WB lends $300m for twin geothermal plants

Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Wed, 07/27/2011

The World Bank has agreed to lend US$300 million to state geothermal producer PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) to build two geothermal power plants in Ulubelu, South Sumatera, and Lahendong, North Sulawesi.

The bank said in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the loan package came from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Clean Technology Fund, with a contribution of $175 million and $125 million, respectively.

“The World Bank is pleased to be able to support Indonesia’s efforts to positively impact global climate change. This important project is the first approved Clean Technology Fund operation in the East Asia Region,” said Stefan Koeberle, World Bank country director for Indonesia.

“We appreciate the World Bank's support for PGE to contribute to efforts to utilize clean energy in meeting Indonesia’s growing power demand," said Abadi Poernomo, president director of PGE. "This assistance will contribute to PGE's goal of becoming a world-class geothermal company."

Upon completion of the project, by 2015, there will be approximate additions of 110 megawatts of electricity in Ulubelu and 40 megawatts in Lehendong. This will displace an equivalent capacity of coal-based power generation, which will reduce local and global environmental pollution.

INDONESIA : Indonesia gets US$ 890 million World Bank loans

Tendersinfo News, June 1, 2011

Indonesia gets US$ 890 million World Bank loans to support infrastructure projects in the country. The first loan, worth US$ 640 million loan will be allocated for the construction of a pumped storage hydropower plant to support the increasing electricity needs of the nation. The Upper Cisokan Pumped Storage Hydropower project will be the first facility of its kind in Indonesia. The facility will be located near Bandung in west Java.

World Bank senior energy specialist Leiping Wang said, Pumped storage is the only form of technology that allows you to efficiently store large amounts of energy and quickly respond to peak electrical demand. The Upper Cisokan project will make Indonesia one of very few developing countries to have such a power plant. Pumped storage plants generate energy by transferring water from two reservoirs built at different heights - energy is generated by releasing water from the high reservoir to the low reservoir to drive turbines. The water is pumped back to the higher reservoir at off-peak times. US$ 800 million plant will be developed by Indonesia's state-owned electricity company PLN, with the support of World Bank and the proposed facility will have the capacity to generate more than 1000 MW of electricity.

The second loan worth, US$ 250 million, will go towards the development of roads along the Western Sumatra corridor of the nation. The Indonesian Ministry of Public Works will manage the project, which aims to enhance around 716 km of national roads along the Western Sumatra corridor. The project will cover laying new asphalt wearing courses, replacing 194 m of bridges, improving drainage as well as widening the roads where necessary.

Related Article:

Mayors reach climate deal with World Bank

World Bank provides PLN with us$750 million

Antara News, Saturday, June 12, 2010 07:44 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The World Bank has approved a new investment of US$750 million for Indonesia to help increase the government`s and state power company PLN`s programs in the manpower and training sector, and regional administration investment programs.

World Bank country director for Indonesia Joachim Von Amsberg said in Jakarta that in the manpower sector, a US$30 million Additional Funding had been agreed to support efforts of bolstering PLN`s management by way of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

"In the present global economic era full of uncertainties, new investments are proof of self-confidence of and support to Indonesia. We are very proud to support the investment programs of the Indonesian government and PLN," he said.

PLN`s finance director Setio Anggoro Dewo said the ERP is an integrated information technological system which could help improve and increase the management of PLN`s human, material, and financial resources.

"The approved projects are to expand the ERP system to Sumatera and Sulawesi following the successful application in Jawa and Bali, which has raised managerial capabilities with the availability of accurate financial information enabling us to make decisions based on more accurate information," he said.

He also said that in the education sector, an additional funding of US$500 million has been approved to help fund and apply BOS-KITA (school operational assistance, improved knowledge for transparency and accountability) designed to bolster school-based management and public participation which would improve expenditures on education in Indonesia.

BOS-KITA is a program based on the success of the government`s BOS-program of raising the quality of education for children aged 7 to 15. The new loan brings the total World Bank funding for BOS-KITA to US$1.1 billion.

He said the latest was a new loan of US$220 million to increase regional administration accountability in the use of special allocation funds (DAK), which in 2010 reached Rp21.13 billion or 2.0 pct of the state budget. This project will receive back the current DAK grant for infrastructure projects based on the concrete results from the participating regional administrations which had been reported and verified.

The financial and development supervisory body (BPKP) verifies the development results. "A total of 81 regional administrations met the coditions to take part in this project," he said.

