Several local firms will conduct tests on Indonesian-brand vehicles before launching the models to tap the country’s car market, which is dominated by Japanese firms.

State-owned train manufacturer PT Industri Kereta Api (Inka) will produce a car under brand name Gea (a girl’s name in Indonesia), while Semarang State University (Unnes) is teaming up with local administrations to manufacture a car model named Arina.

An unnamed Serang-based company will also join in the race by producing a car called Tawon, which means “bee” in local dialect.

The Industry Ministry’s director general for transportation, telecommunications and informatics industries Budi Darmadi told The Jakarta Post recently that PT Inka was currently conducting tests on the car.

The directorate’s transportation industry director Syarif Hidayat said Inka had begun testing a 500 cubic centimeters capacity engine developed by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) after originally planning to incorporate a Chinese-made engine into the car.

“Inka, which already has a prototype, is now testing out the four-wheel Gea,” he said, adding that the company had yet to decide when it would start producing the four-seater car, which would be gasoline-powered.

Inka is ahead of its national rivals, including the team consisting of engineers from Unnes and local administrations, whose product is still in the design phase.

The Semarang-based team has produced five designs for a three-wheel vehicle that resembles a bajaj (motorized paddy cab), according to Hidayat.

“Arina, which has a capacity of three passengers, may be more suitable for carrying goods, although it can also accommodate passengers,” he said.

The Arina will be powered by a 500 cc gasoline engine.

“Although the car is scheduled to be produced next year, the team has yet to build a manufacturing plant,” Hidayat said.

This is in contrast to the team behind the Tawon, which has built a production facility in Serang, Banten, using capital supplied by a businessman from Surabaya who previously ran a wood businesses.

“The company has built a four-seater Tawon prototype and is conducting a series of tests, including an endurance test and a road-worthiness test,” Hidayat said.

The Tawon, which is powered by a 500cc engine that can run on compressed natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas, was designed with a more environment friendly energy in mind.

The company has not announced a launch date for the car.

For decades, Indonesia’s automotive industry has been dominated by Japanese producers, which account for 87 percent of market share, selling 308,388 units between January and July this year.

Since the 1970s, the Indonesian government has encouraged local manufacturers to produce vehicles, including by providing various incentives to PT Astra International to partner with Japanese giant Toyota to launch its own brand.

However, Astra has never moved to expand beyond its role as assembler and distributor of Japanese-brand cars, and in particular Toyotas.

During the administration of late former President Soeharto, the government launched a national car program under which Soeharto’s son, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, was granted tax breaks to produce vehicles.

The company, in partnership with South Korean company KIA Motor, produced the Timor brand, which was 60-percent comprised of local parts.

Despite producing thousands of the vehicles, the project was shelved following the fall of Soeharto in 1998.

Source: Jakarta Post

APP’s Tjiwi Kimia, Pindo Deli, Indah Kiat Serang and Indah Kiat Tangerang paper mills in Indonesia can now state that they use products from sustainably sourced forests.

In a statement, APP said PEFC Chain of Custody certification also requires the mills to have in-place certain procedures to avoid the use of anything other than PEFC-certified materials.

To bear the PEFC logo a product must contain a minimum of 70% PEFC-certified virgin fibre with the balance of the material in the product coming from verified non-controversial sources.

APP has faced continued criticism about its environmental impact and has been accused of destroying a vast area of tropical forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Source: Print Week

====

The PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, founded in 1999 which promotes sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification. The PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

For further information please visit PEFC Official Website

Kompas.com

Indonesia trails only Brazil and Zaire in terms of biodiversity, yet the country still relies on imports of raw materials from India and Thailand for its traditional herbal medicine industry.

The head of Bogor’s Aromatic and Herbal Plants Research Center (Balittro), H.A.M. Syakir, said the government’s lack of attention to the cultivation of herbal plants was to blame for the insufficient supply of raw material for traditional medicine production.

Syakir spoke to journalists during a one-day exhibition and workshop on aromatic and herbal plants, at Botani Square Bogor earlier this week.

Some 75 researchers, medical practitioners, businesspeople and farmers took part in the event.

According to data from the center, Indonesia has identified 30,000 different kinds of endemic plants, 7,000 of them herbal plants. About 1,000 of the endemic plants are poisonous.

“”(A)nd there are more than 50 kinds of aromatic plants,”" Syakir said.

He said there were countless traditional recipes for herbal medicines draw from about 370 ethnic groups across the archipelago.

“”Our ancestors have used plants to treat illness, as health supplement, for body treatments and for cosmetics,”" Syakir said.

However, little has been done by the government or local administrations to cultivate the “”hidden treasures”" among the herbal plants, he said.

