” he said.

Wiraatmaja said that current-ly the proven reserve of natural gas is mostly located in the re-gion of Eastern Indonesia and the deep sea, whereas the big-gest number of consumers is in Western Indonesia. This requires infrastructure capable of linking the two regions.

Ministry of Finance to Establish PPP CenterMinistry of Finance will rea-

lise the formation of PPP Center in 2015, which will be in charge of determining financial support for public private partnership projects.

Special Caretaker of Director General of Debt Management of the Ministry of Finance (Kemen-keu), Robert Pakpahan, said that the public private partnership (PPP) Center will assist with the preparations of projects, deter-

$ 4.99 billion and a production target from the second quarter of 2018. The last one is the Cepu project with its 609 million bar-rels of reserves, and an estimat-ed investment of $ 6.6 billion, as well as production target in 2014 and capacity of 165 million bar-rels per day.

Currently, the government is also encouraging the develop-ment of a gas pipeline that is in-tegrated from the West of Su-matera to the East of Java. In addition, the government also continues to encourage the de-velopment of gas infrastructure in order to get it completed on time, such as the revitalisation of Arun LNG, construction of Arun - Belawan pipeline and develop-ment of Lampung FSRU.

mine the forms of financial sup-port, as well as evaluate progress of the projects in question.

The financial support being referred is provided via PT Pen-jaminan Infrastruktur Indone-sia (Infrastructure Guarantee Fund/IIGF) or through viability gap funding (VGF).

All this time, determination of financial support for public-pri-vate partnership (PPP) projects

has taken more than one year because of the length of licens-ing process that must be passed to obtain funding approval from the Finance Ministry.

“Its preparations can take up to one year, even more if calcu-lated with the tender,” he said on the sidelines of the launch of the PPP Book 2013.

He explained that the purpose of the PPP Center is to ascertain and evaluate, as well as to make

a decision or recommendation for a project. “Of course all this is done in collaboration with Bap-penas, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (Kemenko Perekonomian) and other minis-tries/agencies,” he said.

Ministry of Finance has estab-lished a PPP (KPS) assessment centre, but it has not been fo-cused enough because [the task] does not fall into the main duties

under the Fiscal Policy Office. In due course the PPP Center will be under Directorate General of Debt Management.

Realisation of PPP projects faces several challenges in the next year, including the increase in BI Rate to 7.5 percent, which can put the brakes on construc-tion loans.

Previously, Forum of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) during APEC summit in

2013 agreed to set up a PPP Cen-ter in Indonesia to identify bank-able PPP project plans and to resolve problems through proj-ect-based domestic coordina-tion.

In the same place, Bastary Panji Indra, Director of Pub-lic Private Partnership Develop-ment of the Ministry of National Development Planning/ Bappe-nas, said that establishment of

the PPP Center is quite a press-ing issue in relation to the im-plementation of infrastructure projects through the PPP mech-anism.

“The target is for the PPP Cen-ter to have been established by the end of next year and the Committee for the Acceleration of Priority Infrastructure Devel-opment (KPPIP), which exists to-day, will be the embryo of the PPP Center,” he explained.

The government is preparing a master plan for the development of oil and gas infrastructure to link the producing regions with consumers that are spread throughout Indonesia.

donggisenorolng.co.id

Donggi Senoro, with a total investment of $1.7 billion, is targeted to operate in 2015.

A8

Educationwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Unisadhuguna Testing Center (UTC) working with the British Council are hosting the IELTS Scholarship Ceremony, Monday (25/11) at Graha CIMB Niaga.

This year is the first IELTS Scholarship programme in In-donesia; it will be a yearly event for both UTC and British Coun-cil. The IELTS Scholarship is giv-en to students in the form of ed-ucational financial aid in the amount of Rp 25,000,000, which will be used for tuition payment for the bachelor or masters pro-gramme studies at an Austra-lian, English, American or other educational institutions in other countries.

For 2013, the scholarship is awarded to four students, name-ly, Ashok Awinash Dulip, Azalia Primadita Muchransyah, Mawin Mahen, and Daniel Joseph Gu-nawan.

“IELTS is a globally recognized qualification that helps students achieve their ambitions for stud-ies overseas. This scholarship further helps those ambitions by providing support in a tangible way through a financial grant. This is an excellent scheme and one which the British Council is delighted to partner UTC with. I congratulate the winners, hope that they have a wonderful ed-ucational experience wherever they study and encourage oth-ers to go for the scholarship in the years to come,” Sally Goggin, Country Director, British Coun-cil.

“The objective of this financial aid is to help with the universi-ty tuition fees for those who will

start studying in 2014/2015 and have taken the IELTS test which is held by UTC and British Coun-cil,” Unishaduguna Testing Cen-ter (UTC) Director, Mariam Kar-tikatresni stated.

This award ceremony is the main event of a series IELTS Scholarship event 2013 which will be attended by scholarship recipients, parents and repre-sentatives of educational insti-tutions.

The UTC and British Coun-cil would like to congratulate the recipients and wish them all the best in their studies.

The international English lan-guage testing system (IELTS) is the world’s most popular Eng-lish language proficiency test for higher education and global migration, with over two million tests taken in the last year.

The IELTS test is developed by some of the world’s leading ex-perts in language assessment. It has an excellent internation-al reputation, and is accepted by over 8,000 organisations world-wide, including schools, uni-versities, employers, immigra-tion authorities and professional bodies.

IELTS is the most widely ac-cepted English language test that uses a one-on-one speaking test to assess your English com-munication skills. This means that you are assessed by hav-ing a real-life conversation with a real person. This is the most ef-fective and natural way of test-ing your English conversation skills.

UTC is one of UniSadhuGu-na’s educational bodies, which administers international test-ing and examinations in Indo-nesia. They provide examination services for public, schools, uni-versities and institutions.

UTC also administers exami-nations for United Kingdom uni-versities and institutes which cover a wide range of academic, vocational subjects and distance learning courses. They also ad-minister testing & assessment for English language, such as IELTS ™, Cambridge ESOL, and TOEFL®.

UTC offers and guarantees the security of the administra-tions of the examinations and also provides a qualified interna-tional standard testing room for conducting test or examination supported by a clean and quiet environment.

Four Indonesian Students Receive IELTS Scholarship 2013

PRECEDENT 2013:

Nationalism Spirit in Preserving Indonesian Culture

The event was held in order to commemo-rate World Heritage Day with the theme “Nationalism Spir-

it in Preserving Indonesian Cul-ture”. It offers a total prize of up to Rp 4 billion, including scholar-ship category 2 of President Uni-versity, trophies, certificates and amount of cash. This event has managed to become an annual event of the President Univer sity that shows fairly impressive re-sults, seen from the number of schools that participated in the competition.

This year, Precedent con-sists of five competitions such

as debates, Scrabble, writ-ing speeches, and news cast-ing. Participants who followed the competition were from high schools in Jabodetabek area and Bandung, reflecting the more extensive coverage of the compe-tition compared to last year’s.

Starting from writing competi-tion, the winner is Sendika Geg-yan Tuhu of SMAN 19 Bandung, who successfully eliminated the nine other participants. News-casting competition that puts the focus as a professional news anchor was won by Andre Gaga Suwanto of Mutiara Nusantara International School, who man-

aged to lead among 13 other contestants. The winner of the speech competition is Aussie Nu-rul Anisa of SMAN 3 Bogor.

The victors in Scrabble compe-tition are from Tangerang, name-ly Andre Jonathan and Hardi-yanti Citrawatisteal with a total of 329 points. And after argu-ments that earned the admira-tion of the audience, an open de-bate was held between SMAN 5 Tangerang represented by Debo-rah Ruth Lambok, Rismala Sari and Aprisha Z. Putri and Peli-ta Harapan Sentul City School’s Tiffany Valeska, Jennifer Sanan-tha and Makhijani Sherni. The latter eventually prevailed.

For the second time President University held “PRECEDENT”, an English competition for senior high school students at 16th to 17th November 2013 in the Ballroom President, Cikarang. The event was organized by PACT (President of the Association of Critical Thinkers), an English club at President University in collaboration with Marketing President University.

President University Rector, Dr. Chandra Setiawan, Ph.D

TPP/Yudis

This year, Precedent consists of five competitions such as debates, Scrabble, writing speeches, and news casting. Participants who followed the competition were from high schools in Jabodetabek area and Bandung, reflecting the more extensive coverage of the competition compared to last year’s.

Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium En-terprises Syarif Hasan has received an Honorary Pro-fessorship from the Fu-kui Prefectoral University (11/18).

On the occasion, Minis-ter Syarif also gave a pub-

lic lecture which was attended by business people, representa-tives of the Fukui Regional Gov-ernment, Indonesian observers and academics.

The Minister explained about the potential and development of cooperatives and small and me-dium enterprises in Indonesia,

especially to support Indonesia’s economy.

This matter is on the agen-da of activities of the Ministerial Working Visit Delegation to Ja-pan, November 16-22, 2013.

During the working visit in Ja-pan the Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enter-

prises had a dialog with the as-sociation of technology gradu-ates who work in Japan, Enjina Nusantara in Osaka, visited the Tempe (soybean cake)Factory owned by Rustono in Shiga, had a meeting with Governor Toya-ma, and continued his visit to Tokyo.

The objective of this financial aid is to help with the university tuition fees for those who will start studying in 2014/2015 and have taken the IELTS test which is held by UTC and British Council.”Mariam KartikatresniUnishaduguna Testing Center (UTC) Director

“Culture is the driving fac-tor to achieve sustainable development,” said Minister of Education and Culture Moh. M. Nuh at the open-ing of the 1st World Culture Forum (WCF) in Nusa Dua, Bali.

In his report to the Indo-nesian President, the Minis-ter of Education and Culture also said that the character of culture is not stiff; it can move in any direction and can adapt quickly so that culture can be used as the right tool to achieve welfare.

“With culture, a virtual connection can be achieved between global communi-ties, who will support one another so that a Cultural Convergence will be created leading to all cultures in var-ious parts of the world to de-velop in harmony.”

The World Culture Fo-rum itself emerged from the thoughts of President Susilo

Bambang Yudhoyono in 2005.At the time, the President

came up with the idea that if the world has a World Economic Fo-rum and a World Social Forum, then the world should also have a World Cultural Forum, where all culture activists in the world can get together and share ideas and exchange experiences on culture and abstract the good-ness of culture to promote wel-fare.

“No culture, no future,” said

Nuh in his speech.Minister Nuh said with

the blurring of boundaries and the narrowing distance, cross-cultural flow is in-creasingly torrent. This fact, he said, would cause the in-tersection of culture that-causing two possibilities.

“First is cultural domi-nation Of course, we do not want it to happen because it won’t bring peace and har-mony,” he said.

The second possibility is the convergence of culture, which is built on the princi-ple of mutual understanding and mutual respect. To real-ize cultural convergence, di-alogues and cultural cooper-ation involving all elements of culture in the world are needed.

The World Culture Forum I, held in Nusa dua, Bali, No-vember 24-27, 2013, saw 800 participants from 65 countries.

“No Culture, No Future”

Minister Syarif Hasan Receives Honorary ProfessorshipFrom Fukui Preferctoral University

Moh. M. NuhMinister of Education and Culture

BUSINESSwww.thepresidentpost.com

December 2013Vol. 2 No. 12

SECTION B

The President Post

HSBC: RI Remains TopInvestment Destination

HSBC Indonesia predicted that In-donesia will still chalk up posi-tive investment

growth in 2014 despite discour-aging trend of economic slow-down.

The investment would contin-ue to grow because of good han-dling of inflation and trade bal-ance by the government, HSBC Indonesia Managing Director of Global Markets Ali Setiawan said in a seminar on “HSBC Global Economic Outlook 2014” here on Wednesday.

“Bank Indonesia has taken a series of steps and the govern-ment has been consistent in its policy in dealing with structur-al problem and redressing trade balance,” Ali said.

He said foreign investors are still interested in doing business

in Indonesia, notably Japan. He added Japan still places Indo-nesia on top of its investment destination list.

“Indonesia has done good job in the eyes of the international community. Indonesia is most interesting not only for Japa-nese investors. European and US investors also are similarly interested,” he said.

The investment market is still big in Indonesia, he add-ed, citing Java is still open for new investments such as infra-structure. “In the infrastruc-ture sector we are still lagging behind neighboring countries. Fundamentally, the Indonesian economy is still growing. There-fore, there is much concern,” he said.

The government, however, needs to be more transparent

HSBC Indonesia predicted that Indonesia will still chalk up positive investment growth in 2014 despite discouraging trend of economic slowdown.

Petrochina Increases Gas Supply For Tanjung Jabung Power Plant

PT PetroChina Jabung Ltd finally agrees to increase gas supply for the gas-fired Tanjung Jabung Power plant in Tanjung Jabung Barat District in Jambi.

Additional gas is needed by the power plant to increase its power sup-plying capacity, Field Administrator of PetroChina Riza Firmahendra said in Kuala Tungkal, Tanjung Jabung Barat municipal city.

The agreement on the addition of 2.5 MMFD of gas for the power plant had been signed between Petrochina and the Tanjung Jabung Barat dis-trict administration, Riza said on Thursday.

He said the additional supply is expected to solve problem of shortage in power supply in that district, which has experienced inconvenience due to frequent blackouts so far. “Hopefully the problem could be sorted out this week,” he said.

He said the power plant already has enough gas but the use of power is

too much at night in the district. He said there is no shortage of supply in daytime, adding “the problem comes only at nighttime.”