IFC and the World Bank Involve Multi Stakeholders to Promote Sustainable Palm Oil Sector

Antara News, Wednesday, May 19, 2010 18:46 WIB

Jakarta, Indonesia, May 18, 2010 (ANTARA) -- IFC and the World Bank held consultations with multiple stakeholders in Indonesia in Medan, Pontianak, and Jakarta May 3-7, 2010, as part of a broad global consultative process to develop the World Bank Group Palm Oil Strategy. 140 participants from civil society organizations, affected communities, large and smallholder producers, goverment, and researchers took part in the consultations.

"IFC and the World Bank seek to promote sustainable practices in the sector that will benefit the poor and preserve forests, biodiversity and forest communities," said Adam Sack, IFC Indonesia Country Manager. "The challenges in the sector are vast and require coordinated efforts by multiple stakeholders. The current consultative process is a beginning of what we hope to become an on-going dialogue and partnership with a range of stakeholders as we work together towards common objectives," he added.

The participants of the consultations in Indonesia expressed support for the World Bank Group's continued engagement in the palm oil sector alongside other partners seeking to promote solutions to move the sector to sustainable footing. Social and governance issues in the palm oil sector dominated the discussions, focusing on land use, land disputes, unified and transparent laws and regulations as well as their effective enforcement.

Other issues discussed included giving fair economic opportunities for smallholder producers, preserving natural resources, and protecting the rights of indigenous communities. There was an overall consensus on the need to support smallholder producers through increased access to finance, better inputs and production practices, and improved contractual relations with larger companies.

Attendees from civil society groups included Sawit Watch, Greenpeace, Setara Foundation, Borneo Child Aid Society, and Tenaganita. Representatives from the private sector included Sinar Mas, Bank Mandiri, Rea Kaltim, Musim Mas dan Wilmar. Researchers from CIFOR, Zoological Society of London and Indonesian Palm Oil Palm Research Institution among others participated in the consultations. The National Planning and Development Agency (BAPPENAS), Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Trade officials, representatives from the Indonesian Plantations Association (IPA), Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA) and Malaysian Palm Oil Association also attended.

The consultations in Indonesia are a part of a global outreach by the World Bank Group to seek input into developing its global strategy of future engagement in the palm oil sector. Until this strategy is in place, the World Bank Group is refraining from developing new projects in the sector. Consultations with multiple stakeholders have been held in Washington DC, USA and in San Jose, Costa Rica. Further consultations are being planned in Accra, Ghana and Amsterdam, Netherlands. For further information about the World Bank Group multi stakeholder palm oil strategy development process, please visit: www.ifc.org/palmoilstrategy

For further information, please contact:

In Jakarta:

Novita Wund, IFC
Phone: (+62) 8118400438
E-mail: NWund@ifc.org

In Washington, D.C.:

Irina Likhachova, IFC
Phone: (+1) 202 473 1813
E-mail: ILikhachova@ifc.org

World Bank completes community housing project

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh | Fri, 05/07/2010 9:42 AM

The World Bank has completed a US$85 million community-driven housing development project in Aceh, with the bank’s country director hailing it as a model for projects in disaster-hit regions such as Yogyakarta, West Sumatra and Haiti.

Joachim von Amsberg said the development was proven effective in people empowerment and transparency.

“The community-driven approach has granted rights to the people to take an active part in all housing development programs in the province in the past five years. Tsunami victims have a high sense of belonging and they are encouraged to deploy their own resources such as their human power, land and other materials to build houses they will occupy,” he said in his address in the handover ceremony on Thursday.

The World Bank, as trustee of the 16 Multi Donor Funds (MDF), developed more than 15,000 houses in 14 regencies and municipalities and 130 villages in the province in the past five years.

The bank, acting through the Community-based Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Projects (Rekompak) and with additional funds of Rp 26 billion from state budgets, has also constructed public infrastructure such as road networks, bridges and ground wells in the villages.

“Our success cannot be separated from the strategic partnership between the World Bank the central government, the provincial government and the liquidated Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency [BRR]. The important thing to underline is that the government leads the projects, the Acehnese community takes an active part and the World Bank fully supports the projects. Such a synergy has [great] significance for the disaster-affected community,” he said.

Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf thanked the World Bank on behalf of the Acehnese people. He said the bank had given serious attention and concern through its reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.

