The eleventh meeting of the Group of 20 strongest economies (G20) started today in Hangzhou (China). It is the first time a G20 summit is hosted by the world's second-largest economy, a market that has been plagued by an economic slowdown over the past six years. The summit was opened by China's President Xi Jinping who urged leaders to avoid "empty talks" and instead to focus on boosting trade and the world economy which is currently at a critical juncture reflected by high market volatility. Critics, however, point out that China is known for implementing trade barriers.

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On 4 September 2016, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economy-related topics such as Indonesia's tax amnesty program, inflation, manufacturing, GDP growth, the smartphone market, crude palm oil, the textile industry, and much more.

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The ambitious tax amnesty program of the Indonesian government received support from three influential Indonesian businessmen. The first, James Riady, Chief Executive of the Lippo Group (and son of Mochtar Riady, the founding father of this huge conglomerate), joined the program by handing over his tax declaration documents to Indonesia's Tax Office on Friday (02/09). This declaration took place in front of an audience consisting of Indonesian press and therefore may cause some momentum for the controversial program that experienced a sloppy start.

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According to a survey conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), two brands controlled a combined 45 percent of the smartphone market in Indonesia in the second quarter of 2016. These two brands are Samsung (South Korea) and OPPO (China). On third position comes Asus (Taiwan), followed by the local Indonesian brand Advan and China's Lenovo. Data from IDC also show that smartphone sales in Indonesia grew 3.3 percent year-on-year (y/y) and 22 percent month-on-month (m/m) in Q2-2016. Unfortunately these data do not mention the exact sales volume.

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