New funds obtained from a rights issue and the revaluation of its assets will have a positive impact on Aneka Tambang (Antam), a diversified mining company in Indonesia. The miner, majority-owned by the Indonesian government, is engaged in all activities ranging from exploration, exploitation, processing, refining to the marketing of nickel ore, ferronickel, gold, silver, bauxite, coal and precious metals refining services. However, its corporate earnings remained disappointing so far in 2015.

Read column ›

The Indonesian government's decision to limit foreign ownership in the horticulture sector to a maximum of 30 percent (through Law No. 13/2010 on Horticulture), from 95 percent previously, continues to cause a polemic as such protectionism may be a big disadvantage to the development of Indonesia's horticulture sector. Moreover, the law works retroactively implying that existing companies owned by foreign investors need to divest their majority ownership interests. In Law No. 13/2010 foreigners were given four years to divest their shares.

Read column ›

Higher sales, higher selling prices, and lower production costs are expected to impact positively on the performance of Arwana Citramulia, one of Indonesia's big four ceramic manufacturers. The company's ceramic sales volume is projected to surge 35 percent (y/y) to 53 million square meters in 2016 from this year's estimated 40 million square meters, partly supported by the start of operations of Arwana Citramulia's new factory in Mojokerto (East Java). Arwana controls about 26 percent of Indonesia's ceramic tiles market among low-income consumers with its two flagship brands: Arwana and Uno.

Read column ›

Ahead of implementation of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan in the European Union (EU) on 1 April 2016, EU members request that all wood and timber products exported from Indonesia into the EU have the Timber Legality Verification System (in Indonesian: Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu, or, SVLK) certificate. The SVLK is an Indonesian system designed to verify the legality of its timber products. Meanwhile, the EU's FLEGT plan is designed to combat illegal logging and enhance forest management across the globe.

Read column ›