If the gas supply is increased, there would be oversupply of power at daytime, therefore addition of gas supply has to be well calculated, he said.

Head of the district energy and mineral service Yon Heri said the ad-dition to be provided by Petrochina would bring the total gas supply to 4 MMFD for the power plant.

PT Krakatau-Posco Now Less Dependent on Steel Imports

Construction of the integrated steel factory by PT Krakatau-Posco is aimed at reducing dependence on steel imports , which reach 9 million tons a year.

PT Krakatau-Posco in Cilegon, Banten, is a joint venture between the state owned steel maker PT Krakatau Steel and the South Korean steel giant Posco.

“PT Krakatau-Posco, which will have an annual production capacity of three million tons and investment in nine other base metal industries, would contribute considerably to steel supply in the country ,” Industry Minister MS Hidayat said in Cilegon on Thursday.

The factory of Krakatau-Posco and nine other base metal factories will

BUSINESS BRIEFSreduce imports by 6.8 million tons a year, Hidayat said. He said the joint venture project is expected to be completed and to be commissioned by the president on Dec. 23 this year.

“We are confident that the factory will boost development of down-stream industries in related sector such as shipbuilding, infrastructure and machinery industries, he said.”

Garuda To Do Rights Issue

PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk (Garuda) said it will launch a rights issue by selling 10 percent of rights shares in the first half of 2014.

“The underwriter for the rights issue will be announced next week,” Emirsyah Satar, the president of the nation’s flag carrier, said here on Tuesday.

The right issue plan has been approved by the shareholders, Emirsyah said without giving details about the fund to be earned from the share sales.

He only said that the fund would be used for business expansion such as opening new domestic and international routes and to strength-en capital. “Next year we will serve direct flights to London,” he said, adding the funds would not be used to buy new aircraft.

Funds for aircraft shopping has been available from banks and les-sor, he said. Currently , the airline has 131 units of aircraft and next year there will be an addition of 27 units, he said.

and consistent in carrying out its policies, he added.

HSBC Economist Su Sian Lim said Indonesia and other ASEAN countries have basically shown strong economic performance. “Huge domestic demand and rel-atively low unemployment rate are an advantage from the point of retail and household shopping as well as business sector,” Su San said.

She said steps taken by Bank Indonesia followed with fiscal policy of the government through the finance ministry aimed at narrowing current account def-icit, controlling exchange rate, curbing inflation and maintain-ing foreign reserve have worked well.

“It has to be acknowledged that oil fuel price adjustment in June 2013 had helped reduce current account deficit,” she added.

infobanknews.com

“HSBC Global Economic Outlook 2014” seminar. HSBC Indonesia Managing Director of Global Markets Ali Setiawan said the investment would continue to grow because of good handling of inflation and trade balance by the government.

State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Dahlan Iskan has asked the technical team to settle various problems and ac-celerate the development of the Pangkalan Susu-Langkat steam power plant (PLTU) project in North Sumatra.

Head of SOE Ministrys Pub-lic Relations and Protocol Affairs Faisal Halimi said here on Mon-day that in response to the min-isters call, it was important for the technical team and other re-lated elements to conduct a test and evaluation on the Pangkala Susu-Langkat PLTU project .

Faisal said that minister Dahlan on Sunday night held a meeting at the PLTU Pangkalan Susu-Langkat Hall, which lasted until the wee hours on Monday. The meeting was also attended by Hamansyah Purba (the PLTU project manager), Said (the proj-ects mother transmission gener-al manager), Dyananto (gener-al manager for North Sumatra area) and Lin of GPACK.

The minister expressed his hope that the meeting would provide a clear picture about the problems being faced in the de-velopment of the project.

“All need to be assessed to see the obstacles being faced and

be evaluated to know what have to be done. For that we need to work fast to catch up the target,” Minister Dahlan said.

The meeting lasted in a friend-ly atmosphere and was inter-spersed with a dialog in the Mandarin language between the minister and Lin. Dahlan was seen impressed with the meeting results where the technical team expressed its readiness to com-plete certain works in certain deadlines such as the work on pier, water installations, water treatment, coal handling, boil-ers, turbines, switch yard and transmission.

“What else, what urgent prob-lems are there that need to be handled soon. If all can already

be tested, just do it immediate-ly. Regarding transmission, just report it immediately to me if there are towers which enter the plantation areas of a state firm (BUMN). If need be, just send me a text message or call me direct-ly,” the minister said.

The minister also asked the team to write on the whiteboard all details of the obstacles such as transmission problems and a number of towers which had been pulled down by the local people. He also asked the details of problems with regard to loca-tions whose land had not yet ob-tained a license and had not yet received power supply, thereby delaying the testing works.

On a number of areas con-sidered difficult to obtain land clearance for tower construction sites, Minister Dahlan asked the project executors to make ap-proaches as well as possible, in-cluding efforts to ensure that the local people would not be disad-vantaged.

“It should not happen that the people whose affected plan-tations or lands become disad-vantaged by the project. I do not agree with it (if the interest of lo-cal people is harmed,” the minis-ter stressed.

SOE Minister WantsN. Sumatra Steam Power

Plant Project Completed Soon

SOE Minister Dahlan Iskan

B2

Businesswww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Pertamina, Chevron, Star Energy to Develop Geothermal Projects

PGE spokesman Hen-di Suhendi said on Wednesday that the agreement was signed in Jakarta on Tues-

day. “With the PoA, all sides have agreed to cooperate to develop a financial model and work sched-ule for the geothermal projects,” he added.

He said four of the six proj-ects – Hululai, Tambang Sawah, Sungai Penuh and Semurup – will be developed in cooperation with Chevron.

Star Energy will develop units 1, 2 and 3 of the Karaha Bodas geothermal power plant, he add-ed. “Chevron and Star Energy were earlier PGEs joint operation contract partners,” he noted.

Star Energy was PGEs joint operation partner for the Wayang Windu project, while Chevron was the partner for the Gunung Salak and Darajat projects, Hen-di said. The Hululais project in Bengkulu, the Sungai Penuh project in Jambi and the Kara-ha Bodas project in West Java are part of the second phase of the fast track program (FTP-2), he pointed out.

According to Energy and Min-eral Resources Ministry Regu-lation No. 21/2013, the Hulu-lais project will have a capacity of 2x55 MW, while the Sungai Penuh project will have a ca-pacity of 2x55 MW. Unit 1 of the Karaha Bodas project will have a capacity of 30 MW, while units 2 and 3 will have a capacity of 55 MW each.

The FTP-2 projects cover 76 units with a combined capacity of 17,918 MW. Seventeen units with a capacity of 5,749 MW will be developed by state electrici-ty company PLN, while 59 units with a capacity of 12,169 MW will be developed by independent power producers (IPP). Unit 1 of the Patuha geothermal power plant, with a capacity of 55 MW in West Java, is expected to be-come the first FTP-2 project to start operations.

Pertamina DevelopingArun Gas Terminal

Pertamina has meanwhile be-gun constructing the Arun liq-uefied natural gas (LNG) in Aceh Province and is expected to be completed at the end of 2014.

Pertamina Director for Gas Affairs Hari Karyuliarto said in a press release here on Sunday that the gas project was expected

to meet the need for gas of Aceh and North Sumatra provinc-es. “The gas terminal is the first LNG refinery conversion into re-gasification project,” Hari said.

The groundbreaking ceremo-ny was conducted on Saturday by Hari at the LNG Plant site in Arun, Lhokseumawei, North Aceh. President Director of PT Rekayasa Industri Mochammad Ali Harsono, President Director of PT Pertagas Indra Jaya and President Director of PT Pera Arun Gas Teuku Khaidir also attended the groundbreaking ceremony.

LNG conversion of LNG re-finery project into regasification was first decided by the govern-ment in 2012. The Arun Termi-nal has a capacity of 400 million metric standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) or three million tons per annum.

Hari said that at present the terminals gas commitment was still 120 MMSCFD for state-owned power firm PLN.

The Arun terminal will be integrated with Arun-Bela-wan transmission pipes which stretch 340 km long. At present, the construction of pipes with an open access scheme is underway and is scheduled for completion in 2014.

It is expected that about 50 percent of the project would be completed at the end of 2013. The project is worth $570 mil-lion, of which $80 million for the construction of the terminal.

Pertamina, Thai company to acquire Hess oil and gas block

Pertamina and PTTEP, a Thai oil company, have agreed to ac-quire oil and gas blocks of Hess Corporation in Indonesia at a price of $1.3 billion.

Pertamina spokesman Ali Mundakir said here on Monday Pertamina and PTTEP would split the acquired assets of the US company paying the price 50 percent each. “The deal would be settled in line with a number of conditions set in the sale and purchase agreement,” Ali said.

Pertamina will be represented by its subsidiary PT Pertamina Hulu Energi and PTTEP by PT-TEP Netherlands Holding Coop-eratie UA. With the acquisition, Pertamina and PTTEP would have 75 percent participating in-terest in the Pangkah block and 23 percent in the Natuna Sea A block.

Both Pangkah and Natu-na Sea A are offshore blocks. Pangkah is located northeast of Java with a production rate of 7,000 barrels of oil per day and 33 million cubic feet per day (MMSCFD)of gas. The Pang-kah block has a proven reserve of around 110 million barrels of oil equivalent. Pertamina and PTTEP will jointly operate the Pangkah block.

The Natuna Sea A block is lo-cated in the West Natuna sea with gas production rate of 220 MMSCFD including 145 MMSCFD from the Anoa field and 75 MMSCFD from Gajah Baru, and oil production rate of 2,350 barrels of oil per day. The Natuna Sea A block has a prov-en reserve of around 209 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Other shareholders of Natu-na Sea A block are Premier Oil as the operator with a 28.67 per-cent share , Kufpec as a 33.33 percent owner and Petronas holding a 15 percent stake.

Ali said the acquisition plan is part of Pertamina’s ambition to become a dominant player in upstream oil industry in the country in 2015. “In 2025, Per-tamina’s oil production is to be pushed up to 2.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day includ-ing from its production units in the country and abroad,” he said.

Recently Pertamina wrapped up the process of acquiring oil blocks in Algeria and Iraq. In Al-geria it acquired the 405a block from ConocoPhillips Algeria Limited at a price of $1.75 bil-lion, adding 23,000 barrels of crude oil to its daily output and more than 100 million barrels to its oil reserves.

In Iraq, Pertamina completed the acquisition of a 10 percent stake in the West Qurna I block from ExxonMobil Iraq Limited. West Qurna I, which is located near the city of Basra, south-ern Iraq, has a production rate of 500,000 barrels of oil per day. With the 10 percent stake ac-quisition, Pertamina will have a share of 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the block.

The share is expected to in-crease as oil production of the West Qurna 1 block is expect-ed to rise to more than 1 million barrels per day in the near fu-ture. The West Qurna block has reserves of around 9 billion bar-rels of oil .

PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) has signed principles of agreement (PoA) with Chevron Geothermal Indonesia Ltd and Star Energy Geothermal Pte Ltd to develop six geothermal power plants in the country.

With the ambitious expan-sion abroad, Pertamina hopes to break into the ranks of world class oil companies in the next several years. The company’s president director, Karen Agus-tiawan, said in a press state-ment here on Saturday that the acquisition was part of the company’ss efforts to achieve its vision of becoming a world-class company. “The corporate action is a strategic stepping stone to expand its business abroad, es-pecially in countries with abun-dant oil and gas resources such as Iraq,” she said.

She noted that Pertamina’s expansion overseas was aimed at supporting the government’s program of sustainable energy resilience. The acquisition of a 10 percent share, or a participating interest in West Qurna I Block, was carried out by PT Pertam-ina Irak Eksplorasi Produksi as Pertamina’s subsidiary.

Besides Pertamina, Exxon-Mobil also sold 25 percent of its shares in the block to PetroChi-na Co. ExxonMobil will later only control 25 percent of the shares in the block but it will remain as the operator. The remainder of the shares belong to Iraqi state-owned company South Oil Com-pany (25 percent) and Shell West Qurna BV (15 percent).

Pertamina is also now in-volved in acquisitions of shares in Block 405a belonging to ConocoPhillips Algeria Limited in Algeria, valued at $1.75 bil-lion, or about Rp20 trillion. With the acquisition of Block 405a, Pertamina would have an addi-tional supply of 23,000 barrels per day.

Pertamina’s additional re-serves from Block 405a are more than 100 million barrels of oil. Pertamina officially has three main oil fields, namely Menzel Lejmat North (MLN), Ourhoud, and EMK in Block 405a, which was initially controlled by Cono-co.

After the acquisition, Per-tamina will control 65 percent of the participating interest in MLN and act as the operator. In Ourhoud and EMK, meanwhile, Pertamina will have 3.7 percent and 16.9 percent participating interest, respectively, but it will not be the operator of the fields. Oil production from Block 405a is to be processed at Pertamina’s refineries.

According to Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Regulation No. 21/2013, the Hululais project will have a capacity of 2x55 MW, while the Sungai Penuh project will have a capacity of 2x55 MW. Unit 1 of the Karaha Bodas project will have a capacity of 30 MW, while units 2 and 3 will have a capacity of 55 MW each.

elshinta.com

PT Pertamina EP Gets New President Director

The management of the states oil and gas company, PT Pertamina, has appoint-ed President Director of PT Pertamina Geothermal En-ergy Adriansyah to replace Syamsu Alam as president director of PT Pertamina EP.

A Pertamina EP press release received here on Thursday said Syamsu had subsequently become the senior vice president (ex-ploration) for the Pertamina Upstream Directorate, re-placing Rony Gunawan.

