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This picture hass ben a presentation of the editing power of GIMP, an Open Source Software (OSS) application. Click here to learn more about OSS movement in Indonesia.
The country of courageous and high morale people. Indonesians treat their flag sacretly, as it represents deep meaning in his people’s history on gaining independence. The red stands for courage, while the white stands for purity. The red represents human’s body or physical life, while white represents human’s soul or spiritual life. Together they stand for a complete human being. Click here to learn more about Indonesian flag in Wikipedia.
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- From the website of Forbes Magazine, time of uploaded, 25 December 2008. Click here to view the article in the original website.
Fine article recommended by KK for your perusal
Global Gambits: Indonesia On The Move
By Carl Delfeld
Given sound management in recent years, Indonesia entered the current turmoil in a strong position.
It was a terrible year for emerging markets in 2008. To put things into perspective, the outflows from emerging markets exceeded $50 billion as the year wound down, compared with total inflows of $95 billion from 2003–07, according to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research. These markets have paid a heavy price as foreign investors liquidate positions, especially in markets considered more risky than home markets.
But consider Indonesia–below the radar screen of most global investors despite a sterling performance in 2006 and 2007. With real GDP of $840 billion and a population of 240 million, Indonesia quietly accounts for two-fifths of ASEAN’s population and one-third of its GDP. The nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio has been declining, its foreign exchange reserves are at a robust $48 billion, and its stock market was one of the three best performers in the world in 2006 and 2007. (2008, however, was brutal, as the fortunes on our recent list of Indonesia’s 40 Richest took a beating.)
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is seen as the face of the new Indonesia, a reformer who has tried to bring transparency to the financial sector and rid the country of graft and waste, no small order after decades of corruption. The government passed a new investment law in March 2007 and has initiated tax and customs reforms, introduced Treasury bills and improved capital market supervision. Randy Salim, spokesman for the World Bank in Jakarta, states that “given sound macroeconomic management in recent years, Indonesia entered the current phase of market turmoil in a strong position.” One sign of strength: Conglomerate Lippo Group recently announced that it was going to invest $500 million in distressed real estate in Europe and the U.S.
The key perception of Indonesia is that it is heavily dependent on commodity prices. But the Indonesian economy seems to be holding up rather well, despite the commodity meltdown, with GDP up by 6.1% in the year through the third quarter. What about next year? Finance Minister Mulyani recently predicted that economic growth could cool to about 5% (even that number may be optimistic). As a significant exporter of commodities, it will be squeezed by falling prices, but keep in mind that Indonesia’s total exports are equivalent to only 30% of its GDP, while for Malaysia the figure is 95%. Looking ahead, Indonesia seems nicely placed to benefit from the inevitable rise in commodity prices as the cycle turns.
And don’t forget politics. Freedom House, an American think tank, now rates Indonesia as the only completely free country in Southeast Asia, only 11 years after Suharto’s fall. It has developed a free press and minimized military involvement in politics, and in 2009 some 175 million voters across 17,000 tropical islands will choose a president, a vice president and 560 parliamentarians. (One thing to watch in the long term: A new Indonesian law favoring local mining companies is scaring away big foreign miners.)
Attracting private investors to build out badly needed infrastructure for the world’s fourth-most-populous nation is another top priority. Less than 53% of Indonesians have access to electricity; 27% have access to piped water; 43% of the workforce is engaged in agriculture. The nation requires $140 billion of infrastructure investment over the next ten years. The government can finance only 40% of this amount; the balance of funds must come from the private sector. According to Edward Gustely, senior adviser to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, one example of progress on this front is the Indonesia Clean Technology Fund, the first private equity fund of its kind with the participation of the Indonesian government that aims to mobilize private capital for investing in such things as alternative energy, water treatment and agritechnology.
(Baca selanjutnya…)
