Batam Happynings Vol 3 No 40 - 25 Oct

In this issue:
Vol 3 No 40 - 25 October, 2012
Is Batam losing its sex appeal to
Singaporean men?
Page 4
Bella Italia is Batam’s latest
Western restaurant.
Page 6
Intel taking cues from Indonesia,
emerging markets.
Page 8
Three new bars
open in NED
THE Nagoya entertainment
district (a.k.a, kampung
bule) added three new bars
recently, as D’cents,
Wallabies and Z’eo opened
their doors. (Evan Jones
photos)
Investment in RI to remain vital next year
Indonesia notches record high FDI
INDONESIA’S investment shows
no sign of slowing down, as the
country has booked another record
high of realized investments in the
third quarter this year, thanks to its
economic resilience that has
provided incentives for both
domestic and foreign investors to
establish or expand their businesses.
Realized investments in Indonesia
topped Rp 81.8 trillion (US$8.52
billion) in the third quarter, growing
25% compared to a year earlier,
according to the Investment
Coordinating Board (BKPM).
“The fact that India and China are
slowing down pushes investments
in Indonesia, the only country with
stable growth. This is why we are
called the least unattractive country
in the middle of global slowdown,”
BKPM Chairman M. Chatib Basri said
Foreign investors still dominate
Indonesia’s investment, with foreign direct investment (FDI)
reaching Rp 56.6 trillion, or 69% of
total realized investment. The figure
grew 22% compared to a year
earlier.
Singaporean companies accounted
for the largest share, realizing $1.5
billion of investments, or 24% of
total FDI realized in Indonesia,
trailed by the UK ($0.7 billion),
Japan ($0.7 billion), Taiwan ($0.6
billion) and Mauritius ($0.6 billion).
Continued on page 3
IMF report disagrees
- see page 2
INDONESIA will continue to outshine its Asian peers in attracting
foreign investments next year,
backed by the archipelago’s growing
middle class and economic resilience
that stems from its domestic
consumption, the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) says.
The Manila-based organization says
Indonesia’s economic growth will top
6.6% in 2013, with total investment
- mostly in the form of foreign direct
investment (FDI) - estimated to
contribute 3 to 3.5% of the figure.
“With its strong macroeconomic
fundamentals, Indonesia is the best
bet for investment, considering the
fact that China and India have
Continued on page 2
Continued from page 1
recently become less attractive with
their slowing growth and soaring
labor costs,” ADB economist Priasto
Aji said.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy
remained attractive for foreign
investors mainly due to its growing
base of middle-class consumers,
which would provide a “huge group
of potential buyers” for companies
establishing and expanding their
business here, he added.
Indonesia is currently among the
major destinations for FDI after
prominent ratings agencies Fitch
Ratings and Moody’s Investors
Service
awarded
the
country
investment-grade status. FDI realization in Indonesia reached Rp 56.1
trillion in the second quarter this
year, the highest in the country’s
history.
The United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
ranked Indonesia fourth on its 2012
list of top FDI destinations, just
below China, the U.S. and India.
“However, the ranking does not
mean that we are less attractive than
China and India because, actually,
they are seeing downward trends in
investment, which is different from
our case,” said Aji. “Last year,
Indonesia was in sixth place (in
UNCTAD’s rankings).”
Taipei Economic and Trade Office in
Indonesia representative Andrew LY
Hsai echoed Aji’s optimism about
Indonesia’s future prospects as an
investment destination.
Hsia said that more Taiwanese firms
would soon pour investments into
Indonesian sectors beyond laborintensive industries, particularly
focusing on high-tech industries.
A surge of investment, coupled with
less pressure on the trade balance,
will help Indonesia to cope with its
current account deficit, which in the
second quarter stood at US$6.9
billion, or 3.1% of gross domestic
product (GDP).
The ADB said Indonesia’s current
account deficit in 2013 would narrow
to 1.4% of its GDP.
Investment Coordinating Board
(BKPM) chairman Chatib Basri shared
similar notions, predicting Indonesia
would see even stronger investment
realization in 2013 as the country
was “the least unattractive country”
amid downward economic trends in
the region.
With all bright macroeconomic
indicators at its disposal, Chatib
argued that Indonesia next year
should be given investment grade
status from Standard & Poor’s (S&P),
the only company of the “Big Three”
rating agencies that have not
upgraded Indonesia’s sovereign debt
rating.
“Indonesia deserves an upgrade,” he
said from Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. “In real terms, Indonesia
has entered an investment grade
(group of economies) ... the market
has acknowledged such status even
without S&P’s recognition.” – The
Jakarta Post
IMF further
cuts RI’s growth
THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary
Fund (IMF) has once again cut its
estimate of Indonesia’s economic
growth as the global economic
slowdown in Europe, the U.S. and
China will likely continue to affect
the country’s exports.
In a world economic report, the
agency lowered its forecast of
Indonesia’s
gross
domestic
product (GDP) growth to 6% this
year, down from its 6.1%
projection in April.
For next year, the IMF estimates
growth of the largest country in
Southeast Asia will touch 6.3%,
lower than the government’s
targets of 6.5% this year and
6.8% next year.
The agency’s report said the
growth target was lowered
because Indonesia, like other
emerging markets, would still be
affected by the euro crisis and
U.S. fiscal woes. The agency
maintained its projection for the
ASEAN-5 region, which consists of
Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia,
Philippines and Vietnam, at 5.4%
for this year. – The Jakarta Post
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“Indonesia is now becoming much
more attractive in terms of its
investment environment,” he said.
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ADB senior country economist
Edimon Ginting expected the positive
trend to continue throughout the rest
of this year and into next year, citing
the likely improvement in Indonesia’s
exports. “Our exports next year will
be helped by the likely depreciation
of the rupiah and the fact that
Indonesia’s exported goods are very
diversified,” he said.
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Continued from page 1
Goodies
@
Foreign investors still opted for the
natural resources and commodities
sector, with realized investments in
the mining industry topping $3.2
billion, or 17.3% of total FDI
realization, followed by the chemical
and pharmaceutical industry with
$2.5 billion and the telecommunication industry with $1.9 billion.