Meanwhile, Rony will be ap-pointed as president director of Pertamina Geothermal Energy to replace Adriansyah. Pertami-na also appointed Sigit Raharjo as the VP Upstream Technology Center director to replace Rich-ard H. Tamba.

Meanwhile, Sigits position as Pertamina Geothermal Energys director of operations has been handed over to Richard. The en-tire handover was conducted in Jakarta on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

Pertamina believes Adrian-syah is the right person for the

Merpati Nusantara Debt To be Converted into Shares

The debt of PT Merpa-ti Nusantara Airlines to a number of other state com-panies would be converted into shares in order to save the debt-ridden state owned airline, an official said.

“We agree with the con-version of the debts,” Coor-dinating Minister for Econ-omy Hatta Rajasa said here on Tuesday after a meeting to save the airline .

In addition, the debt in the form of sub-loan agree-ment (SLA) to the govern-ment would be converted into non-cash state capital participation, Hatta said

According to Hatta, cur-rently Merpati ran up a to-tal debt of Rp6.7 trillion to 20 creditors. Debts to state companies including air-port operators Angkasa Pura I and II, Bank Mandi-ri, energy company Pertam-ina and insurance company Jasindo totaled Rp2 trillion. The rest includes Rp2.5 tril-lion in SLA to the govern-

ment and around Rp3.2 trillion in tax and to other creditors.

Hatta said the government de-cided to restructure the debts of Merpati as it believes the airline could still rise from its financial woes. “Merpati is still needed to serve pioneer flights in a number of provinces especially in eastern part of the country,” he said.

Merpati would be given one month to submit its business plan to the government and oth-er loan providers. “Merpati is also allowed to look for funds for the procurement of aircraft,” he said.

Looking for partners, Minis-ter for State Enterprises Dahlan

Iskan said he agreed with the decision of the govern-ment to give Merpati more opportunity to resume op-eration. “Actually, based on a conclusion of the state as-set management company PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA), Merpati should be closed down, but the government found a way out by converting debts into shares,” Dahlan said.

He said after the pro-cess of debt conversion has been wrapped up Merpati is allowed to look for part-ners. “So far Merpati may not have partner as it has a big deficit. Now with the book cleaned of debts, Mer-pati could invite investors to jointly develop its business,” he said.

He did not rule out Mer-pati merging with Garu-da, the nation’s flag carri-er. However, the conversion plan still needs approval from the Commission VI of the House of Representa-tives, he said.

position of president direc-tor of Pertamina EP as he has had a long career in the development of the Up-stream Oil and Gas In-dustry Technology Center under the Pertamina Up-stream Directorate.

Adriansyah said he would bring improvements to Pertamina EP with a view to enabling Pertam-ina to emerge as a world-class energy company by 2025. “The production tar-get should continue to in-crease,” he remarked.

Hatta Rajasa

SOEs Profit to Reach Rp150t in 2013

State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Dahlan Iskan on Thursday has said that the net profit of Indonesian SOEs will hit Rp150 trillion (around $136 billion) in 2013, increasing 15.3 percent from last years Rp130 trillion.

“Amid the global crisis in 2013, the fact that net profit of all SOEs can grow by Rp30 trillion is remarkable,” Minister Dahl-an said after a meeting with the SOE Ministrys top brass in Ja-karta on Thursday.

The net profit growth of 141 SOEs is higher than the estimat-ed growth rate of five to six per-cent for the national economy in 2013, Dahlan added.

SOEs in sectors such as tele-communications, banking and construction were the major profit contributors. However, not all SOEs posted a profit in 2013, Dahlan noted. Enterprises in

the plantation and mining sec-tors struggled amid the global crisis as some commodity pric-es dropped in the internation-al markets. Therefore, SOEs are being urged to set new efficiency standards and work together to develop their potential, he said.

Pertagas-PGN Merger PossibleDahlan has meanwhile called

on leaders of PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), PT Pertami-na and its subsidiary PT Perta-gas for a meeting to find a solu-tion to a war of words about the idea of merger between the state gas companies.

“I call them to hear their re-spective arguments. There would be no emotional debate. Every-one will speak proportionally,” Dahlan said on Thursday.

The conflicting statements spread by the mass media came after the idea of merger between PGN and Pertagas, a gas sub-sidiary of Pertamina. PGN said it could acquire Pertagas, but Pertamina claimed it is in a bet-ter position to acquire PGN to be merged with Pertagas.

The idea of merger followed the governments scheme of open ac-

cess under which Pertagas is al-lowed to use PGNs infrastruc-ture of gas pipelines. The share price of publicly listed PGN fell after the merger row, but Dahl-an said,”I dont believe the share price fall was caused by the ac-quisition issue.”

He said the open access scheme is “good for the state al-though it may not be very good for PGN.” Earlier he suggested Pertamina acquire PGN.

On Thursday he said in imple-menting the open access scheme the government will be fair to both sides but most important

is the interest of the state. “The government seeks to combine ideas that no party would be harmed,” he added.

Pertamina said a merger be-tween Pertagas and PGN would strengthen its oil and gas busi-ness. Pertamina’s vice president in charge of corporate communi-cations, Ali Mundakir, said Per-tamina is stronger than PGN in gas business fundamen-tals. “Therefore, PGN should be placed under Pertamina,” Ali said, adding, “However, it is for the government to decide.”

He said Pertamina has fin-ished studies on possible merger between PGN and Pertagas and the result was already submitted to the government late last year.

A PGN director Wahid Sutopo said PGN should be the one to acquire Pertagas to integrate gas pipelines. “We have prepared the concept. It needs only a deci-sion from the shareholders,” Wa-hid said

PGN controls the largest net-work of gas distribution in the country but it produces no gas. Pertamina produces gas with distribution handled by Perta-gas.

SOEs in sectors such as telecommunications, banking and construction were the major profit contributors.

Amid the global crisis in 2013, the fact that net profit of all SOEs can grow by Rp30 trillion is remarkable.”

Dahlan IskanState-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister

B3

Investmentwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Divesting in the Stock MarketBy Wawan Hendrayana (Research & Investment Analyst)

fundamentals while continuing to keep a close watch on devel-opment of inflation and interest rates.

These accumulations can op-timize investors’ returns be-cause according to studies, win-dow-dressing phenomenon or share price increase always oc-curred ahead of the new year in Indonesia. Over the past 12 years, the IHSG always crawled up from early November–end of December and generally the ral-ly would continue until April, so that any corrections in January-

Investors with long-term per-spectives are not worried about the bourse’s volatility. History showed that long term invest-ment is very profitable provided that domestic economic funda-mentals are stable.

Despite Indonesia’s sound eco-nomic fundamentals and many analysts’ optimism that the IHSG would return to the 4,800 mark at the end of the year, it’s inevi-table that the index movement is still influenced by overseas sen-timents. The correlation between IHSG and DJIA (Dow Jones In-dustrial Average) reached 0,1

in the past three months. This means, the movements of these two bourses are relatively not go-ing in the opposite direction. The Indonesian bourse didn’t enjoy the US bourse’s positive rally.

The movement in the oppo-site direction is believed to have started since the Fed announced the possibility of cutting the eco-nomic stimulus in the United States. As a result, many foreign capitals parked in our capital market were pulled out by inves-tors over liquidity problem wor-ries. Fundamentally, the United

States is observing several ma-jor issues such as its efforts to strengthen its domestic econo-my, minimizing unemployment rate and the tapering develop-ment. Improvement in its econo-my in the short term is expected to trigger capital flight from In-donesia to the United States that could cause the IHSG to suffer a correction because 65% of inves-tors in the Indonesian bourse are foreign. The correction, which is likely to happen from January until February, can be seen as an opportunity to hunt for rel-atively cheap shares with good

Historically the end of the year is an interesting time for investors in the stock market be-

cause listed companies normally issue their third quarter finan-cial report in these last months, which could serve as the barom-eter to assess their 2013 perfor-mance. Listed companies usu-ally report higher income in line with the country’s sustainable economic growth. Such a con-dition would fuel investors’ opti-mism to purchase shares of listed companies that posted positive performance. Such trend is evi-dent in the past 10 years where the composite index (IHSG) per-formed better compared to oth-er months every December with gain probability up by 100%.

Historically, the probability of the IHSG to book positive re-turns in November over the past 10 years is only 80%. It’s true that there is no guarantee that historical data will repeat itself, the probability that the IHSG would book a negative perfor-mance may be derived from var-ious factors such as inflation, in-terest rate which continued to show an increasing trend and the weakening rupiah exchange against the US dollar following companies’ needs to pay out div-idends and loan interest.

As for this year, the impact of the government’s decision to raise the price of subsidized fuel will be reflected in the inflation rate at the end of the year which will unlikely lower bank loan rate. Such a condition could add to the negative sentiments in No-vember.

The orientation on the stock investment should be long term, but to optimize the yields investors should have the courage to take profit as well as to perform cutloss.

February should serve as an op-portunity to enter the bourse, either by purchasing stocks or mutual fund stocks.

Bear in mind that this as-sumption is made based on the history of data over the past 12 years and that there is no guar-antee that the same pattern would repeat in 2013. It is best to have a long term orientation for investment on shares but to opti-mize the yields, investors should have the courage to take profits and to cut losses. Happy Trad-ing!

Investors with long-term perspectives

are not worried about the bourse’s

volatility. History showed that long term

investment is very profitable provided that

domestic economic fundamentals are

stable.

B4

Automotivewww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

BMW Group Indo-nesia launched the latest innovation for the classy lux-ury sedan with the high performance,

the new BMW M5. The latest innovation of this

model is focused on design im-provements in certain parts, which aims to deliver the best driving experience. The com-bination of elegant design and hallmark M is very athletic, in-dicating the presence of the new BMW M5. It features a new de-sign and the addition of various BMW ConnectedDrive reinforc-es the character of innovative features on this vehicle. It comes with the best performance and with more innovation than ever before.

“The fans of BMW M series in Indonesia have given a warm welcome to 8 BMW M series models that have been launched in the last four years - including the BMW M6 Gran Coupé. This is one of the important factors

BMW M5: Elegant Sport Sedanwith the Latest Technology Innovations

the center console area larger. The composition of a typical M black grille - such as three col-umns of air flow at the bottom of the bumper - confirms the need for cooling air to the engine be-hind the grille.

There is also a large 10.2-inch screen that is connected with the iDrive system wrapped around a chrome-plated frame. For the first time, a Touch Controller is now available, with a touch-sen-sitive surface that enables users to enter characters when pro-gramming destinations in the navigation system.

In addition to high perfor-mance, the new BMW M5 expe-rienced a significant increase in efficiency. M TwinPower Turbo technology developed for the en-gine of this model combines with technological innovation of pro-fessional racing circuit with the EfficientDynamics concept. The new BMW M5 requires 4.4 sec-onds to accelerate from a stand-still to 100 km/ hour, and it only takes 13 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 200 km/h. Its maxi-mum speed is electronically lim-ited at 250 km/hour.

The new BMW M5 has a 10 percent greater power and maxi-mum torque has been increased by 30 percent. But in terms of fuel use, it is more efficient, which is 30 percent lower. Fuel consumption is an average of up

The latest innovation of this model is focused on design improvements in certain parts, which aims to deliver the best driving experience. The combination of elegant design and hallmark M is very athletic, indicating the presence of the new BMW M5.

ausmotive.com

ausmotive.com

tflcar.com

in the success of BMW M,” said Ramesh Divyanathan, President of BMW Group Indonesia.

The most striking design in the appearance of the new BMW M5 is the M “kidney grille” which displays lines showing double-spoke design alloy wheels as the BMW M. Standard equipment on the new BMW M5 includes Adaptive LED Headlights and taillight design that uses a thin line of LED lights that produce a contrast effect that is easily rec-ognizable, especially at night.

In the interior, the typical ac-cent of BMW M is presented through the M leather steering wheel rim design that is adapted from the BMW M double-spoke design, and this model has stor-age space under the arm rest in

to 10 km/l with CO2 emissions of 232 g/km

A unique feature of the new BMW M5 is the Head-Up Display that projects important informa-tion onto the glass right in front of the driver’s area. The combina-tion of the color spectrum is used to display the various graph-ics and symbols, so that traf-fic signs can be displayed real-istically. Head-Up Display of the BMW M also shows the gear be-ing used and engine speed con-ditions marked by various col-ors, complete with Shift Lights.

The new BMW M5 is priced at Rp2.088.000.000 off-the-road, and is equipped with BMW Ser-vice Inclusive, which includes treatment for 5 years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first.

The new BMW M5 has a 10 percent greater power

and maximum torque has been increased by

30 percent. But in terms of fuel use, it is more efficient, which is 30

percent lower.

B5

Events Reviewwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Dozens of Infrastructure Investment Projects to Strengthen Indonesia’s

Competitiveness

Coordinating Min-ister for Econom-ic Affairs Hatta Ra-jasa stated that one of the goals of in-

frastructure development is to reduce the cost of logistics. He mentioned the cost of logistics that can be saved by infrastruc-ture is 14.08 percent of the cost of production. Infrastructure will also reduce the number of logistics costs to GDP to 22 per-cent or 10 percent of the total cost of goods production.

“If we cannot reduce infra-structure development costs, then our competitiveness can-not be improved,” he said in the Indonesia Infrastructure Con-ference and Exhibition in Ja-karta Covention Center (JCC), Wednesday (13/11).

