Living with inflation, capital inflows, poor infrastructure

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Tue/12/21/2010 Opinion The biggest policy challenges for the Indonesian government in the year ahead include how to cope with rising inflationary pressures, ensure less volatile and sustainable capital inflows and accelerate the development of infrastructure. Certainly,...

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Commentary: Stopping subsidies for private cars could be the best policy of the year

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/14/2010 10:47 AM | Headlines Want to know what an incompetent government looks like? You’re looking at it. As early as December 2007 then chief economics minister Boediono, who is now the Vice President, announced after a Cabinet meeting that the...

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RI coal export prospects still bright

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Singapore Fri, 11/05/2010 10:50 AM Business Indonesia, already the world’s largest exporter of seaborne thermal coal since 2005, will continue to be a major supplier to the Asian market even though the quality of its coal reserves has declined to sub-bituminous...

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Analysts foresee imminent correction in roaring stock market

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Medan | Mon, 10/25/2010 10:33AM The debt crisis in Greece last April triggered market panic across Europe and set off a free fall in global stocks in May and created a bearish sentiment in the Asian markets. The Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) composite index fell...

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Singapore’s DBS aiming to become leading bank in Asia

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Singapore | Tue, 09/28/2010 9:08 AM | Business DBSg, Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets (totaling about US$215 billion as of last June), inauurated with great fanfare the Asia Hub of its key operations in a 3.1-hectare building near Changi Airport...

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Julius Baer private bank expands to net Indonesian rich

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Singapore Wed, 09/08/2010 10:23 AM Business The largest Swiss private banking group Julius Baer strengthened its commitment to making Asia its second home market by convening its board of directors meeting here last week, the first outside its Zurich headquarters,...

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IMF warns of threat of capital outflow

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Fri, 06/11/2010 9:56 AM Headlines The International Monetary Fund (IMF) charted out Thursday a rosy outlook for Indonesia’s economy for the rest of this year with an estimated growth of 6 percent, but warned the government that a volatile global environment...

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Don’t cry for me, Indonesia; I go for the good of all

Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Mon, 05/10/2010 10:38 AM Commentary The headline may fit the farewell message that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is likely to make when she leaves for Washington within the next week or so to take up one of the second-highest positions at the World...

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Mulyani needs whistle-blower hotlines for early warning

Vincent Lingga , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Tue, 04/06/2010 9:28 AM Commentary Had it not been for a whistle-blower, former National Police chief detective Comr.Gen Susno Duadji, junior tax auditor Gayus Tambunan, several police officers, state attorneys and judges would today be relishing...

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Big infrastructure deficit the highest barrier to investment

Vincent Lingga , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Tue, 03/30/2010 9:00 AM News Analysis President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the right decision in going ahead with convening an infrastructure summit in mid-January 2005, less than three months after being sworn in, despite suggestions of postponing...

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Commentary: All the ‘low-hanging fruit’ programs in the first 100 days

Vincent Lingga , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Thu, 01/28/2010 9:37 AM Headlines Had President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) anticipated the thundering political noise he would encounter at the outset of his second term, he might not have trapped himself in the euphoria of the first 100-day...

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Commentary: Beleaguered government throws out sound energy policy

Vincent Lingga , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Fri, 01/15/2010 9:20 AM Headlines By deciding to increase budget allocations for energy subsidies by 50 percent to Rp 150 trillion (US$15 billion) this year, the government threw out a sound fuel policy launched early last year to gradually reduce dependence...

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