“Looking at how our investment
trend has progressed, I believe that
our economic growth will be able to
reach 6.3 to 6.4% this year.
Investments can offset the decline in
exports that has affected our trade
sector,” the BKPM chairman said.
Analysts have expected investments
to become one of the major drivers
of Indonesia’s economic growth,
besides its strong domestic consumption stemming from the
country’s population of 240 million.
This month, the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) released a report
predicting investment to contribute
approximately 40% of Indonesia’s
economic growth next year estimated by the Manila-based
organization at 6.6% - as industries
expand their business here to tap
into the country’s strong purchasing
power, stemming from its growing
middle-class.
The sunny forecast on Indonesia’s
investment sector was also attributed
by the ADB to the fact that Indonesia
successfully carried out many reform
programs
and
investor-friendly
policies that had helped improve its
image among both foreign and
domestic investors.
ADB senior country economist
Edimon Ginting argued that it was
only a matter of time before
Indonesia’s
credit
rating
was
upgraded by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
S&P said in a statement released last
week that Indonesia still faced
several policy constraints that
hampered it in its efforts to earn a
credit rating upgrade. The rating
agency, however, argued that there
was more upward than downward
pressure on the country in receiving
an investment-grade status, a
situation that would guarantee more
investment flocking into the country.
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From January to September this
year, Indonesia accumulated Rp
229.9 trillion of realized investments,
slightly less than its annual target of
Rp 283.5 trillion. – The Jakarta Post
Call
GOODIES
0778 450533
3
on
“one-stop centers are ideal because
it’s like a supermarket - everything
you want is under one roof.
MENTION Batam and chances are
Singaporeans will think of men in
search of cheap sex. Others may tell
you that is where men visit their
mistresses on weekends.
A survey by a Batam non-governmental organization in 2003 showed
that about 600 Singaporean men
visited Batam for sex every Saturday.
Now, it seems the island’s reputation
as a seedy getaway is fading.
Reasons: Singapore getting two
integrated resorts with casinos and
a change in CPF rules.
When a newspaper team stayed in
Batam recently, locals said there are
still pockets of sleaze in some bars
and massage parlors, which are
mostly located in the city center of
Nagoya. But, as one taxi driver said,
he now sees fewer Singaporeans “on
the lookout for fun.”
Adds the taxi driver, who wants to
be known only as Irwan: “I used to
see a lot more Singaporeans a few
years ago, and I would bring them to
the different nightspots in Nagoya.
But these days, I don’t see many
Singaporeans looking for naughty
nightspots, especially after the
casinos closed several years ago.”
This view is shared by Singaporean
businessman Denny Poh , managing
director of Den Industries, who cofounded the Batam Singapore Club
in 1996. The club was formed to
promote links between Indonesian
and Singaporean businesses.
Poh says, “The Batam we see now is
a far different place from the island
I first visited 28 years ago. Things
now are far more family-friendly.”
But there is no denying that some
visitors still visit Batam for its
seedier attractions, and there are
places that cater to these men.
One Singaporean says he has been
to Batam several times and these
“Not many Singaporeans I know
would want to venture to the sex
farms located outside the city. They
are controlled by criminals, which
make them unsafe. But at these
clubs, you get entertainment, sex
and even drugs.” He is not wrong.
During a visit to the Pacific Palace
nightcklub, a group was approached
twice by a dealer offering to sell
ecstasy pills.
Bernat Kerris, 40, an Indonesian
criminal lawyer who lives on the
island, says, “I still believe the
reputation of Batam as a sex haven
is thoroughly undeserved. It is safe
to say that much of the sleazy
elements are gone, more so after
the casinos were closed.” - AsiaOne
Some interesting trivia:
The U.S. standard railroad gauge
(distance between the rails) is 4
feet, 8.5 inches - an exceedingly
odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because
that's the way they built them in
England, and English expatriates
Business Meetings
Club Meetings
Luncheons
Training Seminars
Team-building Events
Product Launches
Catering
Wedding Parties
Birthday Parties
Recognition Programs
In the past, it was not uncommon for
Singaporean men to frequent the
entertainment districts of Batam some looking for a quick tryst,
others betting in the casinos. Yet the
casinos - located at Nongsa,
Waterfront City and Nagoya - were
shut after a series of raids in
February 2005.
While the number of ferry services
between Waterfront City pier - 1km
from one of the casinos - and
Singapore were halved, the closures
of the gaming houses did not affect
the ferry services to the other arrival
points on the Indonesian island,
which cater mainly to mainstream
tourists.
Public Address Systems
Video Presentations
White Board
Computer Projector
Wireless Internet
Full Catering Facilities (e.g.,
refreshments, luncheons,
buffet dinners)
There are five ferry arrival points on
the island - Harbour Bay, Batam
Centre, Sekupang, Waterfront City
and Nongsapura. Taxi drivers like
Irwan, who normally wait for visitors
outside the ferry terminals, say they
see more Singaporean families
flocking to the island for food, spa
treatments and shopping.
RISMA
Marketing Representative
Phone: +62 812 779 2003
[email protected]
4
Ichthys expansion
bouyed by new well
THE $150-MILLION Crown-1 well
being drilled by a Santos-led venture
also in the Browse is a follow-up to
the Burnside discovery in 2010 and
could lead to more gas for an
expansion of the $34 billion Ichthys
LNG project in Darwin by Inpex, a
partner in the well. It will be followed
next year by the Treasury-1 well in
the same permit.
Chevron last month made its
15th gas discovery off WA
since mid-2009 in support of
its Gorgon and Wheatstone
LNG projects. It has eight
wells scheduled this financial
year and cites U.S. government estimates that the
Carnarvon Basin still holds
about 127 trillion cubic feet
of undiscovered gas, 7%
more than has been found to
date. Shell, meanwhile, is
understood to be very close
to starting to drill its controversial Palta-1 exploration
well, west of Ningaloo Reef. The well
has to be drilled as a requirement of
the exploration permit, held by Shell
and Mitsubishi.
licenses are located in the Gulf of
Papua region. The offshore blocks
lay in water depths ranging up to
328 feet (100 meters).