Hatta also said to improve Indonesia’s competitiveness through infrastructure develop-ment, the Government has set up dozens of investment proj-ects worth hundreds of trillions of dollars.

“We’re going to rectify and pre-pare projects on a large scale. 20-25 projects are to be launched with an estimated investment of Rp 380 trillion, “ Hatta said when opening the event.

Infrastructure projects shown in IIICE 2013 are included in the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) initiated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2011. MP3EI is designed to help Indo-nesia enter into the top 10 world economies by 2025 with a total GDP of $4.5 trillion through the development of infrastructure in six economic corridors in Su-matra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, North Maluku, Bali, Nusa Teng-gara, Papua, Maluku and Java.

“This event is an appropriate vessel to develop Indonesia’s in-frastructure to face the upcom-ing ASEAN Economic Commu-nity,” said Djoko Kirmanto, said the Public Works Minister in his speech at the opening ceremony of IIICE 2013.

Meanwhile, Alan Solowiejc-zyk, CEO of PT Infrastructure Asia 2013 who organized the II-ICE 2013, said: “To be able to improve competitiveness, a na-tion must constantly improve the quality of its infrastructure. In-donesia under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has shown determination and real work to improve the quality of infra-structure in Indonesia through the launch of MP3EI program. We, from PT Infrastructure Asia as the organizer of IIICE 2013, is proud to integrate the mission of the government and the private sector to contribute to the ad-vancement of Indonesian infra-structure through this event,” he said.

To improve Indonesia’s competitiveness through infrastructure development, the Government has set up dozens of investment projects worth hundreds of trillions of dollars.

TPP

PT Jababeka Tbk plans to build an integrated industri-al area in Kendal, Central Java, said Chairman of Jababeka SD Darmono in the Socialization of Kendal Industrial Estate in the auditorium of Kendal District Office, Monday (19/11).

The event was also attend-ed by Regent of Kendal Widya Kandi Susanti and Head of In-vestment and Integrated Licens-ing (BPMPT) Kendal Alex Supri-yono.

Darmono said the establish-ment of Kendal Industrial Es-tate will have positive impact on the economic progress of Kendal and its surroundings. Darmono cited Kendal as a strategic area and has vast natural resources. PT KIK (Kawasan Industri Ken-dal) will resemble the Cikarang industrial estate in West Java.

PT KIK is a joint venture between PT Graha Buana Cikarang (GBC), a subsidiary of PT Jababeka, and Sembcorp Development Indonesia (SDI), a Singaporean government-owned company that is an expert in de-veloping industrial zones in Asia. The company is 51 % owned by GBC and 49 % owned by SDI. The plan of groundbreaking is April 2014.

also management of infrastruc-ture.

For that matter, he invites stakeholders to support the great plan. He also invited the commitment and support of the government, both district and provincial levels, in addition to the readiness of the communi-ty which also plays an impor-tant role.

“We (PT KIK) has big dreams with Kendal community, and we will start step-by-step. For that we need the support of the gov-ernment and the communiuty,” he said.

In line with Darmono, Kend-al Regent Widya Susanti Kan-di said she expects the develop-ment of Kendal industrial estate to be accelerated.

“The industrial area will cre-ate employment, improve the economy, and the welfare of so-ciety,” she said.

In the future, Kendal indus-trial estate will be gradually de-veloped and to reach 3,000 hect-ares.

“Each company is estimat-ed to take about 10 hectares of land that can absorb up to 1,000 workers. Therefore, 300 compa-nies will be built here and absorb total workforce of 300,000 peo-ple,” said Darmono.

Kendal to Have IntegratedIndustrial Estate

“Starting April 2014, Kend-al Industrial Estate will begin to be realized with an estimated growth of 80 hectares of land per year,” said Darmono.

Darmono also promised to in-vite Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Long and President SBY to inaugurate the construc-tion of Kendal Industrial Estate.

Darmono further said that there are some requirements from the investors, such as prox-imity to international airport, harbor, toll road, sufficient elec-tricity, gas sources, water sourc-es and advanced telecommu-nication, and adequate human resources and a large market.

To meet the investors’ require-ments, Darmono is willing to build an integrated facility. For the quality of human resources to work in the Kendal Industri-al Estate, Darmono had recruit-ed workers from Kendal current-ly working at several companies in Jababeka Industrial Estate, Cikarang. Thus when it be-gins its operation, it already has skilled labors.

According to him, a modern industrial estate is like the arm of a government which organiz-es industrial areas with one-stop-service to serve investors, not only the provision of land but SD Darmono said, “Jababeka is believed to be an arm of the government in terms of developing industrial zones and Special Economic Zones.”

TPP/Heros Barasakti

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa at the Indonesia Infrastructure

Conference and Exhibition in Jakarta Covention Center

(JCC), Wednesday (13/11).

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Events Reviewwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Finance Minister: Government Policy is Asset of State Excellence

Finance Minister Chatib Basri said that in the future, comparative advan-tage among other

countries is an intangible asset in the form of government poli-cy. The minister said, in Indo-nesia Investment Summit 2013, the upcoming policy will focus more on supply sectors, includ-ing infrastructure, bureaucrat-ic system of government and hu-man resources development. In terms of infrastructure, the gov-ernment will draw up regula-tions on land acquisition that is widely perceived to be ineffective and inefficient.

On the bureaucratic side, the minister gave an example on in-vestment permits in Indonesia which are complicated, time-consuming as well as high-cost. These matters obviously will af-fect the attractiveness of invest-ment in Indonesia from the per-spective of investors. Thus, the process of investment needs to be updated or reformed to be-come more friendly.

In the sector of human re-sources, the minister stated the quality improvement of human resources by conducting train-ing is considered to be the do-main of the private sector in ac-cordance with their needs. This

is more appropriate as training given by the government may not be in accordance with mar-ket demand. Therefore, the gov-ernment will support human resources development by the private sector by providing fiscal incentives.

“I hope with these policies sus-tainable economic growth in In-donesia will be achieved since 2013-2014 is a period of stabiliza-tion of economic growth,”added the minister.

At the same event, Vice Pres-ident, Boediono, in his opening speech, said that Indonesia is a prospective investment destina-tion given the wealth of natu-ral resources, growing domestic market and growing young pop-ulation structure.

According to him, the govern-ment will continue to maintain fiscal sustainability and provide room for expansion in order to encourage sustainable econom-ic growth.

The event was held by the In-vestment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Indonesia and the Fi-nancial Times. It was attend-ed by participants from various countries comprising of CEOs, entrepreneurs, leading thinkers, academics and government offi-cials.

Finance Minister Chatib Basri said that in the future, comparative advantage among other countries is an intangible asset in the form of government policy.

Finance Minister Chatib Basri stated the quality improvement of human resources by conducting training is considered to be the domain of the private sector in accordance with their needs. This is more appropriate as training given by the government may not be in accordance with market demand. Therefore, the government will support human resources development by the private sector by providing fiscal incentives.

BKPM: Indonesia InvestmentClimate is Conducive

As Head of the Investment Co-ordinating Board (BKPM), Ma-hendra Siregar has a number of challenging tasks in the future. One of them is improving invest-ment services to become more simple and orderly.

In the presence of number of industry players during a visit to the Jababeka Industrial Estate, Mahendra announced several important achievements.

“Not long ago we announced the realization of the third quar-ter of total investment into Indo-nesia in the period of July to Sep-tember. And for the first time the total realization of joint invest-ment between Foreign Direct In-vestment (FDI) and Domestic In-vestment, Indonesia managed to exceed Rp100 trillion. Secondly,

watch the video at:www.thepresidenttv.com

TPP

for the first time in two consec-utive quarters since the second quarter, domestic investment reaches half the value of FDI. This has never happened before. Out of Rp100,5 billion, Rp33,5 billion is domestic while Rp67 trillion is FDI,” says Mahendra.

Mahendra further talked about minimum wages in Indo-nesia, which he said is not clas-sified as a developed country but is no longer considered as a poor country. So any talk related to wages, according to Mahendra, should no longer be in the con-text of being the only income of workers concerning matters of life and death.

“In the near future, we will have universal health care or BPJS, where pensions, annui-ties, death or work-related acci-dents are all there so that wag-es do not cover insurances,” said Mahendra.

TPP

Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Mahendra Siregar

B7

Events Reviewwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

OJK Launches Blueprint of Indonesia Financial Literacy

Otoritas Jasa Keuan-gan has launched the blueprint of Na-tional Finance Lit-eracy Strategy of

Indonesia to increase under-standing of the financial servic-es for related parties in society.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the inaugu-ration of the program said that the economy and the country continue to grow with a certain complexity. But that is not nec-essarily mean all people know

about financial services. “Therefore, we have to take

real strategic steps as the solu-tion,” said SBY.

He also said that the program is important regarding the im-portance of education to make citizens learn about financial services so that the community can take the advantages of it.

“The financial services indus-try must continue to evolve to develop the economy of country,” the President said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of OJK, Muliaman Hadad, said that the current level of literacy or ac-cess to finance in Indonesia is only 20%, much lower than the

The launch was carried out by OJK

and the Association of Financial Services Institute (LJK) of the

entire financial industry such as banking, insurance, capital markets, finance,

mortgage, and pension funds. This program

is important regarding the importance of

education to make citizens learn about

financial services so that the community

can take the advantages of it.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the inauguration of the program said that the economy and the country continue to grow with a certain complexity. But that is not necessarily mean all people know about financial services.

presidenri.go.id/Abror

Philippines with 27%, Malaysia 66%, Thailand 73%, and Singa-pore 98%.

The launch was carried out by OJK and the Association of Fi-nancial Services Institute (LJK) of the entire financial indus-try such as banking, insurance, capital markets, finance, mort-gage, and pension funds.

The launch of the financial lit-eracy was marked by the intro-duction of the Financial Liter-acy Car (Si Molek), the mascot and jargon of financial literacy (Treat the Money Wisely-SiKA-PI Uang dengan Bijak), as well as a mini website and the Finan-cial Customer Care (FCC) at 021-500655.

OJK to RaiseNumber of Domestic Investors in IDX

OJK or Otoritas Jasa Keuangan will increase the number of domestic inves-tors. A member of OJK’s Board of Commissioners and Chief Executive Officer of Capital Market Supervi-sory of OJK Nurhaida said that the number of inves-tors in Indonesia’s capital market is still very small or only about 0.2 % of the total population of Indonesia. It is a challenge for OJK in the future to raise the number of domestic investors.

In addition, in the event of Annual Citi Capital Mar-ket Outlook 2014, Nurhai-da, Monday (18/11), she also said that OJK will in-crease the supply of prod-ucts in the capital mar-ket, both in numbers and types. The steps to be tak-en, among others, are sim-plifying new rules on min-imum release of shares to the public through initial public offering or IPO. Pre-viously, Indonesia Stock Ex-change (IDX) proposed an increase to 20% from the current ruling of 10%.

Nurhaida added that it has obtained feedback to enhance the rate to 30%. She said that before simplification is applied, OJK will provide socialization and assess whether it is crucial or not.

Currently, the number of list-ed companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) is 479, the lowest among countries in the region. BSE India recorded the highest number of listed companies at 5,267 companies. The Stock Ex-change of Thailand is just above the IDX with 577 followed by the Singapore Exchange with 782.

Chief Executive Officer of Capital Market Supervisory of OJK Nurhaida

The number of investors in Indonesia’s capital market is still very small or only about 0.2 % of the total population of Indonesia. It is a challenge for OJK in the future to raise the number of domestic investors.

B8

Events Reviewwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

ActionCOACH Founder Bradley Sugars said that an entrepreneur must have the courage to make chang-es. “Change is a fact of life,” said Brad in Entrepreneur’s Masterclass organized by ActionCoach in Bali, 26 to 29 November 2013.

Brad Sugars established ActionCOACH (originally known as Action Interna-tional) in his 20s. Action-COACH is a global business training company based in Las Vegas, USA.

Brad said that the formu-la for life success is be x do = have. So if you have a goal, then be and do is the plan and action.”

In addition, Brad, in a semi-nar attended by approximately 100 prominent entrepreneurs, explained that the task of an entrepreneur is not to remain

BRAD SUGARS:Entrepreneur’s Job is Not to Stay Comfortable

The founder of the Lon-don School of Public Re-lations, Prita Kemal Gani, shared her knowledge on public relations (PR) in a discussion held at the Fi-nancial Club, Jakarta.

According to her, PR is about reputation. “Repu-tation should be obtained. How do we get a reputa-tion? By keeping our perfor-mance first,” she explained.

She said PR is about what you do, what you say and what others say about you. “So it is important to say about yourself, about what you have, and what you are thinking,” said Prita.

Prita also said that PR is very important to tell the story of a company. She took the example of TWG Tea, which was established

tea, though it may not be TGW’s Tea,” said Prita.

Prita, who also serves as chairman of PERHUMAS, re-vealed that PR also includes maintaining a positive situation in the company by way of obedi-ence on paying taxes, providing insurance to employees and pro-tecting the environment.

She also added it is very im-portant to make employees feel happy. “How can we ask our em-ployees to serve clients properly if they themselves are not hap-py? So of course we have to make our employees happy first,” she explained.

In addition, according to Pri-ta, PR should also able to main-tain good relationships with cli-ents, not just current clients but past clients so that one day they might be able to work together again.

The Importance of Public Relations in Business

TPP/Chandra Nur

The founder of the London School of Public Relations, Prita Kemal Gani.

How can we ask our employees to serve clients properly if

they themselves are not happy? So of

course we have to make our employees

happy first.”

Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan has said that though the In-donesian economy is growing vast, the

number of citizens with low in-come is still too large. The gov-ernment should be responsible for the welfare of the citizens.

“Therefore, the policy should be taken not only pro-growth, but pro-poor, pro-jobs, and pro-envi-ronment,” he said in a speech at the seminar at University of Peli-ta Harapan, Tangerang.

On that occasion, Gita also re-minded that the pattern of con-sumption determines the na-tion’s welfare.

“Consumption patterns will determine our welfare. If you tend to buy imported goods, re-member that the money will go to the people in the country of origin. Thus, be wise on your consumption patterns,” he ex-plained.

He added that if people like to buy goods produced in Indone-

sia, it will nurture the nation’s economy so investors are hap-py to invest, build factories, pay taxes and hire labors from this country.

“In the era of free trade, pro-tective policy on domestic indus-try is not the solution. But smart consumers must be established. Indeed, we should choose good

“Government Policies Should Pro Poor, Pro Job, Pro

Environment”

products at competitive prices, while still considering the im-pact on the health of our econo-my,” he said.

Gita also explains that Do-mestic or foreign investment is still needed by Indonesia. Every dollar invested in Indonesia pro-duces one job. According to him, foreign investment is still 70%

in Indonesia, while domestic in-vestment is only 30 %. But that does not mean anti-nationalism.

“Nationalism can be associat-ed with the capacity to produce prosperity for people, not merely the possession of assets.”

According to him, the govern-ment does not allow foreign in-vestors in strategic sectors.

Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan was giving a speech at the seminar at University of Pelita Harapan, Tangerang.

Domestic or foreign investment is still needed by Indonesia. Every dollar invested in Indonesia produces one job.

in 1937. The company also pro-vides training on how to drink tea in a proper way.

“The things that they do will always make customers remem-ber them if one day they drink

Consumption patterns will determine our welfare. If you tend to buy imported goods, remember that the money will go to the people in the country of origin. Thus, be wise on your consumption patterns.”

In a seminar attended by approximately 100 prominent entrepreneurs, Brad explained that the task of an entrepreneur is not to remain always “comfortable” but rather “uncomfortable”. It is intended that an entrepreneur should get out of the comfort zone and make changes.

always “comfortable” but rath-er “uncomfortable”. It is intend-ed that an entrepreneur should get out of the comfort zone and make changes.

He said, “you may attend workshops, learn how to change, do it for a week or two and then go back to your old and more comfortable ways. That’s the hu-

man tendency, to go out of the comfort zone for a moment but come back again to the comfort zone. For that business coaching is required.”

Brad also shared how to ob-tain a quality of life. The first begins with quality of mentor/teacher, quality of education/ knowledge, quality of beliefs

and dreams that lead to quality of questions, decisions, results, and quality of actions.

As a founder, Brad is now the main speaker at ActionCOACH seminars around the world. His mission is to provide business and investment education to as many entrepreneurs. In addi-tion to seminars, Brad also pub-

lished books and conducted we-binars.

ActionCOACH now has a pres-ence in 50 countries with over 1,000 offices. In Indonesia, Ac-tionCOACH was founded by Herman Susanto in 2001. Ac-tionCOACH is in now Indonesia and has nine offices in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Bali.

Brad also shared how to obtain a quality of life. The first begins with quality of mentor/teacher, quality of education/ knowledge, quality of beliefs and dreams that lead to quality of questions, decisions, results, and quality of actions.

www.thepresidentpost.com

December 2013Vol 2. No. 12

SECTION C

The President Post

Special Report

In the past few years, the tourism sector has been developing rapidly. Its pos-itive impacts can be seen from the increasing contri-bution to the country’s in-

come and its work force absorp-tion.

“Indonesia is a rich country” is not a myth; as the second big-gest mega-biodiversity country in the world, Indonesia in fact now finds difficulty in determining its tourism icon. Meanwhile, oth-er countries are already close-ly associated with their respec-tive tourism icons. For example Singapore with its Merlion Stat-ue, Malaysia with the Petronas Tower, England with Big Ben and Thailand with its white ele-phants.

The fact is, Indonesia has 746 languages and 1,128 ethnic groups with every region pos-sessing its own uniqueness in terms of nature, culture, reli-gion, history, heritage and culi-nary delights. As such, perhaps diversity should become the icon of Indonesia.

Although its management is not yet perceived to be opti-mal, Indonesia’s tourism sector is growing. Last year, according to Mari Elka Pangestu, the Min-ister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf), tour-ism contributed 4% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) directly and 9% indirectly. The tourism sector, as Mari Elka put it, is one of the country’s promising driv-ing forces of economic growth.

“With 9% of GDP, 30% of ser-vice export and 1 out of 11 em-ployment absorbed by the tour-ism industry, the industry has become an engine of economic growth, employment and pover-ty eradication,” she said.

In the year of 2013, Men-parekraf aims to get $10 billion from the tourism sector. This ex-pectation is considered realistic as foreign exchange from tour-ism in 2012 managed to reach $9 billion from eigth million for-

Developing Tourism,Developing the Nation

eign tourists. Singapore, Malay-sia, Australia, China and Ja-pan were the top five countries that contributed the most to this number. With this achievement, the tourism sector was the fourth biggest contributor to the coun-try’s foreign exchange of goods and service exports. Mari, a for-mer Minister of Trade, mentioned that tourism growth was 6.6% in the first semester of 2013. This is above the global tourism growth figure of only 5%.

Furthermore, Mari said that tourism investment in 2012 in-creased by 200% as the result of high demand for lodgings and other tourist facilities. Mari un-derscored the tremendous rise outside Java Island. “I spoke to people from the hotel industry and they said that many invest-ments outside Java are due to the lack of MICE facilities. This is said to be the effect of accessibil-ity that is getting better and di-rect flights to many regions with affordable prices,” added Mari.

Mari pointed out the impor-tance of cooperation with lo-cal people to maintain the environment’ssustainability for the sake of nature preservation that will eventually impact tour-ism.

“In order to manage the sus-tainability of the environment, we have to educate local people to care more for their surround-ings, for example not to use dy-namites when fishing. Of course, we also have to think about the economical benefits they can get. So, we have to direct them to other options like becoming guide tours, diving tours or we can recruit them to take care of coral reefs,” said the minister.

Kemenparekraf has estab-lished collaboration with many other bodies to make tourism destinations in Indonesia thrive. One of them is with the Ministry of Switzerland Economy (SECO) through an MoU on the develop-ment of tourism destinations in Indonesia, which started in July 2010 and will be in force until

2015. This MoU covers Flores Is-land (East Nusa Tenggara), Tan-jung Puting (Central Kaliman-tan), Toraja (South Sulawesi) and Wakatobi (Southeast Su-lawesi). The improvement is done through a promotion and desti-nation management organiza-tion (DMO). Therefore, the Swiss government is not only involved in the management but also in promotion.

Basically, developing tour-

ism is the same as developing a country, as the sector cannot be built partially. The development of tourism requires the involve-ment of all parts of the coun-try. For instance, hotel-building will have to be followed by road construction, clean water sup-ply, electricity supply, and many more. Improving tourism is cru-cial since the country will even-tually run out of natural re-sources, which are the biggest income contributor. When this

happens, tourism will hold a vi-tal role in the country’s economy. Many are optimistic that Indone-sia’s tourism, with the right pol-icy, will be able to play its role as the spearhead of national econ-omy.

Government Regulation (PP) No. 50/2011 regarding Master Plan of National Development 2010–2025 outlined at least 88 strategic areas of national tour-ism (KSPN). However, the Ke-menparekraf strategy is now still focussed on 16.7.16 policy, which refers to 16 KSPNs, 7 spe-cial interest tourism areas and 16 main desired markets.

Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Tourism and Creative Econo-my Sapta Nirwandar said that the people’s orientation is still on land sites despite numerous types of tourism objects in In-donesia. As a maritime country and at the same time the biggest archipelago in the world, ma-rine tourism deserves to be en-hanced.

“Let’s take Raja Ampat; once we dive in, we can see more than 200 marine biotas in there. Our societies have yet to grasp the opportunities in marine tour-ism. Some marine service pro-viders are even largely dominat-ed by foreigners,” said Sapta.

Still, Sapta acknowledged that tourism growth in 2012 hit a new record with tourists visit-ing Indonesia reaching up to 8 million people, contributing for-eign exchange worth up to $9 billion or about Rp 90 trillion. For 2013, Kemenparekraf is tar-geting 9 million foreign tourists and 250 million local tourists. Sapta emphasized the fact that progress in the tourism sector is actually producing a multiplier effect. The work force in the tour-ism increases by 200 to 300,000 people per year. Wages also in-creased, by around 4.03%, as well as the GDP and the regions’ original revenues (PAD).

Sapta also highlighted the sig-nificance of tourism in bring-ing positive impact to economic growth both directly, such as ho-tel and transportation, and indirectly, such as agri-culture and industry.

“So, tourism is one of the ways we can do to improve so-cial welfare,” af-firmed Sapta.

Chairman of Tour and Trav-el Association (ASITA) Asnawi Bahar reckoned that the bud-get for Indonesia’s tourism pro-motion in 2013, at Rp 300 bil-lion, is still small. Nevertheless, the budget has to be maximized effectively to maintain local mar-kets and penetrate new markets. According to Asnawi, the mini-mum budget allocated for tour-ism promotion does not mean that the government is not seri-ous in managing this sector.

“The return in capital in tour-ism investment is faster com-pared to in other sectors; its multiplier effects are also fast-er. That’s why the DPR (House of Representatives) has to be con-vinced that tourism is a com-prehensive industry. But I hope to see an increase in the budget so that we have one clear vision in developing tourism,” said As-nawi.

On the MICE industry in In-donesia, Asnawi said that its de-velopment is going well though still only in certain regions. He proposed every ministry should conduct domestic activities in many other regions other than Bali, Medan and Yogyakarta.

“The government should con-sider which region should be a MICE international destination after Bali. I am sure that MICE will help boost tourist visits, es-pecially as hotels in all regions are already pretty sufficient,” stated Asnawi.

Asnawi did not deny that the number of foreign tourists’ visit to Indonesia is considerably be-hind compared to that of neigh-boring countries such as Ma-laysia and Singapore. He said Indonesia has to catch up by increasing the promotion bud-get, targeting the right market, finding new alternative markets to raise the number of tourists and, of course, getting real sup-port from all parties, especial-ly the government. In Malaysia, according to Asnawi, the budget for tourism promotion abroad is backed up 70% by the govern-ment. The same thing cannot be said of Indonesia.

“Our optimistic target in ASI-TA on foreign tourists’ visit this year is 10 million, and the pes-simistic target is 9 million. Ac-tually, we have covered the Eu-ropean market though not yet maximum. This year, the world’s tourism growth is good enough

for us to seize the moment to enter a new market like

China. We hope to get 100,000 tourists from China,” said Asnawi.

Another poten-tial market is Sau-

TPP/Heros Barasakti

Chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Indonesia Chapter, SD Darmono proposes to the government, in this case the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf), to develop at least 100 new tourism destinations. Darmono voiced the proposal in the PATA International Conference held at the Hotel Royal Ambarukmo, Yogyakarta, which was inaugurated by the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sapta Nirwandar and attended by PATA CEO Martin Craigs, PATA Indonesia Chairman SD Darmono, Director General of Tourism Destination Development of the Ministry Firman Rahim, as well as some of the other delegates.

Improving tourism is crucial since the country will eventually run out of natural resources, which are the biggest income contributor. When this happens, tourism will hold a vital role in the country’s economy. Many are optimistic that Indonesia’s tourism, with the right policy, will be able to play its role as the spearhead of national economy.

Last year, according to Mari Elka Pangestu, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf), tourism contributed 4% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) directly and 9% indirectly. The tourism sector, as Mari Elka put it, is one of the country’s promising driving forces of economic growth.

With 9% of GDP, 30% of service export and 1 out of 11 employment absorbed by the tourism industry, the industry has become an engine of economic growth, employment and poverty eradication,”

Mari Elka PangestuMinister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf)

continue to page C2

The return in capital in tourism investment is faster compared to in other sectors; its multiplier effects are also faster. That’s why the DPR (House of Representatives) has to be convinced that tourism is a comprehensive industry. But I hope to see an increase in the budget so that we have one clear vision in developing tourism,”

Asnawi BaharChairman of Tour and Travel Association (ASITA)

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Special Reportwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

As a Special Eco-nomic Zone, Tan-jung Lesung keeps on enhancing its development to at-tract more tourists.

As a matter of fact, this tourism destination in Banten is envi-sioned to be the next Bali.

Unlike other Special Econom-ic Zones (KEK) initiated direct-ly by the government, the KEK Tanjung Lesung will be devel-oped by the private sector: the Jababeka Group.

As conveyed by Coordinat-ing Minister of Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa, Tanjung Lesung has a big potential in the Indo-nesian tourism sector. There-fore, this zone will be developed to be integrated with tourism, re-gardless of the insufficient infra-structure. The decision of Tan-jung Lesung as a tourism KEK is enforced through government regulation PP No. 26/2012 on Special Economic Zones–Tan-jung Lesung.

On supporting facilities, Hat-ta highlighted the need for free-ways to shorten the duration from Jakarta to Tanjung Lesung that usually takes 4-5 hours.

“Following up on this matter, the central government plans to evaluate the feasibility of con-structing a road to Tanjung Le-sung. The funds for it is for the Minister of Public Works (PU) to analyze,” he told journalists after the evaluation meeting on KEK proposal in Jakar-ta some time ago (26/7). He projected this tourism zone to be in operation in the early 2015.