The projects were part of 25 housing projects funded by the MDF, which includes the EU, New Zealand, the Asian Development Bank and the US. A total of 129,000 houses, hundreds of hospitals, mosques and government offices and dozens of ports and bridges were built following the December 2004 tsunami that killed at least 210,000 people, displaced hundreds of thousands of others and destroyed numerous public facilities and farmland in the province and in Nias in North Sumatra.

RI to apply for UN fund to help local farmers

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/21/2010 9:03 AM

Indonesia is eyeing an international fund to help local farmers adapt to climate change as the UN issued its first call for climate change-prone countries to apply for the adaptation fund.

The government said Indonesia would apply for the adaptation fund to help local farmers and people living in coastal areas who were also vulnerable to rising sea levels to deal with climate change.

The National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) said the grant would be used to improve weather predictions and create new varieties of crops resistant to extreme climate changes.

“We are drafting a proposal with concrete programs to apply for the fund,” Armi Susandi, the DNPI deputy chairman of the adaptation working group, said.

The adaptation fund, a self-standing fund established under the Kyoto Protocol, was derived from a 2 percent share of proceeds from carbon trading in developing countries.

The World Bank serves as trustee for the fund.

Developing countries can apply for small-sized projects worth up to US$1 million and regular projects with a total grant of more than $1 million.

The final say on the countries eligible to receive the grant is the fund’s executive board.

“We are making history by granting funds to finance concrete adaptation projects and programs in developing countries, which are based on their national priorities, and may be financed through the ground-breaking direct access modality,” Farrukh Iqbal Khan, the chairman of the Adaptation Fund Board, said in a statement when launching the call for proposals last week.

“We expect to have funds of $400 million available by 2012, which means the Adaptation Fund does not have the resources to fully match the enormous adaptation needs of developing countries, but it is an important step forward.”

Developing countries have repeatedly called on developed nations to provide money for the fund that could be used by developing countries to adapt to climate change.

The head of adaptation at the Environment Ministry, Dadang Hilman, said his office was unaware of the announcement by the UN.

“We will check on it. We also want to crosscheck the countries eligible to apply for the fund,” he said.

Dadang added that any adaptation fund should be focused on tackling water resource problems, including for the agriculture sector.

The government has said that one of the sectors likely to be most affected by delayed rainfall and prolonged periods of drought was agriculture.

The delays in the rainy season caused longer dry spells in many areas across the country, leaving millions of people without water.

Shorter rainy seasons with heavier rainfall have also led to more floods and landslides.

The director of climate and energy at WWF Indonesia, Fitrian Ardiansyah, said that it was time for Indonesia to also play a role in determining the allocation of the adaptation fund.

He said that the management of the fund would also determine the survival of billions of people on the planet.

“Indonesia is vulnerable to the severe impacts of climate change as it still relies on natural resources such as the agriculture, fishery and tourism sectors,” he said.

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Step Up Their Fight Against Corruption with Joint Sanction Accord

Asian Development Bank, 9 April 2010

LUXEMBOURG - Taking a major step in the global fight against fraud and corruption, leading Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) today signed an agreement to cross debar firms and individuals found to have engaged in wrongdoing in MDB-financed development projects.

The new accord, which applies to debarments that exceed one year, includes: the African Development Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and the World Bank Group. Sanctions by MDBs typically include reprimand, conditions on future contracting, or debarment -declaring a company or individual ineligible to participate in any future activities it finances, either for a period of time or permanently. Public debarment, which carries with it both financial and reputational risks, is considered a major deterrent to wrongdoing. Under the new agreement, entities debarred by one MDB may be sanctioned for the same misconduct by other participating development banks.

Read the full news release.

Indonesia joins top rank of climate action leadership

The Jakarta Post, Ursula Schaefer-Preuss and Katherine Sierra , Manila | Tue, 03/23/2010 10:03 AM | Opinion

One of the first international meetings to focus on climate finance since the Copenhagen summit last December ended here in Manila this week with plans to allocate some US$1.1 billion from the new multilateral Climate Investment Funds (CIF) for country-led, low-carbon growth in the Asia and Pacific region.

Indonesia features prominently in these plans.

Some $400 million in support from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), approved in Manila on Monday, will help mobilize some $2.7 billion in public and private sector financing to help Indonesia nearly double its geothermal capacity and transform the country’s use of renewable energy, ultimately supporting the government’s objective of meeting its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2020.

In further support to achieving this target, Indonesia is also among the countries named this week that will receive funding for pilot programs to reduce emissions from deforestation under the Forest Investment Program (FIP).