The objective of Total and Oil Search
is to explore and appraise these five
licenses situated in areas with a high
potential for gas discoveries. Oil
Search will retain the operatorship
for the exploration activities. Two
exploration wells are planned to be
drilled in early 2013.
Australian offshore natural gas
exploration has intensified since the
economic catastrophe of 2008: in
2009, 72 wells were drilled, but this
figure has increased steadily each
year and is expected to reach 153 in
2016.
The Australian government has been
strongly promoting the usage of LNG
as a primary source of fuel for heavy
goods transport along its highways,
spurring further investments.
Oil & Gas News
The spending in WA appears to be
masking a dip in offshore exploration
across the country, at least in the
number of wells drilled. Australiawide, the number of offshore
exploration wells is running about
50% lower than in previous years,
said Chris Graham, head of
upstream Australasia research at
Wood Mackenzie.
“This
is
perhaps
unsurprising
because there has been a big shift
from offshore exploration and
appraisal activities towards development this year,” he said. “You’ve
got a number of the major projects
with their development drilling
campaigns under way and there are
only a finite number of rigs
available.” - RigZone
Total picks up
PNG blocks
TOTAL announced the signing of
agreements with Oil Search Ltd. for
the acquisition of a 40% interest in
offshore licenses PPL 234 and PPL
244, a 50% interest in offshore
license PRL 10 and the option to
acquire a 35% interest in onshore
licenses PPL 338 and PPL 339. All the
In addition, Total and Oil Search
have agreed to form a strategic
partnership
to
assess
other
opportunities in Papua New Guinea
(PNG). - RigZone
Deepwater to
dominate Australia's
LNG market
THE BIG spending of oil and gas
firms and a focus on deepwater
drilling will see Australia overtake
Qatar as the biggest global producer
of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by
2017, according to the latest
research from natural resources
analysts GBI Research.
The new study says that domestic
and regional demand has spurred
Australia to intensify deepwater
natural gas production from the
country's abundant offshore reserves.
Deepwater drilling is a highly rewarding but expensive and risky
endeavor. Australia's offshore drilling expenditure in 2011 was $1.9
billion – $1.3 billion of which was
dedicated to deepwater hydrocarbon
production. GBI Research predicts
this portion will grow to $2.5 billion
by just 2016, while shallow water
expenditure will exhibit minimal
growth, increasing by just $0.06
billion during the same period.
5
Woodside Petroleum and
Apache Corp. are the top
lease-holders in offshore
Australia, holding leases for
55 and 53 blocks respectively in 2011, followed by
Santos, Chevron and BHP
Billiton, with 27, 25 and 22
blocks, respectively.
For the entire Asia-Pacific
region,
offshore
drilling
expenditure will climb from
$16 billion in 2011 to $24
billion in 2016, with an
expected deepwater spend
of $14 billion in the final
year. - RigZone
Petronas ‘serious’
about acquisition
PETROLIAM Nasional Bhd., or
Petronas, is “very serious” about
acquiring Canadian natural gas
producer Progress Energy Resources
Corp., Malaysia’s energy minister
said.
The comments come after Canada
rejected a 5.18 billion Canadian
dollar (US$5.21 billion) takeover
offer by the Malaysian state oil and
gas company over the weekend.
Canada has stated a broad review of
how it treats takeovers from stateowned enterprises such as Petronas
and China’s Cnooc Ltd., which has its
own US $15.1-billion bid for a
Canadian energy company pending
in Ottawa.
“(Petronas) will not take this lightly.
I’m sure they will do whatever needs
to be done as a company,” Peter
Chin, minister of energy, green
technology and water, said.
The deal would be Petronas’s biggest
foreign acquisition if it is completed,
more than doubling its US $2.5 billion
purchase in 2008 of 40% of the
Gladstone liquefied-natural-gas project in Australia, according to data
provider Dealogic. – Dow Jones
Newswires
Bella Italia is Batam’s latest Western restaurant
Pak Tsong Seng Siong
and wife Mabel
(bottom) have pulled
out all the stops for
the Bella Italia, with a
pleasant dining area,
an ambitious menu, a
well-appointed kitchen
and a brick wood-fired
pizza oven.
BATAM FOODIES rejoice – it seems
a new wave of more sophisticated
and up-market eateries is on the way.
Batam has long offered good and
inexpensive food for those prepared
to seek it out, with night-time food
courts and ethnic restaurants like
Puti Bungsu (nasi padang), Yong Kee
(Chinese/Indonesian seafood), the
Grand Duck (Chinese), Resto Kediri
(Javanese and Sundanese), Kalapa
Gading (Balinese), and excellent
Japanese and Korean restaurants in
some of the bigger hotels.
More recently, new Indian restaurants have opened at Nagoya Hill and
in downtown Nagoya and attracted
favorable comment from early
patrons.
Those with international/Western
tastes have had fewer choices –
being fairly much limited to the Teras
at Penwin, De Petros at Harbor Bay,
the Bistro and New Place in Kampung
Bule, and Goodies at Smiling Hill.
That is rapidly changing, with the
opening of the Bella Italia at Harbor
Bay and the soft opening of the
Butchery Steakhouse in Nagoya (we
are yet to check it out).
A third new restaurant, also with an
Italian theme, is scheduled to open
in Harbor Bay in December and
Goodies is upgrading, with attractive
new dining areas and a new kitchen.
Batam identity Pak Tsong Seng Siong
and wife Mabel have pulled out all
the stops in establishing the Bella
Italia, with a very pleasant dining
area, an ambitious and
varied menu, a wellappointed open kitchen
and a prominent brick
wood-fired pizza oven. A wellstocked bar carries a good selection
of wines generally not to be seen in
Batam.
The restaurant is a special project for
Pak Tsong, who describes himself as
an eclectic “food lover” with a
particular penchant for Japanese
food.
“We were tired of having to go to
Singapore for a special dining experience and felt it was time Batam had
a more up-market restaurant,” he
says.
“Italian and French cuisines are
generally number 1 in Europe so I
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6
thought I would choose one of these
– why not?”
Pak Tsong came to Batam from
Jakarta as a 17-year-old back when
many of the roads and streets were
compressed red bauxite and you had
to take a boat from Nagoya to reach
the Batam Development Authority
offices (Otorita), which were then
located in Sekupang.
