On 8 June 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic topics such as an analysis of the April 2014 trade balance and May 2014 inflation, the 2009 Mining Law, energy subsidies, palm oil export, foreign exchange reserves, Link Net’s IPO, and more.

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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who will end his second term as president in October 2014, is expected to appoint Lukman Saifuddin as the new Minister of Religious Affairs on Monday (09/06) or Tuesday (10/06) next week. The position of Religious Affairs minister has been vacant since Suryadharma Ali stepped down from his post in late May 2014 to focus on his defense after being named a suspect (by the country’s Corruption Eradication Commission, KPK) in the hajj pilgrimage fund-corruption case.

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On 31 May 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic topics such as the construction of the world's largest geothermal power plant, forecasts for May inflation and April trade statistics, an update on the ceramic industry as well as on the rupiah and Indonesian stocks.

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Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali resigned from his ministerial post today (26/05) after having been named a suspect in a corruption case by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week. Ali is accused of mishandling the country’s hajj pilgrimage fund. This fund is centrally managed by the government and contains deposits paid by people who want to make the holy journey to Mecca (Saudi Arabia). Ali resigned in order to concentrate fully on his defense in the graft case.

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On 25 May 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve political and economic topics such as updates on the presidential election, a new high profile corruption case, fuel subsidies, oil & gas tenders, a stock market update, and more.

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The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of Indonesia has named Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali (who is also Chairman of the Islamic political party PPP) a suspect in a graft case. Reportedly, Ali engaged in self-enrichment by deliberately mishandling state funds that were allocated for the hajj pilgrimage covering financial year 2012-2013. Funds allocated to the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca totaled over IDR 1 trillion (USD $87 million) in that year. KPK spokesman Johan Budi confirmed the case.

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On 4 May 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic topics such as macroeconomic assumptions of the Indonesian government, April inflation, the March trade balance, April manufacturing, an update on the rupiah, the 2014 presidential election, and more.

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Two influential Indonesian political parties, Golkar and Gerindra, may form a coalition in order to nominate a presidential and vice-presidential candidate for Indonesia's presidential election that is scheduled for 9 July 2014. After the PDI-P, which won the legislative election on 9 April 2014 with approximately 19 percent of the vote, Golkar (15 percent) and Gerindra (12 percent) came in second and third. However, both these parties contain a leader who has presidential aspirations.

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Today (08/12), the latest edition of our newsletter was published. Our newsletter contains the most important economic, political and social news stories from Indonesia that were reported on in the last seven days. This is of especial importance for those that engage in business in Indonesia or those that are interested to invest in Southeast Asia's largest economy as it will provide a thorough update about Indonesia's macroeconomy. Occasionally, our newsletter also contain event announcements.

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Transparency International has released its Corruption Perceptions Index of 2013. This index assesses "the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians" in 177 countries around the world. Berlin-based and non-partisan Transparency International uses polls to determine perceived corruption in the selected countries. Indonesia rose four spots from 118 in last year's index to 114 in the 2013 edition but held the same score as last year (3.2 points).

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One of Indonesia's largest listed property developers - Agung Podomoro Land - saw its shares plunge 10 percent on Monday (04/04) after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the country's anti-graft agency, named the company's President Director Ariesman Widjaja a suspect in a bribery case that also involves a Jakarta legislator. Allegedly, Muhammad Sanusi, legislator of the Jakarta provincial assembly and member of Prabowo Subianto's Great Indonesia Party (Gerindra), accepted money in exchange for support related to the Pluit City project.

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West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and South Kalimantan are the three Indonesian provinces that scored the worst in the Local Government Performance Index (in Indonesian: Indeks Kinerja Pemerintah Daerah, or IKPD). This index, compiled by Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), measures the degree of coordination and supervision within Indonesian provinces regarding policies and actions related to the prevention of corruption in the mining and energy sectors. The provinces that have the highest scores are Central Sulawesi and the Riau Islands.

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Jero Wacik, Indonesia's former Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (2011-2014) and Minister of Culture and Tourism (2004-2011), could face nine years in prison, a fine of IDR 350 million and may have to pay compensation up to IDR 18.8 billion to the government. These are the demands expressed by prosecutor Dody Sukmono at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor) on Thursday (21/01). Wacik is being accused of mishandling ministerial funds and extortion by the country’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

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Former Indonesian Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali (who was also Chairman of the Islamic political party PPP) was sentenced to six years in jail and a fine of IDR 300 million (or three additional months in prison) by the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor) on Monday (11/01). Suryadharma was found guilty of self-enrichment by deliberately mishandling state funds that were allocated to the hajj pilgrimage program covering the financial years 2010-2013.

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Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), the central government's agency that regulates and supervises Indonesia's financial services sector, needs to hire hundreds of new staff in order to safeguard monitoring of the nation's banking sector and to enhance its early warning system in order to detect possible corruption cases. As up to 350 OJK workers are expected to return to the central bank per 1 January 2017, good monitoring of the banking sector is in jeopardy.

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Dengan kebakaran hutan yang masih membara di wilayah-wilayah pulau Sumatra dan Kalimantan, merusak lingkungan hidup tropis, sementara kabut asap beracun masih menyebar ke wilayah-wilayah lain di Asia Tenggara, menyebabkan kira-kira 500.000 kasus infeksi saluran pernapasan dan juga 19 kematian, bencana yang masih berlangsung ini telah diklasifikasikan sebagai kejahatan atas kemanusiaan. Sebuah laporan penelitian baru dan menarik, diterbitkan oleh Dr. Herry Purnomo (ilmuwan dari Center for International Forestry Research yang bermarkas di Bogor), menunjukkan hubungan antara pemilihan umum di daerah dan kebakaran hutan di Indonesia.

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Berlin-based Transparency International released the 2014 edition of its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) earlier this week. In the new edition Indonesia was ranked 107th (out a total of 175 countries), up from 114th in the previous edition. As such, Indonesia continues to improve gradually through the ranks of the index. However, with a score of 34 (out of a possible - and perfect - score of 100) the country still lags behind its regional peers such as Singapore (84), Malaysia (52) and the Philippines (38).

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One strategy of Indonesian President Joko Widodo to generate more state revenues in order to enhance investments in social and economic development of Indonesia is by improving the country’s tax collection system. As the middle class as well as number of companies that are active in Indonesia has risen rapidly in recent years, it is disappointing that tax collection targets are rarely met in Southeast Asia’s largest economy: tax compliance is low, while corruption among civil servants (tax collectors) remains a structural problem.

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President Joko Widodo’s unexpected visit to the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) on Tuesday (28/10) signals that the new president of Indonesia is serious about wiping out severe bureaucracy that causes time-consuming and difficult procedures to obtain permits, licenses and certificates in a bid to ease doing business in Indonesia for both foreign and domestic investors. Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, is eager to tackle the country’s ‘red-tape’ problem as it curtails the pace of economic growth in Indonesia.

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It took almost six hours for the Constitutional Court of Indonesia (Mahkamah Konstitusi) on Thursday (21/08) to read out 300 pages of a lengthy 4,392-page verdict in the case filed by defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who claimed that the result of Indonesia’s July 2014 presidential election was invalid due to widespread violations and fraud that allegedly occurred during the voting and counting processes. During the read out it became increasingly clear that the court would reject Subianto’s claims due to a lack of evidence.

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