Indonesia recorded trade surplus of US$1.27 billion last month, dropped by 37% from May, mainly due to substantially higher growth of import. The country, accordingly, posted trade surplus of US$5.5 billion in the first half of 2020 against deficit of US$1.87 billion in the corresponding period last year. It is good to support the rupiah. 

Coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, one of the most influential members of Jokowi’s administration, made a surprise visit to the country’s Food and Drug Administration BPOM on Tuesday (Jul 7). He was accompanied by tourism minister Wisnhutama and director general of chemical and pharmaceutical industry at ministry of industry Muhammad Khayam.

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has on Tuesday (July 7) led a special cabinet meeting discussing financing of some toll road projects. The president asked cabinet members, including SOEs minister and minister of finance, to find alternative source of Rp387 trillion funding to complete the trans-Sumatra toll road program.

AirNav Indonesia recorded 51,228 movements of aircrafts last month, almost doubled from May (27,433 movements) following relaxation of restrictions related to Covid-19 outbreak. Still, it was way below June 2019 at 169,248 movements, reflecting slow recovery in the tourism areas.

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has on Tuesday (June 30) paid a visit to Batang Industrial Estate in Batang Regency, Central Java province, which is being developed by three state companies over 4,300 hectares of land. The industrial estate is expected to accommodate companies relocating factories from China.

The position of Director General of Oil and Gas (Dirjen Migas) and Director General of Minerals and Coal (Dirjen Minerba) are still vacant. An auction process is still underway for both positions at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM). The previous Dirjen Minerba Bambang Gatot ended his service in Mei 2020, while the previous Dirjen Migas Djoko Siswanto was moved to the National Energy Council in July 2019—the position has been vacant since.

March 2020 was the beginning of a period of uncertainty for the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway project. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) construction safety committee had completed its review of the project following reports that several sections of the Cikampek Toll Road affected by the project were flooded. PUPR subsequently asked the PT KCIC, the consortium in charge of the mega-project, to temporarily suspend its construction.

Despite the pandemic, construction works of new toll roads have mostly been carried out undisrupted. In the trans-Sumatra, state EPC firm Hutama Karya is moving closer to completion of the Pekanbaru-Dumai (131 KM) toll road. As of May 30, physical construction progress of the toll road has reached 95.6%.

In the first five months of 2020, Indonesia recorded trade surplus of US$668 million from iron & steel. This is a major shift because for many decades the country suffered huge amount of deficit in iron & steel. Aggressive investments in the industry by Chinese companies contributed to the shifting. We can expect more from the industry going forward because of completion of some nickel-to-steel factories in Sulawesi.

Tired of Covid-19 news? Well, try to ‘visit’ Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi. Lots of actions over there during the pandemic. ASX-listed Nickel Mines Ltd, for example, managed to raise A$211 million from the issuance of new shares to acquire additional 20% shares in two nickel processing companies located in IMIP.