globalEDGE Newsletter
February 2005
Vol. 4 - Issue 1
Our featured country this month is Indonesia.
The world's sixth most populated country and home of the biggest Islamic community, the Republic of Indonesia, is the only Asian member of the OPEC.
Since 1998, Indonesia has been on the headlines for different reasons. This vast polyglot nation has seen unprecedented turmoil, facing first the Asian financial crisis, the fall of President Suharto after 32 years in office, the first free elections since the 1960s, the loss of East Timor, independence demands from restive provinces, bloody inter-ethnic and religious conflict and most recently, a devastating tsunami disaster with a toll of more than 250,000 lives.
globalEDGE has more information and links on Indonesia at:
http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibrd/CountryIntro.asp?CountryID=20
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INTERVIEW: Low Invest Hits Indonesia Coffee Industry
Yahoo! News
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050126/15/3q3qq.html
Indonesia is the fourth largest coffee producer in the world, but despite the prospect of increase in coffee prices for this year, due to losses in production mainly in Vietnam and Brazil, Indonesian leading industry executives are worried about the future of this commodity in their country. Factor such as, labor-intensive plantation, small properties, farmers with low cash availability contributes to low quality production not accepted by importing countries. The Ministry of Agriculture has been working on measures to improve quality, but results may take awhile to show up.
Indonesia encourages more infrastructure spending
Financial Times, by Shawn Donnan and Taufan Hidayat (January 25, 2005)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f1a02fe2-6ec1-11d9-94a8-00000e2511c8.html
Recent banking reforms in Indonesia have opened the way for domestic lenders to allocate more money for infrastructure projects. These projects will be part of the government's $150 billion spending spree on infrastructure over the next five years. Financial Times takes a look at this new development and the concern of potentially bad loans. More information on the new banking regulation can be found at Asia Times. This site requires a free 15 day registration.
More "Media Updates" from globalEDGE at:
http://globaledge.msu.edu/KnowledgeRoom/MediaUpdate/
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A sample of some of our recently added sites:
European Free Trade Association
http://www.efta.int/
The European Free Trade Association - EFTA - is an international organization composed by Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland promoting free trade and economic integration. The site has three sections: EFTA Secretariat, Surveillance Authority and EFTA Court. In the Secretariat, the visitor can find the latest news covering trade agreements with EFTA. The Surveillance Authority aims to guarantee the free movement within the Agreement in the European Economic Area and provides access to legal texts. The EFTA Court fulfils the judicial function within the EFTA system and it also gives the visitor access to legal texts and cases.
Listed in the following region: Europe
IMF: International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
The IMF is an international organization of 184 member countries. It was established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements. The web site provides a broad range of useful tools, data and information on international finance, a rich weekly news section and an international financial database for free. It is available also in French and Spanish.
Listed in the following category: Money: Finance
Newspapers of the World on the Internet
http://www.actualidad.com/
Newspapers of the World on the Internet is a global list of newspapers. For
each country, the newspapers have the language in which they are written,
its broad subject, such as general news of business, and the frequency of
publication.
Listed in the following category: News & Periodicals: Global News
A list of recently added sites to globalEDGE is available at:
http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibrd/whatsnew.asp
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