Previoulsy, Hatta said that an airport will be built in the area of Tanjung Le-sung. The building of this airport has to be

backed up by road construction. The Ministry of Public Works (PU) itself, according to him, has announced that the initiator has proposed the plan to build an airport. At that time, he affirmed the distinction between Tanjung Lesung and the other KEK.

“It is different, Sei Mange was proposed mostly by BUMN (state-owned enterprises) whilst Tanjung Lesung by the private actor,” he said.

The development of this area actually has been carried out since 1998. Director of PT Ban-ten West Java (BWJ) Tourism Development Setiawan Mardju-ki, as the organizer of this area, said the lack of improvement of infrastructure is causing slow development. This is unfortu-nate as the number of tourists visiting this place keeps increas-ing every year.

“The development is slow-ing down because of poor infra-structure. Yet, visitors start to come and their number increas-es every year. Now, we can at-tract about 100 to 150 thousand per year,” said Setiawan.

According to Setiawan, the area of Tanjung Lesung will be expanded to 1,500 hectares in which 2,000 units of rooms will be built. Recently BWJ launched the newest type of villa from Ka-

licaa Villa Estate.

In Pursue of Meeting Target, KEK Intensifies Development

Today BWJ is still focusing on infrastructure improvement re-lated to accessibility such as a freeway and an airport. BWJ is finishing the development of 1.6 km-long airstrip. This airstrip will accommodate charter flights plying the route of Halim Per-dana Kusuma–Tanjung Lesung and will start operating by the end of 2013. With the airstrip, it is hoped that visitors will have an alternative access to Tan-jung Lesung. Meanwhile, the ad-vancement of port facility is also included in the Tanjung Lesung Master Plan. A port will be built for cruise ships whose agendas include Krakatau or Ujung Ku-lon.

Setiawan stated that there are not enough rooms available to accommodate the increasing vis-itors on weekends. “Nowadays, every weekend our rooms are al-ways full and on weekdays many MICE events are held in Tanjung Lesung,” he said.

The development of Tanjung Lesung area until 2020 con-sists of three steps and the on-going process is now in the first step. Setiawan said that the ma-rina is facilitated with a 18-hole golf course, villas and a theme park that are estimated to cost $100 million. Not long ago, BWJ signed an MoU worth $50 mil-lion with a Chinese company for

the development of a marina and a hotel, though it needs times to put the project into realization.

When inquired about the fin-ishing target by 2020, Setiawan is optimistic that the target can be achieved.

“Our target is indeed that year, but there are so many prob-lems to solve, including infra-structure, internal matters and of course, we need the support from the government because we cannot move alone, unlike Bali that has been integrated en-tirely,” said he.

Tanjung Lesung, he admitted, is not yet familiar to many peo-ple. Subsequently, his company is working to promote it like or-ganizing an exhibition in Singa-pore some time ago aimed at the upper middle class.

“From here, we believe there will be many interested parties. This is our way of segmenting the market. Still, of course, we want to attract as many tourists as possible,” added he.

So far, Tanjung Lesung is still dominated by local tourists. The others are expatriate tourists from Singapore, Malaysia and Korea. For Tanjung Lesung’s future development, Setiawan hoped that the government would support the improvement of infrastructure in the area.

“It is impossible to depend only on the investor without as-

di Arabia, a country whose num-ber of tourists to Indonesia is currently very low. Asnawi said that ASITA, in collaboration with the Religious Affairs Ministry, has made a program using emp-ty aircrafts originally transport-ing pilgrims to bring in tourists from Saudi Arabia. The program will take effect this year, said As-nawi.

“Aside from Saudi Arabia, an-other potential market worth chasing is Russia, whose peo-ple currently prefer Pattaya and Phuket in Thailand as tourism destinations. Staying time of Russian tourists is long enough,” stated Asnawi.

Coordination is needed to have a budget that is required to do promotion effectively. As-nawi said that the main problem of tourism is the lack of promo-tion and poor infrastructure. He

hoped that when doing promo-tion, all related groups focus on the campaign of tourism objects. In Malaysia, for example, all re-lated groups and institutions fo-cus on campaigning tourism ob-jects so there is integration in their promotion.

“It might take a long time for tourism to be the biggest con-tributor to the country’s income. But this is neither daydream-ing nor a grandiose ambition. We have the potentials.”

On a different occasion, Direc-tor of Marketing and Business Development of PT Taman Wisa-ta Candi Borobudur, Pramban-an and Ratu Boko Agus H. Can-ny requested the government to reconsider the current pro-motion strategy. In his opinion, what the government has been doing is not effective to boost the visit of foreign tourists to Indo-nesia. The best way to promote Indonesian tourism destina-

tion is by doing joint promotions, just like PT Taman Wisata Can-di Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko is doing.

“There are several kinds of promotion we are doing. But the biggest one is maximizing the use of social engines, from run-ning main and supporting web-sites, cooperating with the big-gest traveling community, and providing applications in various languages. But the most impor-tant thing is doing joint market-ing with a number of the world’s large tour operator like TUI. Lat-

er, the TUI will be the one col-laborating with big companies worldwide to promote Borobu-dur. If we do not have such a col-laboration, it will be impossible for our product to be in their pro-motion agenda,” said Agus.

So far, Agus asserted, his com-pany has cooperated with about 100 big companies in the world to promote the Borobudur Tem-ple as tourism destination.

“Because of this cooperation, we are helped by their digital marketing. Imagine hundreds

of these big companies activate their digital marketing teams ev-ery year, it will generate huge im-pacts and we are the only one in Indonesia that dares to do this kind of vast promotion aside from local and central govern-ments. Direct budget disbursed was around Rp 7 billion and there was also an indirect bud-get that in total amounts to Rp 15 billion,” added Agus.

Agus said that Bali is by far the focal attraction of Indonesia’s tourism. Of 7.7 million foreign tourists in 2013, only 400 thou-

sand visited Borobudur. The rate of growth of Bali’s tourism is very fast, conversely Yogyakar-ta tends to be just so-so. For this reason, Agus said his company has to take tactical steps by do-ing joint promotions.

“I only give the Germans raw materials and they do it their own way. Hence, I hope the gov-ernment could reconsider their next campaign. Exhibitions abroad are good but not enough. They probably last three days, then what’s left? While what my company does appears in nu-merous tourism guidebooks. As long as the physical part is not ruined, the promotion will al-ways continue,”said Agus.

Through investment and ef-forts to revitalize sources of eco-nomic growth such as tourism, sustainability and high growth of the economy can be achieved. Marine tourism has massive potentials and could be a new

from page C1

Developing Tourism, Developing the Nationsource of economic growth since this country is an archipelago with rich biodiversity acknowl-edged worldwide. Other tour-ism objects that can also be new sources of economic growth are culture and heritage, ecotour-ism, sports and recreation, culi-nary delights, shopping, health-care and MICE.

It should be realized that the main draw of Indonesia’s tour-ism is actually not its nature but its people as they are graced with a warm attitude, cordial man-ners, friendly smiles and gener-ous hearts. With all its potentials and multiplier effects, the tour-ism sector should be given a big-ger chance to become a priori-ty in regions’ development. The tourism industry in some coun-tries plays important roles as the most promising sector for eco-nomic growth and it is not im-possible that one day the same thing will happen in Indonesia.

It should be realized that the main draw of Indonesia’s tourism is actually not its nature but its people as they are graced with a warm attitude, cordial manners, friendly smiles and generous hearts. With all its potentials and multiplier effects, the tourism sector should be given a bigger chance to become a priority in regions’ development.

Unlike other Special Economic Zones (KEK) initiated directly by the government, the KEK Tanjung Lesung will be developed by the private sector: the Jababeka Group.

tanjunglesung.com

As conveyed by Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa, Tanjung Lesung has a big potential in the Indonesian tourism sector. Therefore, this zone will be developed to be integrated with tourism, regardless of the insufficient infrastructure. The decision of Tanjung Lesung as a tourism KEK is enforced through government regulation PP No. 26/2012 on Special Economic Zones–Tanjung Lesung.

sistance from government. We want parallel cooperation,” he affirmed.

BWJ and the government are maintaining intense communi-cations in order to smoothen the implementation of the KEK in Tanjung Lesung, including per-mit processing and other invest-ment-related issues.

“We hope this can be resolved soon so we will not miss invest-ment opportunities,” he stated.

With ease in obtaining per-mits and government regulation on tax incentives and tax non-incentives, it is hoped that for-eign investors will be more inter-ested to invest in KEK Tanjung Lesung. “There are only a few KEKs in Indonesia, so the imple-mentation of KEK development can be maximized,” he added.

Setiawan is optimistic in the prospects of KEK Tanjung Le-sung.

“There is always opportunity and hope, and it is not impossi-ble that one day Tanjung Lesung can become an international tourism destination. Bali is an island, while Tanjung Lesung is a resort. The latter has beautiful nature. Bali has the sea, but so does Tanjung Lesung; Bali has mountains and its strong cultur-al elements, but so does Tanjung Lesung. The government, with the help of the media, is expect-ed to be more vigorous in pro-

moting this KEK. The question is, how fast can this process be done,” Setiawan said.

The development in Tanjung Lesung is conducted along with the empowerment of the people in the surrounding area, such as dancers and sculptors.

On domestic tourism, Set-iawan acknowledged its growing number from year to year, espe-cially with the increasing num-ber of foreign airlines with direct flights to Indonesia. However, he said, there are still so many re-gions that have not yet perform well in terms of being helpful in, for example, getting visas to en-ter Indonesia.

“Here, there is still the impres-sion of having complications in obtaining visa whereas in Sin-gapore the immigration office is widely open,” he said.

Will the tourism sector be able to be a national economicforce? BWJ’s Director answered that it is not impossible. Many other countries depend their income on tourism, but to be like them it needs to be thought the design and stsrategy as our current big-gest source of income is natural resources.

“One day, we will run out of natural resources and others. However, if we can manage our tourism effectively, we can still see to it that the people prosper,” said Setiawan.

There is always opportunity and hope, and it is not impossible that one day Tanjung Lesung can become an international tourism destination. Bali is an island, while Tanjung Lesung is a resort. The latter has beautiful nature. Bali has the sea, but so does Tanjung Lesung; Bali has mountains and its strong cultural elements, but so does Tanjung Lesung. The government, with the help of the media, is expected to be more vigorous in promoting this KEK. The question is, how fast can this process be done.”

Setiawan Mardjuki, Director of PT Banten West Java (BWJ) Tourism Development

C3

Livingwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

But cardiovascular disease is much more common than cancer. Sad-ly, there is now a pile of evidence,

sometimes startling, that air pollution also plays a role in heart attacks and strokes. The new studies suggest that air pollution not only worsens car-diovascular disease — but can also cause it.

“We’ve known for about 20 years that we see increased risk of heart attack and stroke in as-sociation with increased levels of air pollution,” said Sara Adar, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan. The most recent data show that “air pollution does more than just make you worse.”

Scientists like Dr. Adar have been studying fine particu-lates adrift in the cloud of un-friendly gases shrouding many of our communities. Measuring 2.5 micrometers (or microns) or less, these bits of material are so tiny that it would take about 30 of them to equal the diameter of a human hair. A series of stud-ies has found that they pene-trate deep into the lungs, em-bedding in tissue and setting off a cascade of inflammatory effects. Researchers believe the inflammation also spreads into the circulatory system, altering the way blood vessels function.

Although air pollution is a long-recognized and regulat-ed health hazard, only gradu-ally have researchers come to appreciate the threat of partic-ulates. In 1989, C. Arden Pope

III, a professor of economics at Brigham Young University, published a paper based on the temporary shutdown of a near-by steel mill, showing a lin-ear relationship between emis-sions and hospitalizations. He traced the illnesses to particu-lates in the air.

Dr. Pope originally had fo-cused on air pollution’s effects on the lungs, but over the years he kept turning up increases in cardiovascular disease. “By 2002, I’d given up on the idea that this was just some anom-aly in the study design,” he re-called in an interview. Eventu-ally he identified the culprit: fine particles, far smaller than those tracked in his original steel mill study. “The deep-er you dive into the data, the more clearly you see the effect on cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Pope said.

Dr. Adar and her colleagues have been tracking the dam-age at the microscopic level in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Ath-erosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air), which has followed more than 5,000 people in six states for more than a decade. It is funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protec-tion Agency.

Researchers working with the project have contributed to an increasingly precise un-derstanding of risks associated with fine particles that float in polluted air. Dr. Adar and her colleagues have shown, for in-stance, that increased expo-

Air Pollution as a Heart Threat

ity in a range of people – from vehicle drivers to bicyclists trav-eling congested roadways. A study published this year in Environmental Health found evidence of “acute changes” in heartbeats in people, aged 22 to 56, driving in Mexico City traf-fic. Another recent study, of bi-cyclists in Ottawa, found that their heart rhythms appeared to be altered for hours after they had returned home in ways un-related to exertion.

“There’s increasing evidence that there’s something about traffic-related pollution in par-ticular,” said Dr. Joel D. Kauf-man, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington in Se-attle.

Vehicle emissions are thought to include an unusually high proportion of very small, or ul-trafine, particles, allowing them to penetrate deeper into the body. Researchers say there is also some evidence that the shape of these particles gives them an unusually high surface area, which permits other con-taminants to stick onto them. As a result, they may actually con-centrate toxic compounds in pol-luted air.