He is far from new to the hospitality
industry – over the years, he has
developed a substantial trading,
catering and services business,
providing food, housekeeping and
other services to major companies in
the oil and gas and other sectors.
Along the way, he established many
of Batam’s early bars.
SHELL, ConocoPhillips and other
global energy majors show no sign
of pulling back from hugely expensive exploration programs off the
coast of Australia, demonstrating
optimism about future major development despite increasingly strident
concerns about costs.
In a highly unusual concentration of
gas exploration drilling, three of the
most expensive exploration wells
ever drilled in Australia are due to
start at the same time.
Shell is days away from starting a
major exploration well off Western
Australia, with Conoco Phillips and
local player Santos set to soon follow
with high-profile wells of their own.
All of the wells will cost more than
$100 million, in an intensive search
for more reserves to feed liquefied
natural gas ventures beyond the
current wave of LNG plant construction.
Hefty spending on oil and gas wells
helped drive total investment in
minerals and petroleum exploration
in WA to a record in the June quarter
of $1.227 billion. Some analysts are
starting to pick an upturn in commodity prices more widely. Westpac
chief economist Bill Evans forecast a
30% jump in commodity prices next
year as China recovers.
Morningstar analyst Mark Taylor said
there were already signs that the
iron ore market was becoming
“more balanced” after the recent
slump in prices to $87 a ton, which
has since rebounded to $114 a ton.
Australia already has more than
$175 billion of LNG projects being
built, triggering a squeeze on labor
and construction resources and
warnings of cost blowouts and
delays.
Last week, ExxonMobil Australia
Chairman John Dashwood joined his
counterpart at Shell, Ann Pickard, in
cautioning investment was at risk
from
labor
costs
and
poor
productivity.
Mark Taylor has calculated that
Chevron’s $29 billion Wheatstone
LNG project being built in WA will be
almost double the real cost of the
North-West Shelf venture’s LNG
supply capacity.
The surging costs of new plants and
heightened competition from rival
LNG supply ventures in North
America mean the best-placed companies are those with “a head-start
on infrastructure spend,” he said.
Indeed, much of the exploration
drilling is being driven by companies
seeking to capitalize on plants
already under construction that will
offer more economical expansion
than building a brand-new project,
analysts noted.
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But while most of their focus is on
regions such as the Browse and
Carnarvon basins known for giant
gas deposits, some are also
prepared to place hefty bets on
frontier drilling.
BP, for example, is advancing plans
for
a
$1.4
billion
four-well
exploration campaign in remote and
rough waters far off South Australia,
where no oil or gas has been found.
- RigZone
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Intel taking cues from Indonesia, emerging markets
E
merging markets, which house around 86% of
the world’s population, are scaling up in
importance for a multitude of multinational
companies, not least those in the technology
industry. Intel Corp. Senior Vice President and
General Manager for sales and marketing Tom Kilroy
recently spoke about how the dynamism of the
technology ecosystem in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s
most populous and fastest-growing country, “represents
the future of Intel.”
Question: Emerging markets have been fertile
growth beds for technology companies. How does
Indonesia, the fastest-growing economy in
Southeast Asia, measure up for Intel?
Answer: Emerging markets are very exciting growth
drivers for Intel, and it’s not just in terms of revenue
growth and consumption.
Indonesia has been, out of all emerging markets, one of
the consistently highest performing ones that we have.
We still see strong double-digit growth in Indonesia this
year and beyond. And when I talk about growth, I’m
looking at the total available market for personal
computers (PC).
But the market is quite interesting for Intel not only for
its PC area, but also when we look at the strong middle
class and youth population, with the youth being such a
driver of device purchasing, content creation and
content consumption.
That’s what separates Indonesia from other emerging
markets challenged by macroeconomic issues, and
whose growth has slowed,
What specific areas are you looking into during
your trip to this country?
I did not come here for ceremonial reasons. Emerging
markets will represent well over half of the business of
Intel in the future. We can’t just use profiles developed
in the U.S. and apply them across the world.
What I am experiencing here in Jakarta can help shape
the strategy of where Intel is going in the world because
this market represents where we want to grow our
business - move across devices, appeal to the youth
and do all this through new and developing channels.
The youth is such a major percentage of the
(Indonesian) population that they are influencing the
technology industry on how we develop (user)
experience. So, we will work with our partners who are
going to appeal to young consumers in Indonesia.
And what have you taken note of regarding the
technology landscape in Indonesia?
That is why our Ultrabook initiative is around style and
reinventing the PC.
And what will Intel bring into the Indonesian
market in the near future?
When touch comes on Windows 8, the Ultrabook will be
the best of two worlds. It will be a notebook when you
need it and a tablet when you want it. So the (user)
experience is going to change dramatically. You will see
unprecedented innovation from more than 10 original
equipment manufacturers and, at the same time,
Ultrabook prices will start coming down as the devices
enter mainstream price points.
When we set out with the Ultrabook initiative in June
2011, we had known that we were laying a vision on
how we would reinvent the notebook. Phase one is on
how we would bring more stylish notebooks into the
market.
When Windows 8 enables touch, you will see really thin
Ultrabook clamshells with touch, detachable Ultrabooks
and Ultrabook convertibles. Our advertising campaign
will reflect that. A year from now, the days of the
notebook will have been behind us.
Around the corner, you will see smartphones with Intel
inside. You are also going to see tablets coming to
market, both in the Windows 8 world and Android
world, with Intel inside and with price points from entry
level and upward.
You have mentioned that you have learned that
Indonesians use their devices to engage in online
social networking. And since Intel is taking
lessons from consumers, how does this major use
of devices by consumers affect the design of Intel
chips?
We have moved to an innovation called SOC - system
on a chip. We are doing a much higher degree of
innovation, which will allow us to deliver great
performance - something that we have always done
both in computing and graphics - with incredibly
efficient power. This will allow us to be very successful
with handheld devices, as well as ultra-thin tablets and
notebooks.
Intel is a chip company. But we are more than that. We
do our own transistors. We are also one of
the largest software companies in the world. We are the
number one contributor to open source (software). We
have actually surpassed Red Hat. So, we are a major
player in software, hardware and transistors. If we put
all that together, we are then able to deliver great
experiences for consumers and businesses.
