The January Surprise
On January 12, Indonesia’s mineral export ban came into effect with an unexpected kicker: an export tax on copper concentrates. As predicted, a last minute compromise allowed them to be […]
Structural Reform Anxiety
Its amazing and somewhat anxiety producing to watch both the US and Indonesia democracies struggle over structural reforms. An inflection point seems to have simultaneously been reached in each […]
Energy Subdies Reduced
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government has finally moved to to reduce the ballooning energy subsidies that have absorbed far too much of the State budget for years. In the form […]
Return of Paternalist Capitalism
A commonly held view of Indonesia’s recent, more protectionist policy decisions (i.e. mineral export bans, beef and horticulture import restrictions, mining divestment rules) is that they are motivated by populist […]
Political Parties and the Next President of Indonesia
Political Parties For many years I have been a member of Columbia University’s Southeast Asia seminar, a fantastic group of scholars, writers, and a few private sector representatives. We […]
Outlook for 2013
Indonesia heads into 2013 with continuing questions for foreign companies within an overall atmosphere of solid 6% -6.5% economic growth. The blemishes –if handled well–will not take away from the […]
New Indonesian Mining Divestment Rules
Is Mining Divestment Such a Benefit to Indonesia?Indonesia is following a worldwide trend of pushing out foreign ownership of mining assets. A March 8 Reuters story began “Indonesia will take […]
Pivot to Asia
Indonesia fell smack in the middle of the Obama Administration’s much ballyhooed “Asia Pivot”, a wonderful image for the ramp up of engagement with Asia that it has demonstrated. The […]