The 2000 Convention on Biological Diversity reported the global market for herbal medicines reached US$43 billion.

Indonesia earned just $100 million from herbal medicines in 2000.

Last year, the herbal medicine industry in Indonesia earned Rp 3 trillion ($318 million), far less than China’s $6 billion and Malaysia’s $1.2 billion.

Syakir said that by 2010 Indonesia could be earning Rp 8 trillion from herbal medicines with proper government support for the industry.

Fast-changing trends in the industry and a continued reliance on traditional cultivation methods are among the challenges facing Indonesia’s industry, Syakir said.

“”Our weakest point is that we cannot guarantee a steady supply for export because we still rely on traditional farmers.”"

Farmers cannot even meet the needs of domestic herbal medicine manufacturers, he said.

“”A recent study we did showed domestic manufacturers are only getting 15 percent of their supplies from local farmers, with the remaining 85 percent imported. You can imagine the potential and the profit for farmers if they could guarantee a steady supply just for domestic manufacturers.”"

The Balittro research center, in cooperation with the Health Ministry, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency and the National Standardization Body, is working to develop a standard of cultivation that can produce good quality herbal plants and larger harvests.

The center is currently studying jahe besar putih or white ginger, which is now mostly imported from India, kunyit (turmeric), kencur (galingale), temulawak (wild ginger), sambiloto, pegagan and purwoceng.

“”Those plants are basic commodities of global herbal medicine production so if we can focus on these selected plants, we can play a greater role in global trade,”" Syakir said.

There are several government institutions who have launched programs dealing with herbal plants, but the bodies are working on their own, he said.

“”There is no body to coordinate the agencies so they are heading to different destinations and mostly operating on a smaller scope in their respective areas.”"

Syakir would like to emulate South Korea, which is a major player in the international market with ginseng.

Korea, he said, knew how to protect its ginseng supply and continued to dominate the market.

Indonesia in the 1980s, according to Syakir, was the king of ginger, dominating markets in Japan and the Middle East, but had since lost its competitive edge.

Last update: 9:00 p.m. EDT Aug. 17, 2008
DUBLIN, Ireland, Aug 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Indonesia Food and Drink Report Q3 2008″ report to their offering.
Our Indonesia Food Drink Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Indonesia’s food and drink industry.
Spiralling food prices – a strong theme throughout this report last quarter – were expected to make themselves known in the first quarter financial results releases of the country’s leading food and beverage producers; this did not happen. Instead, the food, beverage and retail industry’s leading players have posted strong net profit and revenue growth for Q108. Nonetheless, as examined in our newly published Indonesia Food & Drink Report for Q308, consumer confidence in the country remains shaky, and the prospects for strong full-year growth are still in the balance.
Unilever Indonesia – a subsidiary of the Dutch consumer goods giant – revealed Q108 net profit growth of 31% to US$76mn, while sales rose by 20% to US$407.9mn. For the same period, the country’s leading food manufacturer Indofood Sukses Makmur saw net profit increase by a phenomenal 116% to US$41.2mn, while sales increased by 52% to US$952.4mn. Meanwhile, retailer Matahari Putra Prima announced that its net profit for the first three months of the year had risen by 19% to US$1.94mn, while sales had climbed by 22% to US$263.7mn.
These strong financial releases seem to show that consumer demand in Indonesia is strong enough to support the price increases that manufacturers have resorted to in a bid to protect their profitability during this period of high input prices. The consumption forecasts for the market also support that view.
Indonesia’s ongoing economic recovery and the growing affluence of its emerging middle class is driving a total food consumption growth forecast of 50% to IDR714.7trn in 2012; in per capita dollar terms, the author expects food consumption to increase by 61% to US$359.70 in 2012.
However, while economic growth and consumer demand have proved sufficient to allow price increases to be introduced relatively smoothly, with no major knock-on effect on volume sales or market share, consumer confidence in Indonesia is too volatile for this to remain the case for long. March saw protests in Jakarta as consumers took to the streets to complain about spiralling food prices. Admittedly, these protests mainly involved the country’s lowest income groups who were complaining about the price of basic commodities, as opposed to the rising cost of convenient instant noodles, but nonetheless they reflect growing resentment at inflation.
With forecasting full-year average inflation of 8.7% in Indonesia in 2008, consumer confidence is likely to be shaken further over the remainder of the year. Acknowledging the impact that sustained high prices will have on consumer expenditure levels in the country, Matahari and soft drinks market leader Coca-Cola Amatil tempered their 2008 expansion plans and growth expectations, respectively, with the proviso that they would watch the economic situation closely and downgrade plans and targets in line with changing consumer demand.