title : Jepang Berambisi Jadikan RI Sebagai Pasar Produknya
summary : Jepang telah memasuki tahap ekonomi kedua, orientasi bisnis pengusaha Jepang di Indonesia akan memfokuskan pada upaya penetrasi pasar produk Jepang di Indonesia. (read more)

title : Triliunan Dana Deposito Pindah ke SUN
summary : Seiring dengan penurunan suku bunga deposito perbankan yang terjadi, banyak investor mulai mengalihkan dananya dari deposito ke instrumen SUN untuk mendapatkan imbal hasil lebih baik. (read more)

title : Peringkat Doing Business Indonesia Naik Jadi 122
summary : Peringkat kemudahan berusaha di Indonesia atau doing business di 2009 yang dikeluarkan oleh IFC (International Finance Corporation ) naik 7 peringkat dari peringkat 129 menjadi peringkat 122. (read more)

Didi Syafirdi – detikNews

Jakarta – KH Abdurrahman Wahid alias Gus Dur ternyata dipercaya Soeharto untuk segera menyalurkan kredit murah senilai Rp 270 miliar. Gus Dur mengaku dana dari mantan penguasa orde baru itu akan diterimanya dalam waktu tiga bulan mendatang.

“Pak Harto menyediakan Rp 270 miliar untuk kredit murah dan kredit murah itu dipercayakan kepada saya,” ungkap Gus Dur di sela-sela acara pidato politiknya di kediaman Bondan Gunawan Jl Cempaka Putih, Jakarta Pusat, Kamis malam (14/8/2008).

Menurut Gus Dur kredit tersebut diberikan untuk mengurangi modal asing di Indonesia. Diharapkan perekonomian Indonesia bisa mandiri dan berkembang.

“Kredit murah ini untuk mengurangi modal asing yang ada di indonesia agar ekonomi kita bisa mandiri tidak tergantung kepada siapapun. Harus melepaskan diri dari AS, ke depannya kita inginkan ekonomi yang sehat dan berkembang sehingga indonesia bisa berdiri sendiri,” ujar mantan presiden RI ini.

Gus Dur menjelaskan bunga kredit murah ini hanya 5% pertahunnya. “Itu yang sudah sangat murah,” jelasnya.

Gus Dur juga mengaku sebelum meninggal, Soeharto menitipkan pesan-pesan khusus padanya. Gus Dur menilai memang Soeharto melakukan korupsi yang tidak ternilai. tapi ada 3 sumbangan yang tidak ternilai harganya. Yang pertama adalah memperhitungkan segala sesuatunya, yang kedua adalah perencanaan.

“Yang ketiga, akhirnya Pak Harto diukur mau berpikir untuk rakyat,” tandasnya.(rdf/ddt)

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta: Perusahaan minyak dan gas bumi PT Prime Petroservices Tbk mengandalkan penjualan saham perdana dan pinjaman bank sebagai modal memasok gas alam cair bagi pembangkit listrik PT Indonesia Power di Bali. Di proyek bernilai total Rp 10 triliun ini, Petroservices harus menyediakan dana investasi Rp 3 triliun.

“Anggaran dari bank kami perkirakan dapat menutup sekitar 60-70 persen biaya investasi ini,” kata Direktur Keuangan Petroservices Didit A. Ratam dalam paparan publik hari ini. Saat ini, ia menambahkan, sudah ada empat buah bank asing yang berminat memberi pinjaman.

Dua di antara empat bank itu adalah bank lokal, sedangkan dua lainnya bank asing. Namun ia menolak menyebutkan nama-nama bank tersebut. Dia hanya berujar, pembicaraan dengan para calon kreditur dimulai kuartal pertama tahun ini dan masih berlanjut.

Akan halnya penjualan saham, kata Didit, akan dilakukan 26 Agustus. Saat itu tiba, Petroservices berencana melepas 30 persen sahamnya atau setara dengan 1,782 miliar lembar ke publik. Dengan kisaran harga yang ditawarkan Rp 180-Rp 220 per lembar, perusahaan mentargetkan perolehan dana Rp 320,76 miliar – Rp 392,4 miliar.

“Sekitar 90 persen uangnya dipakai untuk investasi dan sisanya untuk modal kerja,” kata Presiden Direktur Petroservices Faiz Shahab di acara yang sama.

Berbicara lagi, Didit memperkirakan uang dari penjualan saham dan pinjaman bank itu akan mampu menutupi biaya investasi sebesar Rp 3 triliun. Ia mengamati minat perbankan dan investor lain sangat tinggi untuk membiayai proyek ini.

