The productivity of Indonesia's human resources has improved markedly over the past 15 years. This is one of the conclusions mentioned in the latest Economic Insight: South East Asia, released by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). This quarterly report focuses on the economic trends in the largest economies of the ASEAN countries. Vietnam and Indonesia are the top performers in terms of productivity growth (growth of the average output per worker) supported by the ongoing shift from agriculture to more capital-intensive sectors (manufacturing and the service industries).

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Only five plantation companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) managed to post higher revenue in the first quarter of 2016 (compared to the same quarter one year earlier). Of the 14 plantation companies listed on the IDX, four still need to publish their Q1-2016 corporate earnings (Golden Plantation, Sawit Sumbermas Sarana, Multi Agro Gemilang Plantation, and Tunas Baru Lampung). Sampoerna Agro was the company with the highest revenue growth among Indonesia's listed plantation companies in Q1-2016.

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According to the latest data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) the unemployment rate of Indonesia fell to 5.5 percent of the nation's labor force, or 7.02 million people in absolute terms, in February 2016 (compared to an unemployment rate of 5.81 percent one year earlier). The data from BPS also indicate that Indonesia's workforce - remarkably - shrank from 128.3 million in February 2015 to 127.8 million people in February 2016 particularly due to a decline in workers in the agriculture sector.

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Indonesia's Ministry of Public Works and Housing targets to complete the tender process for eight dams, worth a combined IDR 8.60 trillion (approx. USD $637 million) - all national strategic projects - by June 2016. Imam Santoso, Director of Dams at the Public Works Ministry, said one dam has already been tendered last week: the IDR 1.04 trillion Kuwil Kawangkoan Dam in North Sulawesi. Next week the government is set to tender the Leuwikeris Dam in West Java. The central government aims to tender a new dam project every two weeks up to June 2016.

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Production of heavy equipment in Indonesia fell 23 percent (y/y) to 4,100 units in 2015 due to the weak conditions in the mining and agriculture sectors. Traditionally, most of heavy equipment sales occur in these two sectors. Weak demand caused utilization of the nation's installed production capacity for heavy equipment to fall to 41 percent in 2015 from 51 percent in the preceding year. When fully utilized Indonesia can produce an estimated total of 10,000 units of heavy equipment per year.

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More than 60 percent of Indonesia's soybean consumption still needs to be imported from abroad. To reduce its dependence on soybean imports Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry aims to enhance domestic soybean production. For this reason soybeans have been included in the government's list of strategic food commodities (other examples are rice, sugar and corn), meaning these food items get special attention from the government. The Agriculture Ministry targets to see the production of 1.5 million tons of soybean in 2016, up from an expected 920,000 tons this year. Meanwhile, Indonesian soybean demand in 2015 is estimated to reach 2.3 million tons.

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It is increasingly believed that the El Nino weather phenomenon will hit Indonesia in the next couple of months. Over the past weeks reports already surfaced about unusual dry weather impacting negatively on harvests of agricultural commodities in parts of Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, dry weather traditionally lasts from May to August. However, El Nino may cause warmer conditions and extending these into September hence affecting output in the peak harvest season. This will cut agricultural output and provide inflationary pressure.

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The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization that works with governments to understand what drives economic, social and environmental change, is positive about the economic prospects of Indonesia. However, the institution also emphasized that Indonesia needs to do its homework in order to benefit optimally from the country’s demographic bonus and to join the ranks of the upper-middle-income countries.

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On Saturday 5 July 2014, the fifth presidential debate between the two presidential pairs took place. Candidates Prabowo Subianto (joined by running mate Hatta Rajasa) and Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (joined by running mate Jusuf Kalla) faced off in the last debate. The theme of this debate was 'energy, food security and environment'. Sudharto P. Hadi, Professor of Sociology at the Diponegoro University in Semarang (Central Java) was the moderator. On Wednesday 9 July 2014, the Indonesian people will go to the ballot boxes to elect their next leader.

