Indonesia is in the news today after it was reported that the government ordered all instant messaging providers - for example Line, Twitter and WhatsApp - to remove gay emoticons (such as same-sex couples holding hands or making kiss gestures at each other). Through this removal the government tries to safeguard the local culture and (religious-inspired) ethics hence protecting the nation's children from an example of bad western behavior.

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Two international airlines will (temporarily) scrap flights to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, located just outside Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta. French flag carrier Air France and Kuwait's national airline Kuwait Airways announced to stop flying to Indonesia's busiest airport starting from 28 March 2016. Reasons behind this decision are sluggish demand for flights to Jakarta, fleet rotation, and Garuda Indonesia's joining of the SkyTeam in March 2014.

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The government of Indonesia is again opening room for foreign ownership in a number of sectors in an effort to boost economic expansion and reach the 7 percent year-on-year (y/y) gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate by 2019 as targeted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Examples of sectors that are to be opened for the full 100 percent to foreign ownership are the cold storage business, crumb rubber industry, sport-centers, film production industry, restaurants, raw materials for medicines, toll roads, and telecommunication equipment. These revisions are part of Indonesia's 10th economic stimulus package.

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The start of infrastructure projects in Indonesia - ranging from roads, bridges, power plants, smelters, and public housing - has managed to boost cement consumption in the first month of 2016. Widodo Santoso, Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said domestic cement consumption in Indonesia rose 4.4 percent (y/y) to 5.14 million tons in January 2016 from the same month one year earlier. Highest growth in consumption occurred in Sumatra (+15.8 percent y/y to 1.1 million tons), Java (+5.3 percent y/y to 2.9 million tons) and Sulawesi (+19 percent y/y to 424,000 tons).

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