• Palm Oil Update Indonesia: Export Tax Scrapped Again in July 2016

    An official at Indonesia's Trade Ministry said Southeast Asia's largest economy is to scrap the export tax on crude palm oil (CPO) again. In July 2016 the export tax will be lowered to zero, from USD $3 per ton in the preceding month, due to sliding palm oil prices. The Indonesian government expects palm oil prices to fall in July because after the Ramadan month and subsequent Idul Fitri celebrations are finished demand for the edible is set to decline.

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  • Initial Public Offering (IPO) Indonesia: Made Easier to Go Public

    The Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) aim to boost the number of listed companies in Indonesia by making it easier for companies to go public in an initial public offering (IPO). One strategy is the setting up of "Go Public" information centers in Jakarta and other big cities in Indonesia. This would mean that company officials will not need to travel to Jakarta to collect documents and provide data to the IDX. Soon, this will be possible in the regional centers. These centers can also introduce underwriters to companies that are interested to go public.

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  • Palapa Ring Project to Boost Indonesia's Internet Penetration

    One of Indonesia's priority infrastructure projects in the 2016-2019 period is the Palapa Ring project. This project, involving an undersea fiber-optic cable network that stretches across 13,000 kilometers and an onshore network of nearly 22,000 kilometers, aims to provide fast broadband Internet to Indonesians in both the urban and rural areas. The project is the first government-to-business cooperation scheme within Indonesia's telecommunication sector that utilizes the so-called "availability payment method".

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  • Indonesia Removes Global Bonds' Withholding Tax to Cut Yields

    The Finance Ministry of Indonesia announced that it has removed a withholding tax on interest payments on its global sovereign bonds (surat berharga negara, or SBN). Previously this tax was set at 15 percent for Indonesia-based investors and 20 percent for non-resident investors. By removing the withholding tax Indonesia's authorities aim to see its global bond yields fall by 15-20 percent. Indonesia's bond yields have been the highest in Southeast Asia. The removal of the withholding tax is effective retroactively from 1 January 2016.

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