Both programs for Indonesia were approved in advance of the CIF Partnership Forum. It is fitting that this meeting was held in Asia, for this is the region where more people — especially women and the poor — are vulnerable to climate change impacts than in any other part of the world.

On top of that, Asia’s energy demand is projected to almost double by 2030, which means that unless development and consumption patterns shift the region will soon become the largest source of new greenhouse gas emissions.

The CTF plan for Indonesia is designed to transform the country’s development pattern while supporting its continued economic growth.

It will help unlock geothermal power resources to expand people’s energy access while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, to green urban areas, and to make it financially attractive to tap into the sun’s power.

Indonesia has the world’s largest geothermal power potential, and the plan allocates extensive co-financing to expand large-scale geothermal electricity generation.

It will also accelerate initiatives to promote energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources by creating risk-sharing facilities and addressing financing barriers to small- and medium-scale investments.

The low-carbon growth investments in Indonesia are an example of similar programs now approved to receive CTF financing in Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Taken together, these programs will demonstrate how future energy demands can be satisfied in ways that will not generate excessive levels of greenhouse gases.

From our vantage point as multilateral development bank partners in helping countries implement these CTF-funded plans, this bold action on the part of Indonesia and other Asian nations is a harbinger of a fundamental shift in climate action around the globe.

And the same sorts of actions are moving forward in developing countries in every region of the world.

While developing countries have not been the primary source of climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from the past burning of fossil fuels, they are taking positive actions to help achieve a global solution to the common challenge posed by climate change.

As they continue on a path to improved economic prosperity for their citizens, they are making a wise choice to do so in a climate-friendly way that will also help ensure their energy security and improve their quality life.

This climate-smart approach offers lessons which all, including those in developed countries, can look to emulate in coming years.

The CTF is founded on partnerships between policymakers, indigenous peoples, private sector entities, civil society and others.

Its unique governance structure provides equal voice to contributor and recipient countries and it also ensures that the programs it supports are embedded in national development plans.

The CIF’s were created in response to the Bali Action Plan, which resulted from the 2007 climate change talks in Indonesia, and called for commitment of new and additional financial resources from developed countries for developing countries to help address the climate change challenge.

A group of developed nations then pledged over $6 billion to the CIFs — a powerful signal of their serious support for developing countries, in helping them to respond to climate change.

Without measures to build resilience to climate change impacts, we know that the 60% of the working population in Asia and the Pacific who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods will suffer tremendously.

Fresh-water availability will fall, irrigation will become more difficult, and millions more children will go home hungry.

The CIFs expect to pilot measures that will support better water and forest management and agricultural adaptation measures that can ensure food security for Asia and the world.

The potential to replicate alternative approaches to energy and food production can transform development, placing us all on a more stable and sustainable footing.

As developing countries pick up the climate reins, we must all stand together to ensure their commitment to climate action is supported at the global level.

The need is enormous, and so is the funding and knowledge gap.

Developed countries must continue to provide financing for investments and knowledge, and a new regime for climate action must emerge. Without such actions, the progress achieved so far cannot be sustained.

Together, the global community must test and apply effective ways to combine reducing poverty, providing economic growth, and building a climate-smart greener future.

The meetings in Manila, buoyed by Indonesia’s climate action, offer an important and welcome glimpse into such a future.

At the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, along with our fellow development banks with whom we have joined in a first-time alliance on this issue, we pledge our support to make this future a reality.

Ursula Schaefer-Preuss is vice president for knowledge management and sustainable development at the Asian Development Bank. Katherine Sierra is vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank.

Related Article:

Ban Ki-moon: Don't wait for disaster

Indonesia's Energy Sector Gets $400M From Global Climate Funds

ADB / WB

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (16 March 2010) – Indonesia's geothermal power capacity is set to nearly double following the endorsement of a new climate investment fund plan. The $400 million plan, endorsed by the Trust Fund Committee of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), will help transform Indonesia's use of renewable energy and ultimately support the government to meet its long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% in 2020.

The plan will use co-financing from the multilateral CTF to expand large-scale geothermal power plants and to accelerate initiatives to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy by creating risk-sharing facilities and addressing financing barriers to small- and medium-scale investments. Under the Indonesia plan, the CTF is slated to mobilize an additional $2.7 billion from a range of other sources.

