February 25 th , 2008 - IFCCI -

Australian home affairs minister visits Jakarta

JAKARTA: Australia's minister for home affair Bob Debus is scheduled to make his first visit to Indonesia this week to strengthen bilateral ties in a range of areas including law enforcement as well as legal and customs cooperation, the Australian embassy in Jakarta said Sunday in a statement.

Debus, who will be in Jakarta from 24 to 26 Feb., is scheduled to meet a number of Indonesian ministers and officials, including Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani as well as Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalatta.

Bob Debus was the 10th Federal Government minister to visit Indonesia since December 2007 swearing in of the new Australian government.

Australian ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said the visit provided further evidence of the new Australian government's commitment to strengthening cooperation with Indonesia across range of issues.

"The prime minister and foreign minister Stephen Smith have both emphasized that Australia's engagement with our neighbors in Asia-Pacific region will be one of the main pillars of the government's foreign policy, along with the U.S. alliance andemphasis on the United Nations and multilateral institutions," Farmer said in the statement.

Minister Bob Debus will also discuss the wide range of joint activities under way between Australian and Indonesian officials to combat illegal fishing, smuggling and other cross-border crimes in the region in meetings with Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddie Numberi, and the head of Indonesia's Maritime Security Coordinating Board.

He is also scheduled to call on the National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto and inspect Transnational Crime Center and Bomb Data Center in Jakarta, which both developed with funding and technical support from the Australian government.

Debus will also received a briefing on the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC), a joint initiative develop with A$37 million (US$34.1 million) in Australian government funding as a training center to strengthen law enforcement capacity and cooperation across the region.

Pakistan's main opposition parties agree to form a government together

ISLAMABAD : Pakistan's two main opposition parties announced they would form a new government together after their victory in elections this week, but skirted the issue of whether they would push for the ouster of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf.

The ruling party said Friday it doubted that the new alliance would be stable, calling it a "marriage of convenience."

The broad agreement between the two secular opposition groups, which fought bitterly for a decade before Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, marks an important step toward setting up a civilian administration to govern the Islamic nation after years of military rule.

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, whose last government was ousted by Musharraf, made the announcement Thursday after meeting in Islamabad, days after defeating the ruling party in the parliamentary elections.

"We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form a government together in the center and in the provinces," Sharif said at a joint news conference with Zardari. He added that a third smaller group, the Awami National Party, would join them.

"The future of democracy is within our grasp. We will strengthen the parliament, we will strengthen democracy, we will work together for Pakistan. We will make a stronger Pakistan," Zardari said.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party won 87 National Assembly seats in Monday's vote, and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N won 67 out of 268 seats contested. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q won 40, with the rest going to smaller parties and independent candidates. Six results have yet to be announced.

The result exposed Musharraf's own lack of public support amid rising Islamic militancy and anger over his crackdown on the independent judiciary. It also raised questions about his survival as head of state. He recently resigned from the army, considerably diminishing his power.

While both parties rode a wave of anti-Musharraf sentiment, they still have to hammer out the details of how they will share power and resolve divergence in policy, from the future of Musharraf tothe restoration of the judiciary.

"I don't think the parties of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have reached any final agreement about forming a government," Tariq Azim, a ruling party leader, said Friday. "And if they do, it would be a marriage of convenience."

Tax office aims to boost number of taxpayers

JAKARTA : Indonesia has huge untapped tax potential with lessthan 3 percent of the nation's 220 million people in possessionof tax identification numbers (NPWP), a tax office official saidover the weekend.

Director of tax services at the Directorate General for Taxation, Djoko Slamet Surjoputro, said currently only around 6million Indonesians had NPWPs, meaning the large majority ofpeople were not paying taxes.

"The country's potential for tax collection is huge. There areonly 6 million registered individual taxpayers. We believe atleast 25 to 30 million more people are eligible to pay taxes andhave NPWPs," Djoko said in Subang, West Java.

"It's not because the procedure to register is complicated, but rather a lack of awareness and honesty that makes many peoplestill unregistered."

Tax revenue accounts for around 70 percent of the government's annual state budget.

Director General for Taxation Darmin Nasution has said that this year his office aimed to collect Rp 523.85 trillion (US$56.57 billion) in taxes -- a 26.6 percent increase from Rp 426.23 trillion in 2007.

Tax revenue in 2007 from the non-oil and gas sector came in atRp 382.22 trillion, derived from the sector's income tax, worth Rp 194.7 trillion, value added tax at Rp 155.1 trillion, propertytax of Rp 29.55 trillion and other forms of tax totaling Rp 2.74 trillion.

The office collected Rp 176.2 trillion in taxes in 2002, Rp204.15 trillion in 2003, Rp 238.98 trillion in 2004, Rp 298.34 trillion in 2005, Rp 358.05 trillion in 2006 and Rp 426.23 trillion in 2007.

Market superviory body to promote more share, bond issues

JAKARTA : The stock market regulator's plan to introduce aso-called "shelf registration" scheme to ease proceduralrequirements for bond and share issues has been praised bybusiness players.

Last week, the head of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK), Fuad Rahmany, said the agency would put into effect the scheme later this year, allowing firms to issue new shares or bonds over a shorter duration.

"The scheme will fasten the duration in the issuance of newshares or bonds, which is good for businesses. It will also beuseful for companies wanting to do initial public offerings," Erry Firmansyah, Indonesia Stock Exchange chairman, told TheJakarta Post on Sunday.

Currently, it can take companies up to three months to fulfillall the requirements before they can issue new shares or bonds --which many say hampers business.

The shelf registration scheme involves the registration of a new bond or share issuance that can be prepared up to two year sin advance, so the issue can be offered quickly as soon as fundsare needed or market conditions are favorable.

The scheme allows a single registration document to be usedmultiple times within two years.

It also gives underwriters greater flexibility in timing market issues and involves little or no increase in direct costs.

"Under the shelf registration (scheme), companies that want toissue new shares or bonds more than once in a year do not have toregister again prior to the next issuance," said Fuad.

Companies, he said, only need to update their documents shouldthere be any changes prior to the next issuance, thus simplifying the bureaucratic procedures, while maintaining the companies'accountability disclosures.

According to Bapepam-LK, the scheme has been adapted from the U.S., where the Securities and Exchange Commission -- whose main job is to enforce federal securities laws and to regulate the stock market -- permits the issuance of multiple securitiesthrough a single document.

Dollar rises inches up against yen amid demand from Japanese investors

TOKYO : The dollar inched up against the yen in Asia Friday on firm demand by Japanese importers and investors, despite weak U.S. data and a drop on Wall Street overnight.

The dollar was trading at 107.48 yen midafternoon in Tokyo, up from 107.38 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro fell to US$1.4806, from US$1.4815.

The dollar recovered from some weak overnight U.S. economic figures - including the Philadelphia Federal Reserve that regional manufacturing fell more than predicted - but traders said any further rise would be limited with overall negative sentiment remaining.

"As the market generally now expects to see weaker numbers for a few more months, the Philadelphia data didn't cause a long-lasting drop in the dollar," but given the likelihood of further negative results, it is also difficult to push the U.S. unit up, said Akio Shimizu, head of foreign exchange trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking.

Against other Asian currencies, the dollar was mostly higher. It rose 0.39 percent against Indian rupee to 39.990 while dropping 0.20 percent against South Korean won to 947.9.