Time To Clean Up
Efforts to cleanup Indonesia’s waterways of harmful plastic waste have been accelerating recently. This month 8,000 volunteers will assemble at 34 spots along the 110 kilometer Ciliwung River to haul [...]
Election Idul Fitri
Indonesians have begun the mass movement (mudik) that occurs annually at the conclusion of Ramadhan, the holy fasting month. Idul Fitri/Lebaran is a back-to-one’s-roots moment relocating millions out cities to be with their families. [...]
April Post Election Visit
Commentary by Wayne Forrest I spent 9 days in Indonesia recently, April 20-30, and had very productive meetings in Jakarta and Banda Aceh. The run up to the recent Presidential Election was much hyped [...]
Resilient Indonesia/Financial Pulse 2019
Kancil Indonesia is like the folktale character Mouse Deer (Kancil) Kancil, a small “mouse” deer that despite his size outwits crocodiles, tigers, elephants, using his cunning and resourcefulness to survive in a [...]
Limits of Hard Infrastructure
The huge promise of the Jokowi Administration’s infrastructure efforts has not yet resulted in lower logistics costs. The rosy future predicted in glossy reports of McKinsey, Citibank, World Bank and others depends in large [...]
Time For Straighter Talk
Since January 1 the rupiah has strengthened from 15,000 to 14,000, mostly on the heels of announcements from the Fed that it would not be raising the prime rate imminently. With a yawning current account [...]