Any other investment plans here, such as
establishing an assembly plant?
Number one, this market stands out as being engaged
in social networking. People are not only consuming
content, people are sharing content.
I also think that malls and retail establishments
merchandise and do their point of sales in ways that are
appealing to the youth. Style really matters. The
devices that youth carry around today are a statement
about them.
8
Our engagement here is with the ecosystem. We have
no intentions to make an assembly plant or any kind of
manufacturing here. Those (activities) themselves
require an ecosystem.
We have Intel Capital initiatives that we are talking with
various companies here. It is very likely that Intel
Capital will be investing at the right time with different
companies in the ecosystem here. – The Jakarta Post
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Ken Anderberg
Smiling Hill Investments
Palm Hill Bungalows A/18
Batam Island, Indonesia
9
www.smilinghillbatam.com
+62 778 450 183
Fax +62 778 423 397
[email protected]
+62 812 7015 9348
Gas turbine R&D
focuses on small units
FUTURE GAS turbine research and
development (R&D) needs to focus
on a ‘big is beautiful’ approach to
developing smaller, flexible units
that can run efficiently at part-load,
OEM representatives from Alstom,
GE, Mitsubishi HI, Siemens and Pratt
& Whitney Power Systems agreed at
a conference in Brussels.
“Efficiency, but also cost, are important factors; and finally it is not
about efficiency but about the costs
of installations and costs of operations,” said Dirk Goldschmidt, head
of the university liaison management department at Siemen’s fossil
power-generation division.
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at Smiling Hill
“Flexibility, efficiency and adaptability to changing environments are
key requirements for developing turbo machinery,” he said.
Alstom’s director for scientific collaboration, Michael Ladwig, director scientific collaboration, said, “We all
lack demonstration plants for advanced cycles, as the users are not
willing to invest and take the risk.
This is some field of projects where
we have to do some work together,
preferably backed by EU funding. If
the EU will not take it, Alstom will go
somewhere else,” he warned.
“There is no ‘silver bullet’ and we will
have to work on many issues such as
improving efficiency at part-load,
enhancing fuel flexibility,” Jean-Louis Vignolo, senior engineering manager, innovation and development at
GE, pointed out.
The future is going to be in plant
integration, he stressed, calling on
the industry to work together on
complex systems. Advanced controlmonitoring systems need to be developed to model the interactions
between the systems, he added.
“Next generation gas plants will be
fitted with embedded, wireless instrumentations to gauge lifetime expectations of the machinery,” he
forecast.
Germany is at the beginning of
changing its energy system toward
renewables, even if fossil fuel-based
power generation will remain the
backbone of its energy mix. “We are
currently rely too much on fossil
power generation and that’s why
Germany's Energiewende is an important step to turn-around the energy mix. To do so, we need efficient
electrical storage, capable to storage
energy volume in the terawatt region and excess power generated by
renewables,” Goldschmidt pointed
out, adding that fossil fuels are still
the backbone of the energy mix.
“As a front-runner on renewables,
Germany will have much excess
power supply (on an intermittent
basis), so power to gas, hydrogen
solutions and electrical storage system will become important to deal
with this excess electricity,” he forecast. – Gas to Power Journal
10
Reach
Batam’s
Expat
Community
With Your
Marketing Message
In the island’s
only WEEKLY
Newsletter
devoted to news
and activities
important
to Batam’s
expats
Contact us TODAY:
RISMA
Marketing Representative
+62 812 779 2003
Email
or
KEN
+62 0812 7015 9348
Email
Threatened duties push
China solar firms offshore
CHINESE SOLAR companies are
being forced to speed up plans to
move a big chunk of their manufacturing offshore, as Europe looks
increasingly likely to join the U.S. in
implementing duties on imports of
Chinese-made solar equipment.
The timing could not be worse for
the Chinese firms, whose balance
sheets are already being strained by
nearly two years of weak prices and
slowing demand for solar energy
products. The risk now is that they
will lose much of the cost advantage
that has been the basis for their
dominance of the global solar
industry, analysts and investors say.
At stake in Europe is a market that
was worth $27 billion to the
companies in 2011 - about a third of
their production and about 7% of all
Chinese exports to the EU.
The European Commission is investigating whether Chinese solar companies are selling below cost, or
“dumping,” in the world’s biggest
solar market. European companies
have complained that their Chinese
rivals benefit unfairly from subsidies.
China’s
state-run
banks
have
extended billions of dollars of credit
to solar companies. On the day the
EC subsidy complaint was announced last week, the China Securities
Journal reported that China Development Bank Corp would prioritize
loans to 12 top solar companies.
Some experts expect Europe to go
further than the U.S., which imposed
a preliminary
duty of about
30% on panel
imports from
China in May.
The U.S. measure
is considered to have
been largely ineffectual
because it applied only to
solar cells, not the completed
panels. This means Chinese companies can import cells to China from
third countries and then export the
completed panels to the U.S. free of
anti-dumping duties.
The U.S. takes about 7% of Chinese
solar product exports, worth about
$2.8 billion in 2011.
Of more immediate concern is
Europe, and Chinese companies are
already hedging their bets. China
Sunergy Co. plans to move some
panel assembly lines to Turkey by
the end of the year, regardless of the
outcome
of
the
current
EC
investigation.
Trina Solar said in August that it
could build a partnership in Europe,
among other options, if the duties
were implemented.
The parent of Hanwha SolarOne Co.
has gone another route, announcing
plans to buy German solar group
Q-Cells for about $50 million, an
acquisition that Hanwha has said will
help it sidestep tariffs.
Trina and Yingli Green Energy,
among the companies that the China
Securities
Journal
said
were
PUBLISHER
& EDITOR
Douglas Cole
Email: [email protected]
Handphone: +62 813 6470 3361
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
Ken Anderberg
Email: [email protected]
Handphone: +62 0812 7015 9348
MARKETING
REPRESENTATIVE
Risma Fatmawati
Email: [email protected]
Handphone: +62 0812 779 2003
11
potential beneficiaries of new loans,
reject the subsidy allegation, saying
they receive financing at usual
market rates.