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With the presidential election of Indonesia (scheduled for 9 July) becoming a battle between Governor of Jakarta Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, and former army general and Suharto crony Prabowo Subianto, it is worth taking a closer look into the ideas and policies that both candidates would like to implement if elected as the next Indonesian president, as well as their stance on specific economic issues. The viewpoints that are mentioned below are based on the documents that both parties provided to the General Election Commission.

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Palm oil ranks among the most important agricultural commodities of Indonesia as this country is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil. This implies that Indonesia generates important foreign exchange earnings from palm oil exports and is a source of income for millions of workers on the plantations.

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In our current reality, where climate change intersects with an ever-increasing demand for food, the concept of precision farming cannot be ignored. It’s exactly what helps harmonize the surge in agricultural output with the imperative of nature preservation. In this piece we will delve deeper into why investing in this innovative approach is not just important, but essential. Especially when implementing precision methods becomes much easier with the geospatial data analytics market providing more and more solutions catering to both small farmers and large agricultural enterprises.

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Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry is optimistic that the nation's tea production can reach 140,234 tons in full-year 2018, up modestly (+0.6 percent) compared to tea production in the preceding year (139,362 tons). Rising tea output is targeted to come on the back of the government's efforts to encourage the optimization of tea productivity. Key strategy is to make more efficient use of the tea plantations. Currently, there are many empty spots in these plantations. By planting new trees on these empty spots, tea production could to rise.

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Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry expects the nation's coffee production to reach 674,636 tons in 2018, up a modest 0.9 percent year-on-year (y/y) from Indonesia's coffee production in 2017 (668,677 tons). If the ministry's estimate is correct, then it would be the second straight year of meager coffee production growth. From 2016 (when Indonesia produced a total of 663,871 tons) to 2017, growth of coffee production reached 0.7 percent (y/y).

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The climate of Indonesia is well-suited for growing various sorts of (tropical) fruit. According to information from Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry, there are 60 types of fruit that have the potential to grow in Indonesia. One of these fruits is the durian. The durian fruit, native to Southeast Asia, is regarded the "king of fruits" due to its distinctive (large) shape and rich flavor (although some dislike the taste). Durian is also known as being the smelliest fruit in the world due to its distinctive (read: awful) smell.

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Indonesia's Agriculture Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Denmark for investment into Indonesia's corn and sugar plantations as well as the cattle industry. Based on the words of Indonesian Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman it involves total Danish investment of at least IDR 2 trillion (approx. USD $152 million) for a period of five years. The deal involves the transfer of Danish agricultural technology, while Indonesia's part of the deal is to provide two million hectares of land. Meanwhile, Indonesia also plans to reaffirm its partnership with the UK in the creative economy industry.

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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.

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Corn is among the four strategic commodities that receive special attention in the blueprint of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The AEC’s food blueprint aims to enhance food security & sovereignty of corn, rice, soybeans and cassava in the ASEAN region. Indonesia is currently the region’s largest corn producer. However, Indonesian corn consumption continues to outpace domestic corn production, resulting in a deficit. This column provides an overview of Indonesia’s corn sector in the context of the AEC.

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Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry estimates that Indonesia’s rice harvest will not be severely affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon this year. The Ministry expects to see a rice production of at least 70 million tons of unmilled rice in 2014, just 1.9 percent down from the 71.3 million tons of rice that was produced last year. Meanwhile, Indonesia may see a record coffee harvest in 2015 as recent rainfall in the important coffee-producing regions have supported the development of cherries.

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The plantation sector of Indonesia is vulnerable to land disputes. Noor Marzuki, a Director at the National Land Agency (Badan Pertanahan Nasional, or BPN), a non-departmental government institution, said that currently only 30 percent of Indonesia's total plantation estate area has been registered at the BPN. This implies that 70 percent of Indonesian plantation estates are unregistered and thus susceptible to land conflicts. The total size of Indonesia's plantation estate area is 120 million hectares.

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