The number of layoffs officially recorded has continued to rise over the past few years, affecting 88,519 workers in 2025 alone. The Ministry of Manpower attributed this trend to global geopolitical tensions that have disrupted imports and exports, while labor unions pointed to a wave of factory closures as the biggest contributing factor. What steps has the government taken so far in response to this issue?

Financial report of telco giant Telkom (TLKM) for the period ended Sept 30, 2025 pointed to substantial decline in value of its long-term investments, mainly related to Telkomsel’s investment in GOTO Gojek Tokopedia and investments by venture capital arm MDI Ventures in start-up entities engaged in the information and technology sector.

Indonesia’s streaming landscape is entering a curious phase. On one side are global platforms pushing micro-dramas—ultra-short, vertical, algorithm-driven fiction designed to be consumed in minutes, often one swipe at a time. On the other are local OTT players such as Vidio, which are doubling down on mini dramas as part of a broader subscription ecosystem. The question is no longer which format is more creative, but which one the market actually prefers.

Trust is earned through action, not words. Unfortunately, Bank Indonesia governor Perry Warjiyo and Gerindra Party deputy chairman Sufmi Ahmad Dasco tried hard to earn trust with words, that ’Tommy Djiwandono (the President’s nephew) is nominated not by Prabowo, but Perry himself’  and that ‘BI’s decisions are made by the board of governor, a collegial one’.

Some major plantation groups, including Salim, Harita, Best Agro, and Astra Agro, have reportedly paid administrative fine to the Satgas PKH. Companies under GoodHope Asia Holdings, however, are listed among those yet to make payments. Satgas PKH, a task force established by President Prabowo, for the enforcement of law within forest area, promised to mount more pressures. 

Oil palm plantation companies have slowly responded to demands for public disclosures related to administrative fines charged by the Forest Area Enforcement Task Force (Satgas PKH). Yesterday, IDX-listed Astra Agro Lestari (AALI), member of Astra International (ASII), confirmed that it had made Rp571 billion of payments for administrative fines to Satgas PKH.

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa publicly warned that civil servants colluding with foreign companies to evade taxes could be sidelined or dismissed, it marked a sharp escalation in the government’s fiscal posture. The immediate target: companies from China operating in Indonesia, particularly in the steel sector, long suspected of exploiting loopholes in value-added tax reporting.

President Prabowo Subianto has revoked the forestry permits for 28 companies due to environmental violations that caused deadly floods and landslides in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra between November – December 2025. The violations included illegal logging, forest encroachment, and land clearing that led to massive land degradation in the Batang Toru ecosystem and surrounding areas.

Indonesia’s proposed overhaul of cigarette excise policy is no longer just a technocratic debate inside the Finance Ministry. It has become a political and social flashpoint. What began as a fiscal strategy to “draw illegal cigarettes into the system” is now facing open resistance from small and medium-scale cigarette producers themselves—ironically, the very group the policy claims to accommodate.