It costs about 40% more in Europe
than in China just to assemble panels from cells, according to industry
experts. That means production
could shift to cheaper countries, in
Asia or Africa, analysts and investors
say.
Edward
Guinness,
co-portfolio
manager at Guinness Atkinson Asset
Management in London, said manufacturing could shift to countries
such as Thailand, India and Sri
Lanka.
Guinness and Leopold Quell, a fund
manager at Raiffeisen Capital Management in Vienna, are among
investors who think Europe will take
a tough stance against the Chinese
companies.
In less than three years, fastexpanding Chinese companies, led
by global market leader Suntech,
have made China the world’s biggest
producer of solar products. In the
process, they have taken on huge
debts and flooded the market with
solar equipment, leading to a steep
fall in prices and bankruptcies in
Europe and the U.S.
The likelihood is growing that the
U.S. could broaden the scope of
proposed duties after eight lawmakers argued that the current duty
would allow Chinese solar panel
makers to escape U.S. duties by
outsourcing cell production to
another country.
Some Chinese companies have
already started sourcing cells from
Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. It
costs about 15% more to produce in
Taiwan compared with China. Reuters
Japan firm launches
real-time telephone
translation application
JAPAN’S biggest mobile operator
said it will launch a translation
service that lets people chat over
the telephone in several different
languages.
The application for NTT DoCoMo
subscribers will give two-way
voice and text readouts of
conversations between Japanese
speakers and those talking in
English, Chinese or Korean, with a
several-second delay, the firm
said.
“Hanashite Honyaku” will be a free
application that can be used on
smartphones and tablet computers with the Android operating
system, DoCoMo said.
Customers will also be able to call
landlines using the service, it said,
adding that voice-to-text readouts
will soon be available in French,
German,
Indonesian,
Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish and Thai.
“We hope that with this application, our subscribers will be able
to widen the range of their communication,” a company spokeswoman said.
However, she conceded the
service does not offer perfect
translations and has trouble
deciphering some dialects.
DoCoMo also said it has launched
a separate service that lets users
translate menus and signage using
the smartphone camera. - Agence
France-Presse
Unconventional gas
gaining attention in Asia
GLOBAL DEMAND for natural gas
could rise by more than 50% by
2035, according to the International
Energy Agency. That is if the
potential of their unconventional
natural gas reserves can be fully
tapped.
Natural gas is becoming an appealing
option for countries seeking to
reduce
carbon
emissions
and
diversify energy sources. Key Asian
policymakers are committed to
increase the proportion of natural gas
as part of their energy mix.
Indonesia has committed to increase
gas consumption from 20.1% to 30%
by 2025. Coal-dependent China too,
also intends to raise gas consumption
from 4% to 8% of its total energy
consumption by 2015.
According to analysts, unconventional gas resources have also been
identified in India, Australia and parts
of Sulawesi and Kalimantan in
Indonesia. Geological studies by oil
and gas research firm IHS CERA, also
shows that China is estimated to
geologically hold more shale gas
resources than the U.S.
Unconventional gas, which also
includes coal bed methane and shale
gas, is natural gas extracted from
unconventional sources located in
remote areas which are extremely
difficult to extract. Skeptics however
said it is too early to get excited
about this new energy market.
While Tailsman Energy's Managing
Director Paul Blakeley agreed that
Now you can find all the latest news and
promotions from Goodies and Smiling
Hill on Facebook. Daily updates on
events, menus and customer news.
www.facebook.com/goodiesrestaurant
12
there is certainly a significant base
potential for unconventional gas
production in the future, he pointed
out that it will take time to untap its
potential.
Analysts said industries in Asia still
lack the technology, infrastructure
and efficient supply chain to produce
and transport the gas, compared to
matured markets like the U.S. Right
now, analysts said a lot depends on
how policymakers lead this industry.
IHS Global Insight’s senior direct and
Asia Pacific chief economist Rajiv
Biswas, said: “A key bottleneck could
be the regulatory climate restricting
their involvement, or making it very
difficult for them to keep them
engaged. I think for Asia Pacific
countries, this is a key challenge - to
create a regulatory infrastructure and
a process to allow foreign firms to be
involved.”
Chinese authorities say they intend
to adjust tax rates and provide
subsidies in order to incentivize
businesses, as well as lower the cost
of equipment for the sector. –
Channelnewsasia.com
Singapore rules
out nuclear option
SINGAPORE has ruled out nuclear
energy as an alternative for the near
future despite concerns over energy
security. The city-state is heavily
reliant on imported natural gas for
power generation and policy makers
had mulled the nuclear option to
complement its energy mix.
A pre-feasibility study authorised by
the Singapore government concluded that nuclear energy technology
presently available is not suitable for
deployment.
Before reconsidering options, Singapore policy makers prefer to wait for
technology and safety to improve
further, particularly in areas such as
emergency response and radioactive
waste disposal.
Gas-fired power plants consequentially will continue to be the mainstay of power generation in
Singapore. – Gas to Power Journal
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13
Batam station readies
for complex legal battle
On Aug. 29 the Supreme Court
declared that the authorities were
wrong to have given the frequency
for Radio Era Baru, 106.5, to the
station Sing FM. The broadcasting
authorities did this in 2009, Era Baru
executives say, as a way of shutting
them down under pressure from the
Chinese regime.
A SMALL group of dedicated
Indonesians has for years stood off
attempts by China’s totalitarian
regime to shut down a radio station
it has run in its own country. Though
the Indonesian Supreme Court
recently decided a case in the
station’s favor, it still faces a
protracted battle ahead.
CLASSIFIEDS
Do you have an item you would like
to sell? Batam Happynings is now
offering FREE personal classified
advertising. This new section will be
limited to individuals wanting to sell
such personal items as automo-
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advertisement of 30 words or less
to [email protected], with
your phone number.
