1. SBA News
The SBA Networking cocktail (every 2nd Wednesday every month) will be at Club Macanudo in Shangri-La Hotel, from 19.00 to 21.00 on Wednesday November 11 and we offer free flow of drinks (wine, beer, whiskey, soft drink). The self cost is IDR 150,000 per person. No prior registration needed, just come.
2. Embassy News
Film: "Europe on Screen" in Indonesia
European film festival "Europe on Screen" will be held in Jakarta 6-13 November and 30 October-29 November in eight cities outside Jakarta (Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar, Banda Aceh, Medan and Makassar). The festival includes 42 films never before seen in Indonesia from 21 different European countries.
With this festival the EU hopes to share with the people of Indonesia a piece of our lives and give a multicultural movie experience full of discoveries and shared emotions.
Tickets, which are free, are available 30 minutes before screening. Swedish contributions to the festival are "Varg" with the Swedish actor Peter Stormare and by film director Daniel Alfredsson and "Underbar och älskad av alla" with Swedish actress Martina Haag by film director Hannes Holm (screened at Goethehaus 12 Nov 19:30 and CCF Jakarta 7 Nov 13:00). For more information visit: www.europeonscreen.org.
3. European News
EuroCham position papers are scheduled for release by end of November. They will be presented for selected ministers as usual in the now annual talks with the Indonesian government. Anyone who want to have access to the position papers when they are released, please drop me a mail at (michael_olsson@bmolsson.net) and I will get you a soft copy when it is ready.
4. Security
The security situation in Jakarta in particular and Indonesia in general has not changed from earlier. The intensive hunt for terrorists continue behind the scene since no "lead names" still on the run. Most 5 star hotels have chosen to got the "airport" route with scanning of all luggage in to the hotel. Still there are a lot of holes to plug in the security arrangements, but it is appareant that it is far more difficult for anyone to carry out terrorist attacks these days.
It should here be said that there are no indications on imminent attacks, but it strikes me how relaxed and insufficient the intelligence work is so shortly after the success to get Noordin Top. Screening of staff as well as suppliers are just as important as customers for the hotels and gathering spots around Jakarta. I am pretty sure we will see a changed attitude among most companies as well since the chance of attacks on other targets increases when the 5 star hotels is getting more difficult.
The crime rates has again been discussed. Several insurance companies has annonced increased cost for thefts and there seems to be an increase on theft of cars, mainly the cheaper cars this time. The low cost cars have less security and is fairly easy to get in to, while at the same time the second hand market requires an increased amount of spareparts and also full cars. Motorbikes have a similar developement, but there it doesn't seem to be as many bikes insured so we can't see any trend there on these reports.
The following people will ensure our security for now Head of National Intelligence Agency (BIN); Sutanto, Attorney General; Hendarman Supanji, TNI chief; General Djoko Santoso, National Police Chief; Bambang Hendarso Danuri. I do have some to say about some of these names, but I will refrain from that at this stage...
A note on the coming rainy season in Jakarta. It is predicted that we will have some real floodings during the coming months so it is a good idea to prepare for that. Hopefully your house is safe, but remember that traffic will be even worse than today...
5. Economy
The USD is weakening and the IDR is now 9,500. It is still nothing significant. At the same time export shrinked during last month, but the inflation was a bit lower than expected. I believe that the export will pick up during the end of the year and that we will see an even weaker USD, not below 9,000 though. US will continue spending to get out of the crisis and that with "created" money. Indonesia will have a lower import, since the new regulations on how to limit the import is starting to get in effect. Companies with domestic production will take market shares and this specially on consumer goods market.
Interesting to mention here is that there are rumors that consumer credit companies is starting to get more and more problem credits. This might effect their performance as well as an increased second hand market for goods like cars and motorbikes. There are no smart bank people that would agree with this on the record, but they are getting a bit nervous.
November will be a build up for a coming Christmas month and this would indicate good business for most people. I hope to see a good month ahead of me ......
6. Other
The new cabinet is in. Many oldies is still there, but there are some interesting posts we would like to keep an eye on. The economcial team is more or less unchanged and I don't think we will see any larger surprises on taxation and investment climate. Possible more red tape. Interesting is Minstry of Health as well as Minist
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