"The greater availability of power supplies will help the Government of Indonesia reach its objective of providing electricity access from the present 65% of the population to 90% by 2020," said Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, Ursula Schaefer-Preuss. "Through the utilization of a cleaner fuel source, geothermal development will also result in better health benefits and more energy access for poor people," she said.

Indonesia is the fourth Asian country to have a CTF-funded investment plan for the deployment of low-carbon technologies endorsed by governments – following in the footsteps of the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. The Trust Fund Committee's endorsement of Indonesia's plan raises the level of CTF support to Asia to $1.2 billion, mobilizing a total of nearly $13 billion from government, private sector, and other sources for Asia's move to become a leader in the use of clean energy.

"The Climate Investment Funds are about demonstrating what can be done at scale and the Indonesia plan stands out," said World Bank Vice-President for Sustainable Development, Katherine Sierra. "Indonesia has the largest geothermal energy potential in the world. The co-financing will help Indonesia reduce the use of fossil fuels to meet its rapidly growing energy needs. It also gives a clear signal on the practical actions developing countries can take to combat global climate change," she said.

In addition to the Indonesian plan endorsement, the CTF meeting in Manila on Monday also endorsed plans for Colombia (CTF $150 million, leveraging an additional $2.85 billion from other sources, including private sector), Kazakhstan (CTF $200 million, leveraging $1.1 billion) and Ukraine (CTF $350 million, leveraging $2.3 billion).

The new endorsements bring the total of CTF-funded Investment Plans to 13. Egypt, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, and Turkey already have Investment Plans endorsed and are in the process of developing and implementing projects, and five countries in the Middle East and North Africa have undertaken a $750 million regional Investment Plan for scaling up concentrated solar power.

____________________________

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are unique financing instruments designed to test what can be achieved to initiate transformational change towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through the Multilateral Development Banks. The Clean Technology Fund (CTF) finances scaled up demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies for significant greenhouse gas reductions within country investment plans; and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) finances targeted programs in developing countries to pilot new climate or sectoral approaches with scaling-up potential.

Both the CTF and SCF trust fund committees have equal representation from developed and developing countries. Recognizing the imperative of climate change deliberations underway in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the CIF were designed as an interim measure to strengthen the global knowledge base for low carbon and climate-resilient growth solutions.

The CIF are implemented jointly by the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, and World Bank.

For more information, please visit: http://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org.

For more information, please contact:

Robert Bisset
Senior Communications Officer
World Bank
Mobile +1 (202) 415 9646
rbisset@worldbank.org

Philip Wood
Media Relations Specialist
Asian Development Bank
Tel (632) 632-4132
pwood@adb.org

BKPM aims to attract $25 billion investment

Riyadi Suparno, The Jakarta Post, Washington | Thu, 02/25/2010 1:46 PM

Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board chairman Gita Wirjawan said in Washington on Wednesday (Thursday in Jakarta) he aimed to attract between US$25 and $35 billion per year to double Indonesia's gross domestic products in a five-year time.

Speaking before U.S. businesspeople here, Gita noted that Indonesia aimed to grow around 7 percent in the next five years, and to achieve that, BKPM had been tasked to attract investment of between $10 to $22 billion per year.

"But we are thinking of a much bigger number of investment, at the level around $25 to $35 billion per year, given the size of our economy. We are a $550 billion economy," Gita told the businesspeople.

To achieve his ambitious targets, Gita said that he had started his "one stop shop" licensing for investment that should expedite licensing to as fast as five hours and seven days at the latest.

Gita said, a total of 15 ministers had agreed to give their licensing power to BKPM to make the one stop shop service workable.

"It's a huge task. Policy making is easier to fixed, but policy implementation is a lot more difficult," he said.

Indonesia to offer infrastructure projects worth $5 billion

Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 02/17/2010 1:14 PM

Indonesia will host an Asia-Pacific ministerial conference from Apr. 14 to Apr.17, offering infrastructure projects worth at least US$5 billion, officials say.

The 2010 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for Infrastructure Development will be held at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, supported by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, in association with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

"We estimate $5 billion worth of projects can be marketed," Bastary Panji Indra, director of PPP development at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), said Wednesday.

The projects include the construction of a power plant in Pemalang in Central Java and a railway network in Central Kalimantan, he said.

Dedy S. Priatna, deputy of infrastructure at Bappenas, said Indonesia needs Rp 450 trillion ($48.6 billion) between 2010 and 2014 from the PPP to speed up the development of infrastructure projects.