Black 2008 CRV
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4 BR + helper, 4+ bathrooms, AC,
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Price for all Rp 22 mil (negotiable)
Gatsby 2001 - Sgd $27,500
New alarm with sensors; under 2,000
km; seats and interior redone; perfect
running condition; 2001 Toyota Celica
engine; 5-speed manual; new sound
system with booster and amp
The Supreme Court decision should
theoretically have paved the way for
Era Baru (the name means “new
era” and it has premises at the
entrance to Smiling Hill) to get back
on the air. But soon after the court
decision was handed down, local
bureaucrat Mohammad Sopingi,
chief of Batam Radio Frequency
Spectrum
Monitor-ing
Center,
declared Radio Era Baru would not
be going on the air.
He also told a reporter that he had
not heard of the Supreme Court
verdict, and, “We will take action
against Era Baru Radio if it dares to
broadcast again without a permit.”
Lying behind the confusion is the
complexity of how frequencies and
licenses
to
broadcast
are
administered, how approvals are
given out - or not - and how the grey
zone
created
by
Indonesia’s
sometimes dysfunctional bureaucracy allows for seemingly arbitrary
decision making and enforcement.
Radio Era Baru’s troubles began in
2007 when the Chinese Embassy
sent a letter to the Department of
Foreign Affairs, warning of damage
to relations between Indonesia and
China should Era Baru continue to
broadcast.
Era Baru broadcasts in Indonesian
but also in Chinese, meaning that it
reaches the large population of ethnic
Chinese living in Indonesia and the
Chinese freighter traffic in the nearby
sea lanes.
Era Baru’s programming includes
reports on human rights abuses in
China and political developments in
China. It regularly broadcasts as a
serial “The Epoch Times” editorial
series “Nine Commentaries on the
Communist Party.”
Since the embassy sent its letter, the
station has faced a series of
shutdowns, equipment confiscations,
court cases, and, for Gatot Machali,
the director of Radio Era Baru, a
suspended jail sentence.
The recent Supreme Court decision,
in effect, annuls Machali’s sentence.
He was charged with wrongly
broadcasting on 106.5 FM - but the
ruling indicates the frequency had
been improperly taken from Radio
Era Baru and assigned to Sing FM .
Sing FM is still broadcasting on the
frequency. Era Baru will be sending
Sing FM a legal letter, explaining the
decision, and asking it to relinquish
the signal. - The Epoch Times
Call: +62 831 9118 9999
14
Coal mining jobs at
risk with price drop
India car sales soar,
where are roads?
HUNDREDS OF thousands of people
in the coal mining industry in East
Kalimantan province may be at risk
of losing their jobs as the price of the
commodity has fallen in recent
months.
EVEN WITH its economy
cooling, India’s car sales are
forecast to go into overdrive,
creating a huge challenge for
the government to modernize
the country’s antiquated road
network.
Suriansyah, head of the labor office
at Kutai Kertanegara district in East
Kalimantan, said that some coal
miners operating in various districts
in East Kalimantan province are
expecting massive layoffs in the
coming weeks.
East Kalimantan is home to 14
districts - including Balikpapan,
Bontang and Tarakan - that are rich
in natural resources such as oil, gas
and coal. Selling prices at some of
the biggest coal miners have fallen
about a third from year-ago levels.
The shift toward vehicle ownership
in the country of 1.2 billion people
has reached a tipping point, driven
by increasingly urban, affluent and
aspirational
first-time
buyers,
according to global research firm
LMC Automotive.
LMC projected light vehicle sales cars, sport utility vehicles and light
trucks - will quadruple to 11 million
units by 2020 from 2.7 million in
2010. The forecast surge comes as
global
automakers
have
been
betting big on Asia’s third-largest
economy, spending billions of dollars
on plant investments, as they aim to
offset saturated
Western markets.
Suriansyah said that the falling price
of coal in recent months has been a
major blow to small-scale coal
miners. He said
his office was
now taking initiatives to talk with
Right now, just
coal miners oper11 Indians per
ating in three
1,000 own cars,
districts: Balikcompared
with
papan, Bontang
more than 500
and
Tarakan.
per 1,000 in the
Without
elabU.S., according
orating, he said
to the Society of
government
Indian Automoofficials in 11 A worker stands near a hill of coal bile
Manufacother
districts that is ready to be mined in Berau turers. But more
have taken sim- district, East Kalimantan.
cars pose big
ilar measures to
problems
for
cope with falling coal prices.
India, which lacks a modern road
“The decline in coal prices has
affected the operations of small-scale
coal miners,” Suriansyah said.
There are 450 coal-mining companies
operating in Kutai Kertanegara district alone, he said, and they employ
more than 40,000 workers. Some
coal miners have already begun firing
workers, he said, without identifying
the small operators.
Ichwansyah, a government official at
the labor ministry in East Kalimantan,
said that mining companies in the
province have almost 6,000 laborers
who work directly in the mines this
year, up from around 4,200 last year.
Workers in coal-mining related and
supporting
businesses
totaled
300,000 people this year. – The
Jakarta Globe
and highway network.
Bullock carts, cows, bicycles and
rickshaws frequently compete for
space with hulking SUVs, cars and
trucks on India’s potholed streets
and highways.
Some 135,500 people died in 2010
in road accidents and 527,500 were
injured, according to latest government figures. - Agence FrancePresse
Too many Indonesians
lack clean water
THE GAP between urban and rural
areas has left nearly half of
Indonesia’s 240 million people
without proper access to sanitation
and clean water, Health Minister
Nafsiah Mboi said.
15
Nafsiah
said
about
55%
of
Indonesians do not have access to
sanitation, while 43% don’t have
access to clean water. She added
that the number of people without
either was 109 million.
She said 76% of urban residents had
access to sanitation and clean water,
compared to 47% of rural residents,
who account for the majority of the
country’s population.
The government wants to ensure
access to sanitation by 62% of the
population by 2015. Similarly, it
wants to increase access to clean
water to 68% by the same deadline.
Nafsiah said that under the government’s health development program, Indonesia would need Rp 56
trillion ($5.9 billion) in funding
through
2020
to
build
the
infrastructure for both, and improve
access. – The Jakarta Globe
Lufthansa axes
Jakarta flights
GERMAN air carrier Lufthansa has
axed its direct flight between Munich
and Jakarta temporarily for economic
reasons.
"Fuel surcharge, which can reach up
to US$500, is one of the reasons why
we had to stop the flight," marketing
manager for Lufthansa Indonesia,
Swiny Adestika, said.