“The evidence is pretty over-whelming that fine particles do harm,” said Dr. Russell V. Luep-ker, a cardiologist and epidemi-ologist at the University of Min-nesota School of Public Health, a co-author of two scientific re-

sure to pollutants, after oth-er factors are factored out, can be directly linked to narrowing of blood vessels and to a steady thickening of artery walls.

Their most recent study, pub-lished this year in PLoS Medi-cine, described a near-linear re-lationship: as air pollution levels dropped, the thickening slowed. When exposure to air pollutants increased, signs of damage in-creased.

The MESA Air study also has reinforced a sense that ve-hicle exhaust may be unusual-ly harmful. Researchers in the United States and many oth-er countries have linked traffic pollution to heart rate variabil-

Bit by bit over the past few decades, scientists have been building a new understanding of the ways that air pollution threatens human health. Much of their attention has been focused on lung diseases, including cancers. With good reason, it turns out: just last month, the World Health Organization declared air pollution to be one of the planet’s most dangerous environmental carcinogens.

ports on air pollution for the American Heart Association.

But, he added, health choic-es — such as poor diet, smok-ing and lack of exercise — and conditions such as hypertension still pose greater risks. “If we got rid of air pollution, heart disease would not disappear,” Dr. Luep-ker said.

Researchers studying the health effects of air pollution are starting to look at ways that their findings can be used for greater protection. Dr. Adar and her colleagues are looking for ways to better identify and con-trol the most dangerous vehicle emissions, while other scientists are pondering everything from

improved air purifiers to parti-cle-absorbing barriers. But one of the most effective responses is environmental regulation.

Several decades of clean air regulations in the United States have had lifesaving effects. A study published this year in the Journal of the American Med-ical Association estimated that there has been a 35 percent drop in deaths and disabilities related to air pollution, including cardio-vascular diseases, in the United States since 1990.

“Our public policy efforts to re-duce air pollution are one of the most effective medical interven-tions in the last 20 to 30 years,” Dr. Pope said.

NYT

skift.com

There is now a pile of evidence, sometimes startling, that air pollution also plays a role in heart attacks and strokes. The new studies suggest that air pollution not only worsens cardiovascular disease — but can also cause it.

Childhood music les-sons can sometimes leave painful memories, but they seem to carry benefits into adulthood. A new study re-ports that older adults who took lessons at a young age can process the sounds of speech faster than those who did not.

“It didn’t matter what in-strument you played, it just mattered that you played,” said Nina Kraus, a neuro-scientist at Northwestern University and an author of the study, which appears in The Journal of Neurosci-ence.

She and her collaborators looked at 44 healthy adults ages 55 to 76, measuring electrical activity in a region of the brain that processes sound.

They found that par-ticipants who had four to

Long-Term Benefitsof Music Lessons

14 years of musical train-ing had faster responses to speech sounds than partic-ipants without any training — even though no one in the first group had played an instrument for about 40 years.

Dr. Kraus said the study underscored the need for a good musical education. “Our general thinking about education is that it is for our children,” she said. “But in fact we are setting up our children for healthy aging based on what we are able to provide them with now.”

Other studies have sug-gested that lifelong musical training also has a positive effect on the brain, she add-ed. Dr. Kraus herself plays the electric guitar, the piano and the drums — “not well but with great enthusiasm,” she said. NYT

A new study reports that older adults who took lessons at a young age can process the sounds of speech faster than those who did not.

suspendyourgarage.com

It was 2008 and a woman my editor and I knew had just died of cancer. One of the last things she said to my editor was a bitter lament: “What ever happened to the” [expletive] “war on cancer?”

Well, I told my editor, it was clear we hadn’t won that war. But the question was why. Why was progress so slow? Was it that cancer is a difficult disease or was it that other impediments got in the way? I thought it was probably that cancer was hard to fight. But it turned out that was only part of the problem.

Much money was being spent, but not always wisely, medical experts said.

There were federal grants os-tensibly about cancer that were only tangentially related. It re-minded me of my days as a mo-lecular biology graduate stu-dent. A friend was studying the expression of genes in bacteria that were involved in lactose me-tabolism. He got a grant from the arthritis institute of the Nation-al Institutes of Health. I asked him how he ever accomplished that and he explained that if you write your proposal correctly you can make bacteria gene expres-

— propelled, in part, by federal antismoking campaigns that be-gan in the 1960s.

Another drop in cancer rates was a consequence of something totally unrelated to the war on cancer. In 2002, a large federal study, the Women’s Health Ini-tiative, stopped early because it was finding that the treatment being tested, hormone thera-py for menopausal women, had harms outweighing any bene-fit. Women immediately stopped taking the drugs. It turned out that one of the harmful effects was a slightly increased risk of breast cancer. When women stopped taking the hormones, an estrogen and a progestin, the breast cancer rate finally fell — the first time that had happened — by almost the exact amount predicted if women stopped tak-ing the pills.

So it looked like progress against cancer had not come from the “war” so much as from other events. And it looked like cancer was just about as formi-dable as ever.

But that was in 2008. Now scientists seem to be entering a new era of optimism.

It began with insights from the much ballyhooed and then much maligned Human Genome Proj-ect. The project, to determine the sequence of human DNA, at first used expensive and laborious methods but as it went on, sci-entists developed much cheaper and faster ways of sequencing. With fast sequencing, the cancer institute sponsored large stud-ies of cancer genomes, looking for mutations that seem to drive tumor growth. And drug compa-

nies looked on their own for crit-ical cancer mutations that might make good targets for drugs.

itably grow resistant to a drug that attacks a crucial mutation. The new targeted drugs can buy patients with metastatic cancer time, and, eventually, by com-bining drugs, scientists might be able to bar all cancers’ es-cape routes. But for now, the new drugs rarely are cures, and they also are incredibly expen-sive, usually costing well over $100,000.

On the horizon is yet anoth-er sort of treatment. It unleashes the immune system, allowing it to kill cancer cells. These drugs are only starting to be developed, but some patients have had as-tonishing responses. Companies and researchers are buoyant, though they are also mindful of previous failed drugs and are wary of overpromising.

One way to look at the era re-searchers say they are entering is to say that the war on cancer was the impetus. It spurred in-terest in the disease and as a re-sult money flowed to basic re-search. Another way to look at it is to say basic research was the key and the war on cancer was incidental.

But whether the war on can-cer was more slogan or solution, most researchers believe cancer treatment, at least, is starting to change. After decades of little progress, they now are starting to go beyond the old mainstays (chemotherapy, surgery and ra-diation) that have never been enough against this disease.

The biggest challenge, pre-vention, remains. And other than stopping smoking, noth-ing yet has been terribly prom-ising. NYT

Hopeful Glimmers inLong War on Cancer

sion sound relevant to almost anything.

There also was money squan-dered on clinical trials that were so unimaginative and so un-interesting that they dwindled away, unable to recruit enough patients to come to any conclu-sions.

There were national cam-paigns to get people screened for cancers, even though many types of cancer screening have not been found to reduce death rates. Screening also leads doc-tors to find and aggressively treat cancers that would never have grown or spread or caused a problem if they had never been found and had been left alone. The only screening tests that do reduce death rates, studies have found, are Pap tests for cervical cancer, any of the three screen-ing tests for colon cancer — colonoscopy, fecal occult blood tests or sigmoidoscopy — and a lung cancer screening test for smokers.

The much touted recent drops in some cancer rates were mostly attributable not to cancer break-throughs but to a decline in smoking that began decades ago

This week’s Retro Report video examines the “war on cancer” — a federal research initiative authorized by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971. Many anticipated quick results, in part because of the public relations campaign, complete with ads suggesting we could cure cancer by the bicentennial, that successfully pushed Mr. Nixon into making the commitment. Since then, the United States government has spent over $100 billion on research.

But whether the war on cancer was more slogan or solution, most researchers believe cancer treatment, at least, is starting to change. After decades of little progress, they now are starting to go beyond the old mainstays (chemotherapy, surgery and radiation) that have never been enough against this disease.

The results are dozens of drugs that attack various mutated genes in cancer cells. The drugs are just now starting to enter the market. A few of the older ones, like Herceptin and Gleevec, de-veloped before the new sequenc-ing methods evolved, have made previously untreatable cancers treatable. Gleevec has turned certain blood cancers from a le-thal cancer into a manageable chronic disease. Herceptin has made a form of breast cancer with the worst prognosis into one that now has the best prognosis.

But the problem with the new targeted drugs is that just as bacteria grow resistant to anti-biotics, so cancers almost inev-

C4

Healthwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

At our very first visit, I was overwhelmed by all of the issues my new patient faced. She was nearly 300 pounds and her dia-betes was raging out of control. She had asthma, but smoked to ease her anxiety. Her obesity se-verely limited her mobility, but the constant stress in her life led her to overeat.

She had been raised in a fam-ily faced with psychiatric, med-ical and social challenges, and now the cycle seemed to be rep-licating itself. Her three children all had emotional and educa-tional needs that required inten-sive services.

She couldn’t figure out how to get a handle on her life, and as her new physician, I wasn’t sure how to get a handle on it either. Should I work on her diabetes first? Her smoking? Her weight? Her asthma? Her anxiety and stress? Her life seemed fright-eningly out of control. On what could we connect, I wondered?

In the middle of our visit, her cellphone rang. She glanced at the caller ID, then looked apol-ogetically toward me. “It’s my son’s teacher,” she said. I told her to please take the call. As a par-ent of three school-age children, I well understood how hard it could be to reach a teacher, and how critical such calls were.

“I know my son missed two assignments,” she said into the phone, as I scrolled through her labs. “Sometimes he’s anxious after therapy session, so I have to give him time on the play-ground.”

She paused and listened to the teacher. “We keep a chart,” she said, “and he gets a check for each homework he finishes.”

As she carried on the con-versation, I found myself feeling more connected to her. I knew about the driving necessity of playground time. I knew about the charts and the checks re-quired to keep children focused on their tasks. I knew the fre-netic juggling required to keep up with three children and their schedules. I also knew the awk-ward sensation of explaining de-tails of a life to a teacher, unsure if they will pass muster.

“I never get around to printing any photos,” I said sheepishly. “They just sit on my phone.”

She leaned toward the cell-phone sitting on my desk, some-what expectantly. I figured it would be O.K. to show her a quick photo, since we’d known each other for so many years at this point.

My patient gave a wistful smile when she saw the photo. “What a happy family you have,” she said. “Your husband looks like such a nice person. Your kids look so smart.” The plaintive-ness in her voice was so palpa-ble, and I suddenly realized what a mistake I’d made.

I’d thought it would strength-en our bond to share a bit of my life. But it turned out it may have had the opposite effect, as she projected onto my life some of the things that were missing in hers.

I quickly closed the photo, em-barrassed at the awkward dy-namics. There were likely some patients for whom the addition of the human element of the doc-tor’s life might be helpful, but this patient probably wasn’t one of them. I felt terrible that I might have done something detrimen-tal.

And now as I sat with my new patient, a woman who in most ways was so vastly differ-ent from me, I wondered if shar-ing some of the communali-ties we did have would enhance our alliance, and give us a bet-ter chance at tackling her medi-cal issues. After all, that was my ultimate goal.

In the end, I decided to keep quiet. I couldn’t be sure if such disclosure would offer solidarity, or inadvertently toss in a mon-key wrench. Instead, I simply ac-knowledged how challenging the situation with her children must be. I offered my admiration for her efforts, and pointed out her successes.

She reddened slightly, but smiled. “Raising kids is harder than I’d ever imagined.”

“I know,” I said.I wanted to say that I really

did know, but I decided to leave it at that. NYT

When Doctors Share With Their Patients

First, the guidelines have moved away from achieving target cholesterol levels.

Americans have long been urged to focus on their lab-oratory numbers.

Many people are obses-sive about checking

their choles-t e r o l

levels and pur-

suing even better numbers.

Doctors have been told to focus on these

numbers and, in some cases, the quality of their care

was assessed by the percentage of their patients with low choles-terol levels.

Those days are over. The new guidelines recognize that for pa-

tients who have exhausted life-style efforts and are considering drug therapy, the question is not whether a drug makes your lab tests better, but whether it low-ers your risk of heart disease and stroke. Studies over the past several years have shown that improving your lab profile with drugs is not equivalent to lower-ing your heart risks. Drugs have thousands of effects on the body, and a drug’s effect on an individ-ual lab test cannot necessarily predict its overall effect on you.

Importantly, the guidelines still state that cholesterol is im-portant. But the point is that changing your cholesterol level with medications is now accom-panied with the appreciation that other effects of the drugs may offset any benefit to reduc-ing cholesterol.

There’s one exception to the numbers rule. People with very high levels of the harmful cho-lesterol known as LDL still need to worry about targets. The new guidelines set that LDL level at 190 milligrams per deciliter – but the principle is that if people have very high cholesterol levels, then their cardiovascular risk is so high that it is likely that treat-ment to reduce the levels would offset any risks of the drug treat-ment.

So, the new guidelines are saying: we should not be chasing the cholesterol levels alone. The “know your number” campaign is no longer consistent with the

When she hung up the phone, she apologized for the interrup-tion. “Don’t worry,” I reassured. “Teacher calls are important.” I was about to continue, to offer her some of our commonalities, thinking that common ground could offer us a good start on a working relationship.

But then I stopped myself. I remembered an article I’d read about how doctors often “self-disclose” to patients in an at-tempt to empathize: “My father also had lung cancer; I know how difficult it can be,” or “I also had knee surgery; I know how hard the recovery is.” But con-trary to what might be expect-ed, such self-disclosures often turned out not to be helpful in addressing patients’ concerns or building rapport. Patients some-times interpreted them as dis-ruptive.

