President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo inspected construction of three toll road projects on Saturday, Oct 15 to ensure their completion on target in 2018. They are Semarang-Solo, Solo-Ngawi, and Ngawi-Kertosono toll roads. Jokowi believes these toll roads will be operational in 2018 as scheduled.

Physical construction of Phase I of mass-rapid transit (MRT) has reached 56.41% after then Jakarta governor Joko Widodo kicked off the development in late 2013. Underground section has reached 74.5%, while elevated section 38.5%, reflecting difficulties in land acquisition. How about Phase II? How about MRT connecting east and west of Jakarta? Light-rail transit? We had a chance to discuss these issues with Sutanto Soehodho, deputy governor of Jakarta for industry, trade, and transportation affairs at the sidelines of Property Report Congress 2016.

The property sector has been facing a downturn cycle and has not yet recovered. The Government has been attempting to remedy the problem by lowering lending rates, relaxing tax regimes, opening up room for foreign ownership of select properties, and boosting housing subsidies.

Japanese companies continue to expand their businesses in Indonesia. Few months back, Mitsui & Co Ltd and Fujimori Kogyo acquired majority shares in PT Champion Pacific Indonesia Tbk (IGAR), a manufacturer of flexible packaging materials, with focus on pharmaceutical products. This week, Nanbu Plastics Co Ltd, which manufactures plastic molded parts and synthetic resins, also announced acquisition of Indonesian assets.

Government spending in the first nine months of 2016 reached Rp767.7 trillion or 58.7% from full year target. Minister of finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said spending by ministries/central government agencies reached Rp428.6 trillion or 55.8% from target, significantly faster than Rp374.18 trillion or 47% in the same period last year. Sri Mulyani highlighted accelerated infrastructure development from earlier tender conducted by some ministries behind the improvement.

Development of Bakeuheni-Terbanggi Besar toll road (141 KM) in southern part of Sumatra Island is one of signature projects of Jokowi-Kalla administration under the trans-Sumatra toll road program. Unlike the previous administration, Jokowi-Kalla pushed physical construction of the toll road concurrently with land acquisition.

Compared to where we started, development of trans-Sumatra and trans-Java toll road has been significantly faster in the past two years. Physical construction of Medan-Binjai toll road in North Sumatra, for example, has reached almost 30% by September 30 against 23% in late July.

Domestic cement sales in September reached 5.64 million tons only, down 3.3% year-on-year due to persistent weakness of property market. September sales was the second highest monthly sales this year, down 5.5% from the previous month. Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) then revised down its full year sales growth target from 5% to 3-4% only.

Fairfax Asia Limited has acquired 80% shares of general insurance firm PT Asuransi Multi Artha Guna Tbk (AMAG) from Panin Group for Rp2.2 trillion. Fairfax will then merge AMAG with PT Fairfax Insurance Indonesia to make one of the largest general insurance firms in the country and cut further Panin Group’s ownership in the new entity.

After months of delay related to disbursement of loans from China, MCC17 Group, member of the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) Ltd, has last week commenced construction of Cileunyi-Sumedang-Dawuan toll road in West Java province. This is one of projects under the trans-Java toll road program.