Lufthansa used to serve Jakarta five
times a week from Munich with an
Airbus A340-300.
Lufthansa passengers bound for the
Indonesian capital would now have a
more complicated journey. They
must take Lufthansa via Frankfurt to
Singapore and then link with
Singapore
Airlines
or
Garuda
Indonesia for the final leg to Jakarta.
– The Jakarta Post
f
r
a
l
Av a
Terrible puns!
I used to be a banker, but then I
lost interest.
I dropped out of communism
class because of lousy Marx.
All the toilets in New York's
police stations have been stolen.
The police have nothing to go
on.
I got a job at a bakery because I
kneaded dough.
Haunted French pancakes give
me the crepes.
Velcro - what a rip off!
A cartoonist was found dead in
his home. Details are sketchy.
Venison for dinner again? Oh
deer!
The earthquake in Washington
obviously was the government’s
fault.
Be kind to your dentist. He has
fillings, too.
Dear Mum & Dad,
I am well. Hope youse are, too. Tell me big
brothers Doug and Phil that the Army is
better than workin’ on the farm. Tell them
to get in bloody quick smart before
the jobs are all gone! I wuz a bit slow in settling
down at first, because ya don’t hafta get outta
bed until 6 a.m. But I like sleeping in now, cuz all
ya gotta do before brekky is make ya bed and
shine ya boots and clean ya uniform. No bloody
cows to milk, no calves to feed, no feed to stack
- nothin’! Ya haz gotta shower though, but it’s
not so bad, coz there’s lotsa hot water and even
a light to see what ya doing!
At brekky ya get cereal, fruit and eggs, but
there’s no kangaroo steaks or possum stew like
wot Mum makes. You don’t get fed again
until noon and by that time all the city boys are
buggered because we’ve been on a ‘route
march’ - geez its only just like walking to the
windmill in the back paddock!
This one will kill me
brothers Doug and
Phil with laughter. I
keep getting medals
for shootin’ - dunno
why. The bullseye is
as big as a bloody possum’s bum and it don’t
move and it’s not firing back at ya like the
Johnsons did when our big scrubber bull got
into their prize cows before the Ekka last year!
All ya gotta do is make yourself comfortable and
hit the target - it’s a piece of piss! You don’t
even load your own cartridges, they comes in
little boxes, and ya don’t have to steady yourself
against the rollbar of the roo shooting truck
when you reload!
A question
of priorities
Sometimes ya gotta wrestle with the city boys
and I gotta be real careful coz they break easy it’s not like fighting with Doug and Phil and Jack
and Boori and Steve and Muzza all at once like
we do at home after the muster.
Turns out I’m not a bad boxer either and it looks
like I’m the best the platoon’s got, and I’ve only
been beaten by this one bloke from the
engineers - he’s 6 foot 5 and 15 stone and three
pick handles across the shoulders and, as ya
know, I’m only 5 foot 7 and eight stone wringin’
wet, but I fought him till the other blokes
carried me off to the boozer.
I can’t complain about the Army - tell the boys
to get in quick before word gets around how
bloody good it is.
Your loving daughter,
Sheila
16
Wats on....Sports
SMILING HILL
FRIDAY
October 26th
1.00 pm (GOLF)
PGA : CIMB Classic
3.30 pm (ESPN)
World Series : Detroit v
Sanfrancisco (replay)
6.00 pm (GOLF
)EPGA : BMW Classic (replay)
11.15 pm (ESPN)
BPL : Manchester City v Swansea
VISA and MasterCard welcome
YES, you can now use your plastic to
pay for food, drinks and room charges
at GOODIES and Smiling Hill.
www.smilinghillbatam.com
Smiling Hill
Palm Hill Bungalows
GOODIES
RESTAURANT
MOSQUE
BUKIT
SENYUM
SWISS
BELHOTEL
Palm Hill Bungalows
Blok A No. 18,
Bukit Senyum
BATU AMPAR 29456
NAGOYA
PARK
MotoGP : Australian Grand Prix (qualifying)
11.00 am (GOLF)
PGA : CIMB Classic
1.00 pm (GOLF)
PGA : CIMB Classic
3.00 pm (STAR)
F-1 : Grand Prix of India (qualifying)
6.00 pm (GOLF)
EPGA : BMW Master (replay)
6.40 pm (ESPN)
BPL :Aston Villa v Norwich City
9.00 pm (ESPN)
Ham United
BPL : Wigan v West
9.00 pm (A817)
Sunderland
BPL : Stoke City v
SUNDAY
October 28th
6.30 am (ESPN)
World Series : San Francisco v Detroit
9.00 am (STAR)
MotoGP : Australian Grand Prix
11.00 am (GOLF)
PGA :CIMB Classic
4.15 pm (STAR)
F-1 Racing : Grand Prix of India
6.00 pm (GOLF)
EPGA : BMW Master (replay)
8.30 pm (ESPN)
BPL : Everton v Liverpool
10.00 pm (STAR)
BPL : Southampton v Tottenham
TIGER WOODS, a 14-time major championship
and two-time FedEx Cup winner, is set to tee off at
the four-day CIMB Classic in Selangor, Malaysia,
which began on Thursday. Woods is competing
against seven players from the top-50, for a total
prize of US$6.1 million, including $1.3 million for
the first prize, at the PGA Tour event in Asia.
+62 778 450 533
McDONALDS
CHURCH
PURI GARDEN
HOTEL
+62 778 450 183
LUSY’S
9.45 am (ESPN)
Woods playing in Malaysia
PLANET
HOLIDAY
BANK
October 27th
9.00 pm (ESPN)
BPL : Arsenal v
Queens Park Rangers
SMILING HILL and GOODIES
To BATU AMPAR
SATURDAY
NAGOYA HILL
SHOPPING CENTRE
Smiling Hill is just 1.4km
from Nagoya CBD
The event features 48 professionals, including
Malaysia qualifiers Danny Chia and Shaaban
Hussin, Asia’s Order of Merit leader Thaworn
Wiratchant of Thailand and South Korea’s young
rising star Noh Seung-yul, who stole the show from
Woods at the Deutsche Bank championship in
September.
+62 778 423 387
[email protected]
17