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Technology Stocks : INDONESIA'S PT TELECOM(TLK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Duke who wrote (262)	2/5/1998 8:00:00 PM
From: Duke	Respond to of 947

Indonesian jobless seen doubling to 8m this year Industry minister warns retailers and others not to increase prices and urges them not to withhold goods THE number of unemployed in Indonesia is expected to double to more than eight million in 1998 as the economic crisis gripping the country cripples corporations and forces mass lay-offs, Manpower Minister Abdul Latief said yesterday. "Because of an economic growth of zero per cent . . . there will be more than eight million unemployed people," Mr Latief told reporters after meeting Indonesian President Suharto. The figure, which does not include underemployment, would represent about 10 per cent of the some 90 million-strong workforce in the country of 200 million. He said the number of unemployed was expected to include 2.7 million people entering the workforce for the first time, the 4.4 million people officially listed as unemployed last year and between one and 1.5 million forecast to be laid off in 1998. Mr Latief said the president told him to immediately look for ways to overcome new unemployment as a result of dismissals stemming from the economic crisis. The minister added he was optimistic "unemployment can be overcome, because at the moment in the budget there is 1.8 trillion rupiah (S$311.4 million) for unemployment and along with that the World Bank gave US$1 billion (S$1.7 billion)." Indonesia's Minister of Trade and Industry Tunky Ariwibowo appealed to an assembly of Indonesia's producers, distributors and retailers not to withhold goods from the market, and warned them not to raise prices. "We need to keep prices stable," he said yesterday. "And we want producers to accept very thin margins for the time being." He didn't say how the government plans to achieve this, or what sanctions, if any, await those that don't comply. Mr Tunky said the price of rice, sugar, flour, and soybeans wouldn't be allowed to go up until the start of the next budgetary year in April. He also said that the ban on palm oil and olein exports would help depress cooking oil prices. That ban will expire by April too, he said. PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the world's largest maker of instant noodles, said it would try to comply. Ricardo Gelael, president of the Goro Batara Sakti wholesale company, said prices of basic commodities were poised to soar and some products are becoming difficult to find because of distribution problems, as quoted in Wednesday's Jakarta Post. The price of nine basic foods, including rice and cooking oil, is likely to rise 10 per cent to 15 per cent next week, while the price of detergent may jump 75 per cent and the cost of imported goods may triple, he said. -- AFP, Bloomberg

To: Duke who wrote (262)	2/5/1998 8:03:00 PM
From: Duke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 947

Reports link ex-military men to Indon bomb plot RETIRED military officers have been implicated in a murky Jakarta bomb plot, along with government critics and human rights activists, reports said yesterday. Jakarta military commander Maj-Gen Sjafrie Sjamsoedin denied rumours that former armed forces chief Benny Murdani was among them but said the names of some former officers were found in documents seized at the scene of a Jan 18 blast in the capital. "It is true there are a number of retired military men found in the documents, but not Benny Murdani," he told reporters, while declining to identify the officers. Current Indonesian armed forces chief Gen Feisal Tanjung also denied Gen Murdani's name had been found in the documents and was quoted as saying it was premature to suggest his predecessor could be included in the investigation. Gen Murdani is linked to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, an independent think-tank run by prominent ethnic Chinese figure Jusuf Wanandi, who is allegedly implicated in the plot. His brother Sofyan, a high-profile businessman, has been questioned about the blast and is now believed to be in Australia on holiday. There have been increasing calls for him to return to Indonesia and Gen Tanjung and other officials have said he should remain in the country in case he needs to be quizzed again, although they have stopped short of a formal travel ban. The Wanandis' names, along with those of a newspaper editor and human rights activists, were found on an e-mail message at the scene of the blast, which apparently occurred as the bomb was being handled by its makers at a Jakarta flat, the military has charged. All have denied any involvement with the explosion. Indonesia is currently embroiled in a devastating economic crisis and the country's ethnic Chinese minority is a traditional target of anger during times of unrest. More than 90 per cent of Indonesia's 200 million people are Muslims, while about 5 per cent are ethnic Chinese. -- AFP