Nestlé cultivates 140,000 disease-resistant cocoa trees

Manila Bulletin, February 13, 2010, 2:11pm

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Nestlé has cultivated 140,000 disease-resistant cocoa trees to distribute to farmers in Ivory Coast and should boost that number to 1 million per year by 2012, a company executive said.

Nestlé last year launched a plan to hand out the high-yield saplings to farmers with a view to possibly doubling their productivity and improving the often poor quality of Ivory Coast's cocoa.

''This year, we are aiming to produce 500,000, and from next year onwards, 1 million every year,'' Klaus Zimmermann, Nestlé's global head of research and development, said.

He spoke to Reuters during a visit of World Bank President Robert Zoellick to a Nestlé installation in Ivory Coast.

Zoellick used the occasion to highlight badly needed reforms to the sector, which he said had to be more transparent and tax farmers less.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, which supplies 40 percent of world demand, has suffered in recent years from lower yields because of aging trees and black pod disease.

Cocoa sector reforms have been held back by a political crisis that has persisted ever since a 2002-3 war split the country in two, leaving the north in the hands of rebels.

Echoing similar efforts in Indonesia and Ecuador, Nestlé, the world's biggest food group, is carrying out research on cuttings from Ivorian plantations to help propagate the stronger varieties.

Zimmermann said Nestlé's high-yield plants would be a hit with farmers.

''When the farmer realises he can get three-fold his income on the same land, he will be convinced,'' he said.

Benefits of the plants include higher quality cocoa, in a country better know for its bulk than its top grades, resistance to disease and drought, and 50 percent to 200 percent more productivity.

Zimmermann cautioned, however, against thinking this would quickly solve Ivory Coast's aggregate supply problems.

''In Ivory coast there are 3 billion trees. If we plant over the next 10 years 12 million, the impact on the quantity of the product will not be that big,'' he said.

Ivorian cocoa plantations yield, on average, between 400 and 500 kilograms of cocoa per hectare, compared with averages closer to 2 tonnes per hectare in countries like Indonesia.

Exporters on Monday estimated about 751,000 tonnes of beans had reached Ivory Coast's two ports by Jan. 24, up from 681,049 tonnes in the same period last year.

Fears that a vicious combination of aging trees, disease and dry weather will bode poorly for cocoa crop yields this season have kept cocoa futures trading at 30-year highs in London and New York in the past few weeks.

World bank funds agricultural extension centers in 18 provinces

Antara News, Sunday, February 7, 2010 09:08 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The World Bank has funded the development of Agricultural Extension Centers (BPP) in 18 provinces which were included in the Farmers Empowerment program through Agricultural Technology and Information (P3TIP) or FEATI.

Agriculture Minister Suswono in West Java town of Cirebon on Saturday inaugurated a total of 354 BPP units, in which each unit needs around Rp350 million of fund.

"Currently condition of almost all of BPP buildings across the country turned to dump, so the houses should be reconstructed or renovated," the minister said. Thus, apart from 354 units of BPP, other 22 units will also be renovated.

According to him, in the next five years a total of 3,900 units of BPP will also be built and other 600 BPP buildings will be renovated.

In the meantime, head of Human Resources Development of Agriculture, Ito Suprapto said that the BPP buildings will be constructed in 18 districts and 68 villages.

Main Indonesian Port Tanjung Priok to Get Rp2.7t Revamp

Jakarta Globe, Yessar Rosendar, February 05, 2010

State-owned port operator PT Pelindo II plans to invest Rp 2.7 trillion ($286.2 million) to improve infrastructure at Tanjung Priok port.

The investment is part of a five-year plan to modernize Tanjung Priok, the country’s main port, and cut costs in half.

Pelindo II president director Richard J Lino told the Jakarta Globe late on Thursday that the company would spend Rp 1.5 trillion on new equipment, with the rest going toward redesigning the docks and purchasing stronger cranes. Richard said the goal was to reduce the time ships were required to remain docked from three to four days currently to two days.

Richard said PT Jakarta International Container Terminal would spend Rp 1.6 trillion to improve infrastructure facilities at its adjacent terminal this year.

JICT announced in December that it had secured a $70 million syndicated loan from the International Finance Corporation, the lending arm of the World Bank, and HSBC to help boost capacity at its Tanjung Priok terminal. JICT is jointly owned by Hong Kong’s Hutchison Port Holdings and state-owned port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II. Its Tanjung Priok terminal handles an estimated 30 percent of the country’s container volume.

