Few visitors to Jakarta will miss its notorious traffic. Indeed, Castrol’s Magnatec Stop-Start Index recently declared the capital the world’s most congested city. A number of factors have contributed to this gridlock over the years. Land use is one: only 6% of Jakarta’s land is dedicated to roads, compared to the roughly 15% needed for a modern city. Growing car ownership is another. Net national…
The aviation industry in South-east Asia suffered an unprecedented number of fatal tragedies in 2014. March saw the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, followed by the shooting down over Ukraine of another Malaysia Airlines plane in July, and then, closer to home, the crash of Indonesia Air Asia’s Flight 8501 in December. These events rocked passenger confidence and led airlines…
With more than 17,500 islands spread across three time zones, Indonesia’s geography inevitably presents certain logistical challenges. The country, which lies on either side of the equator and whose islands are separated by the Java Sea, is noted for its rugged terrain, active volcanoes, tropical storms and mudslides, as well as its congested streets and poor infrastructure. Given these obstacles,…
Bolstered by rising domestic consumption and comparatively low labour costs, Indonesia’s textile industry has reported years of steady expansion, with the value of exports estimated at more than $13bn in 2014. However, wage hikes and low productivity have cut into profits, while rising power costs in 2014 have had an adverse effect on the sector’s growth forecast for 2015. Overview Indonesia’s…
With its target of becoming a highly developed nation by 2025, Indonesia is aiming to bolster industrialisation and value addition, as well as expand its labourintensive manufacturing industry as it implements the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Development (MP3EI.) An ongoing focus on industrial development has seen the government – including the new administration…
With new export bans, investment reforms and a push for value addition driving a flood of new projects in the country, Indonesia’s manufacturing sector is slated for significant expansion in the medium term. Automotive manufacturing in particular is set to benefit, with the government’s low-cost green car (LCGC) programme witnessing strong growth when it was rolled out in 2013, while the luxury…
Representing the world’s fifth-largest tobacco market, Indonesia’s tobacco industry has soared in recent years, with manufacturers vying for market supremacy in a country with an estimated 85m smokers. The market has long been attractive to major international players such as Philip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT), which both witnessed sharp growth in profits after…
Although Indonesia’s retail sector was officially added to the government’s negative investment list in April 2014, thereby prohibiting foreign ownership of smallscale enterprises, foreign investment in large-scale operations – particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment – has seen a sharp rise in recent years. Most recently, global equity investor Warburg Pincus announced…
E-commerce in Indonesia is expanding as retailers capitalise on a rising middle class, growing demand outside of Jakarta and a tech-savvy population embracing new sales and payment platforms. “It is important to start adopting social media as a stable part of our business strategy,” Henri Honoris, president-director of Modern Internasional, a retail operator and owner of the 7-Eleven franchise…
Indonesia is slated to see its already sizeable base of mobile broadband subscribers expand in the coming years, with the recent rollout of 4G/long-term evolution (LTE) services by the country’s big three operators. That said, operators are facing challenges such as insufficient infrastructure, high capital expenditure requirements and limited available spectrum. The government’s recent move to…
