Indonesian President Joko Widodo kicked off his short European tour on Monday (18/04) in Berlin (Germany) where he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Bilateral relations between Indonesia and Germany are important because Germany is Indonesia's largest trading partner in the European continent and Indonesia's seventh-largest investor. Merkel praised Indonesia's economic development amid the complex context (having more than 255 million citizens and consisting of over 17,000 islands). Both state heads talked about strengthening existing partnership in vocational education in several sectors.

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The price of steel has surged 20 percent to USD $365 per ton in April 2016 from USD $305 per ton at the start of the year. The primary reason for the higher steel price is China's plan to curtail the country's installed steel production capacity by a further 150 million tons over the next five years. In recent years the steel price has dropped significantly due to the global oversupply, mainly originating from the chronic steel oversupply in China where domestic demand declined amid the nation's economic slowdown.

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Foreigners (expats) can buy a landed house or apartment in Indonesia (under the so-called 'right-of-use' category, locally known as hak pakai, which is weaker than the ‘right-of-ownership’ category or hak milik). However, the government set various requirements (including a minimum price). A new regulation stipulates a foreigner is not allowed to rent out his Indonesian property to other parties (authorities have the right to scrap the foreigner's 'right-of-use' title if he breaches this prohibition). Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, Indonesia's Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister, provided an update on the issue of 'foreign property ownership in Indonesia'.

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered the nation's Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya to issue a moratorium on new palm oil concessions in a number of provinces. Although Widodo wants Indonesia - the world's top producer and exporter of crude palm oil (CPO) - to raise CPO output, he believes this increase can be achieved by increasing productivity of existing palm oil plantations, not by adding new plantations. Indonesia is often criticized by environmentalist groups for its forestry policies and poor law enforcement (which led to the severe haze that spread through Southeast Asia last year).

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