A week earlier, I had a vis-it with one of my long-term pa-tients — a woman in her 60s who has been alone, and lone-ly, for as long as I’d known her. At the end of our visit, she asked why there weren’t any new pic-tures of my children; the pho-to on my desk was about three years old by now.

guidelines, and the days of doc-tors adding additional medica-tions to get you to some arbitrary cholesterol level should no longer occur.

Second, know your risk.

The guidelines are now focusing you on your overall risk of heart disease and

stroke. They indicate that drug treatment is recom-mended for people with a high risk — and that more power-ful treatments are best for those with the highest risk.

So what they are saying now is: know your risk of heart dis-ease and stroke. They have pub-lished an online calculator to help you -– but more important is the general concept that drug treatment with effective medica-tions (those proven to lower risk) should be used in people with the most to gain.

The guidelines do set thresh-olds for risk, but my view is that these recommendations should not be considered dictums to be followed without question. They say that if your 10-year risk of heart disease and stroke is 7.5 percent or higher, then you should be treated with drugs. However, I believe that only you can determine what constitutes a high enough risk that it is worth it to you to be treated with drugs. Such a decision depends on how you feel about your risk

of heart disease and stroke and how you feel about taking drugs — and their risks and benefits.

Third, use medications proven to reduce risk.

The understand-ing that simply im-proving cholester-ol lab tests may not

reduce your risk for heart attack and stroke has fo-cused attention on the choice of drug therapy. In the “treat to tar-get” era, there was a sense that we could use any of the medica-tions to lower LDL — and what was most important was the lab test.

However, there have been nu-merous studies showing that many popular drugs that may have improved lab tests for cho-lesterol failed to reduce risk. These studies led the authors of the guidelines to make a dis-tinction between proven and un-proven medications.

Thus, the focus of the guide-lines is on statins, the drug class with clear evidence that it can lower risk in many groups of patients. In fact, statins seem to lower risk regardless of your cholesterol levels. This fact has led many of us to think about statins as risk-reduction med-ications rather than just medi-cations that modify cholesterol levels. Regardless, the evidence that statins lower risk is very clear.

So the guidelines now make clear that if you use drug ther-apy for higher risk, you should use statins. If you cannot toler-ate one statin, you might want to try another statin, after con-sultation with your doctor. If you use another type of drug, then you should know whether that drug has been shown to reduce risk in contemporary studies. Many popular drugs, like Ze-tia (ezetimibe), have not yet been proven to save lives.

Bottom line: The new guide-lines are a marked departure from the era of chasing targets and being agnostic to the drugs you used. The new message is don’t chase targets, know your risk, and — if you need drug therapy — use statins. These principles should guide your dis-cussions with your doctor. NYT

3 Things to Know About the New Cholesterol Guidelines

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association just released new cholesterol guidelines to reduce atherosclerotic

cardiovascular risk – and the change from the previous version, last updated in 2004, is profound. Here are three things you need to know

about these new guidelines.

So, the new guidelines are saying: we should not be chasing the cholesterol levels alone. The “know your number” campaign is no longer consistent with the guidelines, and the days of doctors adding additional medications to get you to some arbitrary cholesterol level should no longer occur.

mywellness.in

But then I stopped myself. I remembered an article I’d

read about how doctors often “self-disclose” to patients in an attempt to

empathize: “My father also had lung cancer; I know

how difficult it can be,” or “I also had knee surgery;

I know how hard the recovery is.” But contrary

to what might be expected, such self-disclosures often turned out not to

be helpful in addressing patients’ concerns or

building rapport. Patients sometimes interpreted

them as disruptive.

C5

Tanjung Lesungwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

Tanjung Lesung Offers High ReturnsTo Investors, Heaven to TouristsTanjung Lesung, an exclusive integrated tourism destination located in Pandeglang, Banten or 170 km from Jakarta, offers a unique attraction—not only beautiful sceneries but also a lucrative investment opportunity.

Not far from Jakar-ta, about 3-4 hours by land to the west via the Jakarta–Mer-ak toll road towards

Pandeglang, you will find an ex-clusive world-class destination that can cater to all your holiday and investment needs. You no longer need to fly to Bali and buy expensive tickets to enjoy a lux-urious holiday. Tanjung Lesung is ready to offer an unforgetta-ble holiday that would make you feel as if you were in Nusa Dua, Bali, without having to spend ex-tra money.

Tanjung Lesung, which has a coastal line of ± 13 Km long, is known as a tourism gate to one of the most popular volca-no tourisms, Anak Krakatau, Ujung Kulon National Park, and the Baduy cultural tourism.

The nature in Tanjung Lesung is still original and untouched. Here, you could easily find exot-ic white sandy beaches such as the Bodur and Cipenyu beach-es that offer an incredible pan-oramic view and calm and clear bluish-greenish sea.

You could do all sorts of activ-ities during your holiday here at Tanjung Lesung. At the Beach Club, you could enjoy snorkel-ing, diving, banana boat, and jet skiing. Tanjung Lesung’s un-

derwater beauty offers a wide di-versity of fishes and coral reefs, making it a place that you must explore.

Tanjung Lesung is 1,500 hect-ares wide and there are various

types of accommodations avail-able in the area such as Tanjung Lesung Beach Hotel, Blue Fish Hotel, Sailing Club, Green Coral Camping Ground, and Kalicaa Villa, an exclusive cluster villa

with private pools. How is the investment oppor-

tunity in Tanjung Lesung lucra-tive? Tanjung Lesung is wide open for investment opportuni-ties. PT Banten West Java Tour-

ism Development (“BWJ”), a subsidiary of PT Jababeka Tbk, the owner and oper-ator of the Tanjung Lesung area, recent-ly launched a new vil-la type called Beranda Villa. It’s an exclusive accommo-dation with a luxurious design, the latest type from the Kalicaa Villa Estate.

Beranda Villa has more opened and spacious veranda that offers its occupants better comfort thus enabling them to better enjoy the natural environ-ment of Tanjung Lesung. Such atmosphere is most suitable for a family vacation or for individuals who like outdoor activities. The facilities at Beranda Villa include a kitchen, gazebo and a private pool made of natural stones. Be-randa Villa comes in two types, a 3-bedroom accommodation on a 420-square meter land and 209 square meters building and a 2-bedroom accommodation built on a 345-square meter land and 158 square meters building.

At the launch of Beranda Vil-la at the end of October, Phil-ip Lim, CEO of BWJ said: “With several development plans of the area on the table, Tanjung Le-sung is the right investment lo-cation. Beranda Villa, our latest

property product, is very suitable for fami-lies from the middle up

social class as well as for investors”.

Setiawan Mardjuki, President Director of BWJ, added: “We are targeting the upper class seg-ment which is individual inves-tors from Jakarta and other cit-ies. We have received quite a significant number of demands. They are interested because these villas are located in the Tanjung Lesung Resort tourism area, which is private and exclu-sive and is managed profession-ally, and which also offers hand-some investment returns and yields”.

Investors will receive a wide range of extra bonuses such as a two-year leasing guarantee with leasing income rate of 18%, 30 points to stay at Beranda Villa and free maintenance and util-ity charges (electricity and water) if they invest in Beranda Villa. Not only that, investors are also offered light payment schemes and they can pay in installment by up to 24 times.

Tanjung Lesung is support-ed by a complete range of infra-

structure such as roads, electricity, internet, tele-

phone, clean water and waste water treatment plant which is operated based on en-vironmentally-friendly policies that are expected to support the area’s future growth.

BWJ is preparing to build a series of infrastructure and sup-porting facilities such as an air-strip which will accommodate chartered flights bound from Halim Perdana Kusuma to Tan-jung Lesung. The airstrip is ex-pected to be finished by the end of this year to provide tourists and investors with transporta-tion alternatives and easier ac-cess to Tanjung Lesung. It is also planning to build other support-ing facilities such as an 18-hole golf course, a marina for yachts, and a theme park.

Tanjung Lesung has since 2012 been rewarded with the Special Economic Zone (KEK) status, which offers both inves-tors and tourists both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives. On top of that, the government’s efforts to improve infrastructure in the area will also add value to the tourism and investment attrac-tion such as the development of the Serang-Timur Panimbang toll road and the South Banten International Airport.

The nature in Tanjung Lesung is still original and untouched. Here, you could easily find exotic white sandy beaches such as the Bodur and Cipenyu beaches that offer an incredible panoramic view and calm and clear bluish-greenish sea.

C6

Travelwww.thepresidentpost.comDecember 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

madaha beach, Telaga Nita, Ter-nate’s port, the Residence bridge and Swering, a transplantation place for corals. The diving spots were very close to the heart of the city and the main roads, and they can all be accessed easily and each of them offering differ-ent sensations.

Ternate is also known for its historical tourism. There are several forts from the Portu-guese and Dutch colonization at the city which is located at the foot of the Gamalama Moun-tain. One of them is the Tolukko fort. This fort was built in 1540 by a Portuguese commander named Fransisco Serao, for de-fense in his efforts to take control over cloves and herbs and spic-es. Although the fort has been around for hundreds of years, it is still strong and well-main-tained. The front side of the fort faces the Gamalama Mountain, while from the opposite side we can enjoy the beautiful views of the sea and the Tidore Mountain which can be seen from a dis-tance. It was a perfect combina-tion of harmony, beauty and his-tory. Now, theTolukko fort has become a tourism site for history and one of the most favorite site to take pre-wedding pictures.

Floridas is a popular diving spot in Ter-nate, North Malu-ku. The diving spot was named Floridas because it is located

underneath a restaurant called Floridas. To reach the place, I had to take a motor boat from the Ternate port. In just about five minutes, I was able to see the restaurant which stood tall on a high cliff.

Upon arriving at the site, I im-mediately wore my diving suit. However, I was a little bit dis-tracted by a view in front of me. The surface of the sea was filled with floating plastic trash, which reduced the beauty of the wide blue sea. The trash contaminat-ed the diving spot because it was located very close to the heart of the city. It was such a shame be-cause the view at the diving spot is so beautiful.

I was immediately greeted by a colorful coral wall. The mild current and the 25 meter visi-bility range made it possible for divers to enjoy the movements of fish tails that swam between the reefs. There were plenty of nudi-branch or commonly known as sea slugs. The tiny animal has a very attractive shape and colors that makes it a great photo ob-ject. However, while diving one should be extra careful not to damage the corals.

My most special moment was when I saw a flathead crocodile fish, a fish with the camouflage ability to adapt with its environ-ment similar to a chameleon. I almost couldn’t tell the differ-ence between the fish and the corals around it. It was able to make a perfect camouflage. Not only that, I also got a glimpse of a black tip shark and a hawks-bill sea turtle but it was too bad that I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of them. It was unbe-lievable that a diving spot which was very close to the heart of the city was able to offer such an in-credibly beautiful scene.

There are several diving spots in Ternate such as at the Sula-

Awed by TERNATEThere are several diving spots in Ternate such as at the Sulamadaha beach, Telaga Nita, Ternate’s port, the Residence bridge and Swering, a transplantation place for corals. The diving spots were very close to the heart of the city and the main roads, and they can all be accessed easily and each of them offering different sensations.

Text: Iqbal AlaikPhoto: Adita, Nico, & Alaik

Ternate is also known for its historical tourism. There are several forts from the Portuguese and Dutch colonization at the city which is located at the foot of the Gamalama Mountain. One of them is the Tolukko fort. This fort was built in 1540 by a Portuguese commander named Fransisco Serao, for defense in his efforts to take control over cloves and herbs and spices.

C7

Golfwww.thepresidentpost.com December 2013 Vol. 2 No. 12

The Calmness of Golfing atMerapi Golf Club House

If you love playing golf, you definitely should be familiar with the Merapi Golf Club House. Yes, the Merapi golf course has several advan-

tages in addition to the cool air—it also has scenic beauty: a view of the Merapi mountain.

It has 18 holes covered in 6,370 square meters, par 72 and is located 30 minutes away from the ancient city of Yogya karta.

The Merapi golf course’s de-sign is truly a dazzling master-piece, which was created by the master of golf course Thomson, Woverride & Perret.

Nestled in the village of Cang-kringan, deep in the countryside of Java, Merapi Golf provides im-

pressive calmness far from the pollution of the city.

The blend of natural beau-ty and freshness of mountain weather and challenging hilly landscape with volcanic rocks makes this golf course one of the most attractive courses in Cen-tral Java. Each hole is designed and carefully placed with its own difficulties, serving a great test for clubbing.

Merapi Golf is located in the

Merapi Golf is located in the valley of Mount

Merapi, which is the most active volcano

in Indonesia. Its calm and peaceful

environment and stunning scenery

make golfers enjoy the game—they certainly

will not miss the exciting field, a place for golf lovers to play

without being bothered by heat and pollution.

valley of Mount Merapi, which is the most active volcano in Indo-nesia. Its calm and peaceful en-vironment and stunning scenery make golfers enjoy the game—they certainly will not miss the exciting field, a place for golf lov-ers to play without being both-ered by heat and pollution.

In addition to the golf course you can go to Kaliurang, which is a family vacation spot to enjoy the coolness and beauty of na-ture.

The blend of natural beauty and freshness of mountain weather and challenging hilly landscape with volcanic rocks makes this golf course one of the most attractive courses in Central Java.

golfwonderfulindonesia.com exotika-lands.com

exotika-lands.com

exotika-lands.com

NEW YEAR

NEW FORMAT

NEW VISION

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