The government has set a goal of developing an international-standard regional port. Richard is pushing for Tanjung Priok to be that port, despite its limitations. It has been hampered by limited capacity and inefficient operations, including poor road access.

Its current capacity is only 600 containers per hour, about two-thirds of the volume projected for next year.

World Bank Loans For Channel Normalization Project

Tempo Interactive, Thursday, 28 January, 2010 | 15:06 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The World Bank will facilitate funding for a normalization project involving a number of river channels in Jakarta. “We are supporting the project so that it runs smoothly,” said the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Development Director, John A. Roome, at Jakarta City Hall yesterday.

According to Roome, the river channel normalization and the flood canal projects are an important step that must be taken by the Jakarta municipality. “We are convinced that this project can manage flooding problems more effectively,” he said.

Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo added that the channel normalization project is currently in the dredging phase. “The World Bank’s financial support will come through in June 2010,” he said.

Fauzi also said the dredging project is done to normalize all the canals, including those in the micro, sub macro, and macro channels. “These are all canals that have never been dredged for 30 years,” he added.

Fauzi admitted that the project was delayed due to administrative procedures. “The flooding problem is an agenda that must be managed by the central and provincial governments,” he said.

However, Fauzi refused to mention the amount of the World Bank’s support. “We are still waiting for the President’s policy on this. When it is signed by the president, the fund will be disbursed,” he said.

The disbursement will be coordinated with the Finance Department which will then distribute it to the central government as well as the Jakarta municipality. “There are stages that must be followed according to the agreed policy,” Fauzi said.

RIKY FERDIANTO

Indonesia to launch infrastructure finance firm

Reuters, Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:27pm GMT

JAKARTA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia will launch a new private infrastructure financing company within the next two months to speed development of sorely needed infrastructure, but with initial capital of just $170 million.

Poor roads, energy and transport infrastructure have limited growth and investment in Southeast Asia's largest economy, but many vital infrastructure project proposals have stalled due to a lack of funding.

The government said on Wednesday it would launch in March PT Indonesia Infrastructure Finance, to provide funding, equity participation or financing guarantees for private infrastructure projects.

"We have already signed an agreement with some donors to help with initial capital," the new firm's interim director, Emil Dardak, told reporters.

"We are aiming for some long term infrastructure projects including power, toll roads, water, seaport and airport projects and they must be commercially viable," Dardak said, adding the agency is yet to consider any infrastructure project proposals.

It has initial capital of 1.6 trillion rupiah ($170.3 million) from shareholders including state infrastructure financing agency PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur, the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Dardak also said the agency has secured the equivalent of 2 trillion rupiah convertible subordinated loans from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), maturing in 20-25 years to help the agency's financing business.

"Later on they will need to raise much more funds, by issuing some bonds for example," said Anton Gunawan, chief economist at Bank Danamon in Jakarta. "It's not enough on its own to develop infrastructure, the need is very big."

A need for infrastructure development is one of the reforms seen by analysts as needed to help Indonesia achieve an investment grade sovereign rating, a prospect drawing investors into the country's bond and currency markets.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono last year promised to spend $140 billion over five years on infrastructure as part of an effort to boost Indonesia's economic growth to 7 percent or more by 2014, up from an expected 5.5 percent in 2010.

The government has said it will offer new incentives for infrastructure investors and has also launched a $1 billion fund for investment in environmentally friendly infrastructure.

An Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) fund to support infrastructure projects in the region is also expected to be set up this year with initial capital of $1 billion, with contributions from Japan, China, South Korea and the ADB.

(Reporting by Dicky Kristanto and Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

New firm to guarantee state projects

Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/05/2010 10:33 PM

The government has set up a company to provide financial guarantees to so that firms can access credit to finance infrastructure projects, requiring Rp 1,923.7 trillion (US$207.76 billion) in the next five years.

The company, named PT. Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (PII), is to help private sector firms working on infrastructure projects backed by public private partnerships by giving guarantees to increase their creditworthiness, Arif Baharudin, a director at the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The government has injected Rp 1 trillion from the 2009 budget to PII to provide initial capital, making the firm 100 percent state-owned.

“Additional capital is expected to be provided in the coming years,” Arif said.

He also said that the World Bank had pledged to disburse up to Rp 1.5 trillion in soft loans to support PII.

The government expects to be able in five years to spend Rp 768 trillion from state funds to finance upcoming infrastructure projects, while the rest is expected to come from private firms.

