The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Indonesia may miss investment goal, must improve infrastructure Posted: 29 Jan 2013 07:54 AM PST  An aerial view of flooding inundating a business district in Jakarta in this handout picture provided by the Indonesian National Agency for Disaster Management on January 18, 2013. — Reuters pic The head of the ministry's think-tank urged the country's energy ministry to be "more aggressive" in dealing with the fuel subsidy issue, which last year cost the government 211 trillion rupiah (RM67 billion), or 54 per cent more than the budgeted target of 137.4 trillion rupiah. "(The target for) investment might be challenging," head of ministry's fiscal office, Bambang Brodjonegoro, told Reuters in an interview. He pointed to potential obstacles including problems related to infrastructure, labour issues and the broader investment climate. For 2012, Indonesia reported receiving a record 221 trillion rupiah in foreign direct investment (FDI), up 26 per cent from a year earlier, with increased spending in mining, transport and chemicals. For this year, the government hopes to get 23 per cent more FDI than in 2012. But there have been repeated warnings that insufficient improvements in critical infrastructure areas such as ports and roads could eventually make investors turn away from Indonesia. Infrastructure woes were on stark display earlier this month when the capital Jakarta came to a virtual standstill after torrential monsoon rains. LEARN FROM THAILAND "We need to learn from the floods in Thailand in 2011. If we don't learn from what happened in Thailand, it will be dangerous for Jakarta," said Brodjonegoro. Flooding in the Thai capital in late 2011 caused massive damage and forced a contraction in the economy in the last quarter of that year. The recent investment levels have been helping make Southeast Asia's largest economy be one of the world's fastest growing. For this year, growth is predicted by many to reach around 6.6-6.8 per cent. The government has allocated 196.9 trillion rupiah on infrastructure this year, or more than 11 per cent of its expenditure, up from 174.9 trillion rupiah in 2012. However, the figure is less than the former OPEC member is spending on fuel subsidies, and that expenditure is likely to rise. The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has shown little appetite for addressing the socially sensitive issue in the run-up to next year's general and presidential elections. "We need a better budget spending by switching the subsidy into the infrastructure. The floods (in Jakarta) emphasise the needs of right-sizing the subsidy," Brodjonegoro said, adding it needed the energy ministry's support. "Now, they (the energy ministry) are trying to avoid the main problem ... not going to the heart of the problem itself, unfortunately." — Reuters |
| Motorcyclist flees with two money bags as security men transfer cash to bank Posted: 29 Jan 2013 07:50 AM PST KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 – The police have arrested five employees of a security services company after a motorcyclist helped himself to two bags containing RM540,000 from the firm's van as five employees were busy transferring money bags to a bank in Kelana Jaya here early today. Petaling Jaya police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed said the incident happened at 2am when four staff of the company were transferring the money bags, and the driver was unaware that the motorcyclist had taken the two bags. "Preliminary investigations showed that the van driver was unaware of the robbery while the four other employees were busy transferring the bags. "As the motorcyclist was fleeing with the loot, one of the staff realised what was happening and raised the alarm," he said when contacted. Arjunaidi said following the robbery, the police arrested five employees of the company, one of them a supervisor, to help in their investigation. He said the police did not rule out the possibility of an inside job. "We are studying the CCTV in front of the bank and elsewhere to get leads," he said. He also appealed to anyone who had information on the robbery to contact any police station. – Bernama |
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