Riau, one of the resources-rich provinces in Indonesia, was one of provinces won by Prabowo Subianto in 2014 election whilst with narrow margin (around 7,000 votes). Some observers believe Prabowo will win again in the province, but others shared doubts. Humiliating loss of Golkar candidate Arsyadjuliandi Rahman in this year’s gubernatorial election to a candidate endorsed by National Mandate Party (PAN) supported the Prabowo win theory.
Read MoreIndonesia and China marked their cooperation by the signing of two memorandum of understanding and five contracts worth US$23.3 billion on Friday last week (April 13) in Beijing, China. Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said this agreement was part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious road, rail and construction project spanning dozens of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. The contracts were signed by companies from both countries, consisting of (1) two projects with total investments $17.8 billion to build a hydropower plant on the Kayan river (North Kalimantan), (2) a $700 million contract to develop facilities to convert coal to dimethyl-ether into gas, (3) Joint venture- power development in Bali worth $1.6 billion, and (4) the development of steel smelter worth of $1.2 billion.
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