Since 1967 World Bank Finances USD 25 Billion Projects in Indonesia

Since 1967
World Bank Finances USD 25 Billion Projects in Indonesia
Kamis, 18 Februari 2010 | 08:28 WIB

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The World Bank has since 1967 financed 280 development programs worth more than US$25 billion in Indonesia, a Finance Ministry official said. The World Bank had played a great role in supporting the development of infrastructure projects in Indonesia to spur economic growth and reduce poverty and unemployment, Secretary General of the Finance Ministry Mulia Nasution said at a workshop here on Wednesday.

In the first 20 years the World Bank loans were mostly used to finance the development of infrastructure facilities in the energy, industrial and agricultural sectors, he said. "But since the 1998 financial crisis there has been a change in the pattern of World Bank loans for Indonesia with only US$460 million in loans channeled annually," he said.

Since then, the government had used the World Bank loans to finance the health, educational, environmental, social development sectors, he said.
Besides the program loans, the world body also granted more than US$1 billion to finance post-tsunami reconstruction projects in Aceh and Nias, he said.

The grants were divided into 133 trust funds with the largest funds reaching US$650 million, he said. "The largest grant the World Bank has ever extended to Indonesia came in the form of multi donor fund for reconstruction of Aceh and Nias," he said.

Australia Denies Execution Plea to Indonesia

Australia Denies Execution Plea to Indonesia
Kamis, 18 Februari 2010 | 12:49 WIB

Sumber: KOMPAS.COM
CANBERRA, KOMPAS.com - Australia’s government on Thursday denied asking Indonesia to avoid executing three Australian drug smugglers this year out of concern it would harm Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s re-election fight. As Australians Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran prepare final appeals against execution by firing squad, an Australian newspaper said senior diplomats met the Indonesian attorney-general’s office for talks on the trio.

“We would never tie the circumstances of people facing potentially death row or of consular cases or of people in trouble, we would never tie that to the election cycle,” Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean told Australian radio.
The three Australians are members of a group known as the Bali Nine, arrested in April 2005 in Bali with 8.3 kg (18 lb) of heroin strapped to their bodies, worth $3.5 million. Rush and ringleaders Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death in 2006.

Since their arrests, successive Australian governments have been trying to ensure the death penalty is not carried out, including Rudd, favoured to win a second term in elections later this year despite slipping polls. Rudd has promised to raise the sentences with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when court processes are concluded and if the death penalties still stand.

That could come as soon as next month with Yudhoyono to visit Australia from March 9 to 11 to discuss security, economic, development and environmental challenges, while also addressing Australia’s parliament. Any approach for clemency would be a sensitive issue for both countries, with some Indonesian lawmakers and local media likely to see any approach by Rudd to Yudhoyono as interference.

Didiek Darmanto, a spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney-general, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that while no direct request had been made to avoid 2010 executions, Jakarta embassy officials had indirectly raised the issue. “They told us that it was a sensitive political issue ahead of the election,” Darmanto said, according to the paper.

Crean said Canberra was not resorting to closed-door “soft" diplomacy for the Bali Nine because it would be embarrassing for Rudd, a former diplomat, to have a confrontation with Indonesia in the build up to an election.

“We have to deal with all sorts of embarrassments through political cycles. But to make the suggestion that we’re saying ’don’t do anything to these people till after the election is over’ is just plain wrong,” Crean said.

If final appeals by the three, known in Indonesia as judicial reviews, are rejected, the only avenue remaining is a direct plea for clemency to Yudhoyono.

Chip Debit Card to be on Trial

Chip Debit Card to be on Trial
Kamis, 18 Februari 2010 | 13:38 WIB

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Three national banks, BCA, Permata Bank, and Mandiri Bank, are doing test runs in the first half of 2010 to see if the old magnetic cards can be replaced with the chip technology.

Chief of the accounting and payment system bureau of Bank Indonesia, Aribowo, confirms this test runs, Wednesday, Jakarta. "The three banks volunteered to do the test run phase."

In the second semester, the three banks will do implementation. The debit card with chip technology is expected to cut down the potential for fraud.

Another advantage is that the technology allows interconnection and interoperability, which means that the owner of a chip debit card can transact in all ATMs in Indonesia.

Aribowo stated that for the test run phase three banks are enough. This will help Bank Indonesia in monitoring. "Cocurrently, we will also call all debit card issuers to present the test run results. This might happen around the second week of March."

The conversion cost from magnetic cards to chip cards is estimated to be around Rp. 2 trillion. This cost covers the transition of the 40 million magnetic cards already issued so far, and also to upgrade 30,000 ATMs, and for the 80,000 electronic data capture.

Prior to this, the Bank Indonesia regulation No. 11/11/PBI/2009, regarding payment means by cards, has declared the obligation to use chip technology for any payment by card starting January 1, 2010. (HIN/C17-09)