Bright Spot of the Economy: Tourism
Visits of foreign tourists grew 26.66% year-on-year to 1.16 million in May 2017, but inched up 1.49% only from April. That means, foreign tourist visits grew 20.85% to 5.36 million in the first five months of 2017. Higher growth of foreign tourists contributed to improvement in occupancy rate of Indonesian hotels to 56.07% from 55.46% in May 2016.
Expecting Recovery from Trikomsel?
PT Trikomsel Oke Tbk (TRIO) booked net loss of Rp59.4 billion in the first quarter of 2017, down from Rp208.7 billion in the corresponding period last year. The ICT retailer actually posted strong sales revenue growth of 18% to Rp474.5 billion. Its gross profit also improved, but the company still reporting operating loss of Rp12.8 billion in the period.
KOP Limited & Indonesian Properties
Three years ago, a consortium comprising subsidiaries of Lian Beng Group Ltd, KSH Holdings Limited, KOP Limited and Centurion Global Ltd acquired 92.8% of the aggregate strata area of Prudential Tower Singapore for S$512.0 million. KOP Limited, which has 25% interest in the consortium, signed agreement with one buyer for eight strata title units, but somehow the deal has been terminated.
Pertamedika Intensifies Competition in Healthcare Industry, Grows Telkom’s E-Health
Pretty much as predicted, ministry of state-owned enterprises has gradually consolidated hospital assets of various state companies into PT Pertamedika Indonesia Healthcare Corporation (PIHC). By far around 40 hospitals have been consolidated into PIHC, which was established late last year.
Infrastructure Journal No. 24/2017
Reliability of electricity supply in North Sumatra and Aceh has increased with early commercial operation of 240 MW marine vessel power plant (MVPP) in Belawan, North Sumatra. The additional capacity entered the system on June 15, lifting overall supply to 2,223 MW, higher than peak load of North Sumatra (1558 MW) and Aceh (355 MW).
China Investment & Outside Java Industrialization
The Government has increasingly been frustrated with continued delay of Freeport’s copper smelter with estimated investment of US$2.3 billion. Chinese investors, on the other hand, have aggressively invested over US$5 billion in the past few years in mineral processing plants in West Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, North Maluku, and Maluku provinces.
Equity Policy in Action: Electricity
Teluk Balikpapan coal-fired power plant (2×100 MW) has recently entered commercial operation in East Kalimantan. Takalar coal-fired power plant (2×100 MW) in South Sulawesi province will follow because its construction progress reached 76% by late March 2017. Development of these projects was started by SBY-Boediono administration.
Growing Optimism for Connectivity (8)
After almost one decade of planning, physical construction of Cengkareng-Batu Ceper-Kunciran (14.19 KM) under the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR)-2 has finally entered physical construction, boosting optimism on connectivity in the greater Jakarta, West Java, and Banten provinces. How about the trans-Sumatra and trans-Java toll road projects?
Infrastructure Journal No.21/2017
Silangit Airport in Tapanuli Utara, North Sumatra province, is set to become an international airport this year to support Toba Lake as one of 10 tourist destinations by Jokowi-Kalla administration. The airport’s runway is being expanded from 2,400m x 30m to 2650m x 45 to accommodate wide-body aircrafts.
In Action: Local Content Policy for Smartphones (1)
Minister of industry Airlangga Hartarto has on Thursday (June 8) inaugurated production facility for Motorola and Lenovo smartphones at PT Tridharma Kencana (TDK) factory in Serang Regency, Banten province. TDK claims of 34% local content for smartphones produced there. “We will continue to promote domestic manufacturing of smartphones, because Indonesian market alone already 60 million units per annum,” said Airlangga.