Bisnis ini, kata dia, menarik karena menggunakan gas sebagai pengganti solar bisa mendatangkan penghematan yang besar. Akan tetapi, ia tidak menutup kemungkinan perusahaan akan memakai instrumen keuangan lain bila ternyata penjualam saham dan pinjaman bank tidak cukup.

The Associated Press ,

A federal judge has awarded almost $1 million in back wages to two Indonesian housekeepers who were virtually enslaved by a wealthy Long Island couple.

Judge Arthur Spatt said Friday the maids were entitled to double their unpaid wages because they were abused while working around the clock for Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani.

The victims says they were beaten, slashed with knives and forced to take freezing showers for such misdeeds as sleeping late.

The judge awarded the houskeepers a total of more than $936,000 – at least $700,000 more than the Sabhnanis’ lawyers considered reasonable.

The Muttowntown couple was convicted in December of charges including forced labor. Varsha Sabhnani has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, her husband to 3 years and 4 months. (***)

Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/10/2008 10:14 AM | Business

The economy has grown by 6.2 percent in the first half of the year on the back of strong consumption and investment, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Wednesday.

“The growth in the first semester was boosted by private consumption, investment and exports. High import of capital goods indicates investment will increase in the third and fourth quarters,” Mulyani told a press conference.

According to the ministry, the economy in the second quarter grew by 6.1 percent with private consumption growing by 5.3 percent, investment by 10.5 percent and exports by 12 percent.

Wednesday’s presentation was a prelude to the Central Statistics Agency’s (BPS) upcoming announcement of the official figure on economic growth.

Sri Mulyani said robust car and motorcycle sales contributed greatly to the high private consumption, which were supported by rising bank lending.

In the first semester, car and motorcycle sales grew by 40 percent from a year earlier, while bank lending recorded a growth of some 32 percent, far above the central bank’s growth estimate of between 22 percent and 24 percent.

Sri Mulyani also said the country recorded above-expectation revenue in the first semester with tax collection growing by 50.3 percent from the previous year.

The ministry’s directorate general of taxation, she said, obtained Rp 307.5 trillion (US$33.40 billion), with non-oil-and-gas income tax and value added tax contributing the most.

Non-oil-and-gas income tax grew by 39.4 percent from a year earlier, while value added tax grew by 48.9 percent.

“Income tax of the manufacturing industry — food and beverages industry, chemical industry and electronic industry — rose by 37.5 percent,” Sri Mulyani said.

“Value added tax of the trade, hotel and restaurant sector rose 24.4 percent, supported by wholesalers and retailers. It proves that the micro sector is moving.”

On the spending front, despite the revised 2008 state budget being wrapped up in April, the government still managed to spend 36.7 percent of state expenditure, from the total of Rp 989.5 trillion.

A third of the spending went to subsidies, with a fuel subsidy of Rp 60.5 trillion, an electricity subsidy of Rp 26.4 trillion and non-energy subsidies of Rp 4.8 trillion.

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta |

The Finance Ministry has issued a new regulation increasing accountability of state funds disbursed as loans to small and medium businesses.

Ministry spokesman Samsuar Said said Tuesday the regulation categorized such funds, known as revolving funds, as state-sponsored working capital, which is subject to strict accountability.

“From now on, ministries or government agencies managing such funds are required to report them as revolving funds for working capital in their accounting books,” he said.

According to the regulation, revolving funds are state funds that are included in the state budget and state financial report. The funds are disbursed to help increase the capital of cooperatives or small and medium businesses.

Prior to the regulation, agencies responsible for funneling the funds often treated them as social expenses, which can be used to fund charities and are not subject to high levels of scrutiny and are prone to abuses.

In the revised 2008 state budget, the Office of the State Minister for Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) allocates Rp 1.1 trillion (US$119.15 million) for revolving funds.

However, the Finance Ministry’s directorate general of state budget has frozen 42 percent of the money.

According to the ministry, cooperatives and the SMEs ministry cannot access the funds unless they treat them as capital expenses rather than social expenses.

State minister for cooperatives and SMEs Suryadharma Ali, also the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), recently expressed his frustration with the Finance Ministry for not being able to access the remaining funds.

Suryadharma said the funds were desperately needed by small and medium businesses across the country.

However, Samsuar said the revolving funds could only be disbursed to certain recipients that had been approved by the Finance Ministry.

Analysts have said large sums of funds that should have been disbursed to support fishermen and farmers in the country have been embezzled by officials connected to political parties to fund their campaigns for next April’s legislature election.