The Today's Headlines section of Indonesia Investments is a regularly updated section which contains the latest information with regard to topics that are currently causing headlines in Indonesia's media. Most of our headlines cover political, economic and social matters. As a consequence of their recent nature, these topics may not have crystallized fully yet and can, therefore, lack a profound analysis. For publications with a more in-depth understanding of subjects, we refer you to our News, Financial or Business columns.
The Indonesian government said it will ban the use of satellites that have exceeded their life expectancy in order to avoid incidents such as happened with the Telkom-1 satellite. Last month millions of Indonesians could not use ATMs (for withdrawing money and conducting various payments) for several days as the Telkom-1 satellite, which is used by several banks in Indonesia for data transmission, suffered technical difficulties.
Cement consumption continued to improve in Indonesia in August 2017 on the back of rising demand from Java and the eastern region of Indonesia. Widodo Santoso, Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said Indonesia's cement consumption rose 9 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 6.47 million tons in August 2017.
The Lippo Group continues to aggressively promote its ambitious Meikarta project in Indonesian media and in various strategic locations. In fact, the group claims that pre-sales of apartment units has already reached 130,000 per August 2017, an impressive number. However, the project is controversial because the developer reportedly did not obtain all necessary permits and land that is required to construct the integrated township.
The US government plans to impose 40 percent import duties on biodiesel products that are shipped from Indonesia as the USA accuses the world's largest palm oil producer and exporter of dumping biodiesel products on the American market. As a result US vegetable oils (particularly soybean oil) lack competitiveness.