Govt to form infrastructure fund soon

Antara News, Thursday, December 24, 2009 02:29 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is soon to form an Infrastructure Fund tasked with collecting long-term funds from donor countries and other sources to speed up infrastructure development, a top public works official said.

"The Fund`s establishment has been awaited for a long time because we badly need long-term financing sources for infrastructure development," Deputy Public Works Minister Hermanto Dardak said here on Tuesday.

The contributions to the Fund could come from Indonesia itself, the World Bank, the ADB or other institutions prepared to make long-term investments in infrastructure development in Indonesia, he said.

In fact, pension or insurance funds could also put their money in the Infrastructure Fund which was now in a preparatory stage.

The fund`s formation would enable the government to be more involved in providing a number of "missing links" in existing infrastrcture projects such as the Trans-Java turnpike and other toll road systems, he said.

The Fund would in effect be something like a holding company among PT SMI, the World Bank and ADB and operate under its own management.

Hermanto said the Public Works Department had so far had access only to short-term financing sources to carry out road construction projects which actually need long-term financing.

As a result, the projects were often subject to interruptions or delays. "With the present government budgets, we can only tackle certain missing links in exissting toll roads such as the Solo-Kertosono turnpike. "We cannot undertake whole projects," he added.

The Trans-Java toll-road project actually needs a huge budget to clear 4,500 hectares of land but because of budget constraints the government had to implement the project piecemeal or according to a priority system, Hermanto said.

This was why, after more than five years of land-clearing efforts, only 27 percent of the land needed for the Trans-Java toll had now actually been cleared.

Starting a Business in Indonesia? Yogya’s the Place to Be

The Jakarta Globe, Irvan Tisnabudi

Yogyakarta is the easiest city in Indonesia to start a business in, way ahead of Jakarta, which ranked just seventh of 14 Indonesian cities in a new survey.

The study, released on Tuesday by the International Finance Corporation, also revealed that Manado and Makassar would hold their own globally as business-friendly destinations.

“This survey indicates that certain cities have been efficient in helping businesses grow,” said Adam Sack, Indonesia country manager for the IFC, which is part of the World Bank.

The survey measured how long it takes to obtain a construction permit or register a business in various Indonesian cities and compared regulations with 182 other economies worldwide.

Yogyakarta only requires eight procedures to get a building permit, putting the city fifth in the world in that category. Jakarta, on the other hand, is more cumbersome, requiring 14 procedures.

It takes 43 days to get a business permit in Yogyakarta, at a cost of $2,271 — or about 29 percent of the national per capita annual income. The equivalent permit in Jakarta takes 64 days on average but costs less.

In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, it takes only 56 days for businesses to get a construction permit, ranking it ninth globally in that category. In Manado, it takes 12 days for a business to formally register its property, ranking it 24th globally.

In September, Indonesia was ranked 122nd out of 183 countries in an IFC survey on the ease of doing business. Singapore topped the list, Thailand was 12th and Malaysia 23rd.

They city survey was conducted jointly by the IFC and Regional Autonomy Watch, and endorsed by the State Ministry for Administrative Reform.

Sandiaga Uno, chairman of small- and medium-sized enterprises at the Indonesian chamber of commerce, said other factors should be considered in ranking cities. “Even though several cities do well in global rankings on the ease of starting a business and gaining permits, if there was a global list covering ease of acquiring land for businesses, Indonesia would rank very poorly,” he said.

JICT, IFC signs $70m loan agreement

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 12/10/2009 8:26 pm

The Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an investing arm of the World Bank Group, on a US$70 million loan.

The soft loan, which will partially fund a $160 million expansion plan at the Tanjung Priok Port, comprises a $30 million loan for IFC’s own account and a syndicated loan from HSBC of up to $40 million. JICT is funding the remaining $90 million of the expansion project out of its internal cash flow.

“The JICT has consistently attempted to increase efficiency and expand our capacity … Serving as Indonesia’s main gateway for the country’s trade, the JICT must be prepared to face the expected increase in Indonesia’s exports,” JICT finance director Nano Aryono said after the signing on Thursday.

The company’s expansion started in 2008 and is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2013. The expansion includes an additional 32 hectares of yard area, 22 additional cranes and other equipment. The JICT will also build parking areas and roads to integrate with the Jakarta Outer Ring Road, which is now under construction.

By the completion of the expansion project, JICT’s storage will increase from the current 2 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) to 3 million TEUs per annum. (adh)