While Indonesia macro economy is expanding rapidly, many sectors are also growing inevitably. Sectors from transportation, agriculture, banking industry, book new records one after another. We cannot provide all achievements, but these are some highlights:

• As one of economic growth indicator, car sale is also growing in Indonesia. In May , for the first time in history, number of cars sold in Indonesia surpassed Thailand. Car sold in Indonesia for 2010 is predicted to reach a new record at 720,000 units, slighlty above Thailand’s car sales prediction (710,000 units). A report published by PriceWaterHouse&Coopers(PWC) mentioned that Indonesia car market will rank at 16th in 2 years with approx 850,000 units car sold per year. Hyundai, Peugeot, Renault, Geely, General Motors and more plan to set up manufacturing plants in Indonesia, a reflection of international confidence on Indonesia’s economy.

• In May, Para Group helmed by Chairul Tandjung succesfully acquired 40% stake of Carrefour Indonesia at $440 million. In November, Indonesia’s largest telecom company PT Telkom Indonesia confirmed to expand its wings to Cambodia by acquiring Cambodia’s largest mobile operator, Mobitel for $500 million. It is also said that PT Telkom will soon expand other countries in Southeast Asia, and countries in the Middle East. Those 2 companies are very few samples of how Indonesian companies are now gearing up to do cross-border expansion.

• In May, Indonesia’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia was awarded as World’s Most Improved Airline at 2010 SKYTRAX World Airline Awards, the Passenger’s Choice awards. In October, Garuda had been recognized as Asia’s Leading Service Quality Airline, according to a recently released independent survey of all major airlines across the region, conducted by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).  Garuda scored better than Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines for the overall quality of its service.

• In September, Forbes released Asia’s Fabulous Companies 50, a list of companies in Asia to closely watch. Jakarta-based bank, Bank Central Asia (BCA) is one among 50. Its 23% average return on capital for the last five years propels the country’s largest private bank into the Fab 50 again. It’s now establishing a finance company to handle motorcycle credit, a booming sector where it hopes to make money by offering lower rates. The bottom line rose more than 20% during the first half of the year. The Hartono family—the richest in Indonesia, with a fortune valued at $7 billion—owns 47% of the shares.

• In October, Indonesian Pavillion in Shanghai Expo had successfully stealing the attention, both from the visitors and the experts. On October 30th, The Pavilion received the Bronze World Expo Award for Creative Display in a ceremony attended by hundreds of representatives from participating pavilions at World Expo Center on Saturday evening, October 30th, 2010. The criteria of selection were based on pavilion’s interior design, exhibit presentation and narrative relevance to the World Expo 2010 overall theme “Better City, Better Life”. And at the finish off the World Expo Shanghai, it was recorded that Indonesia Pavilion has been visited by more than 8,090,812 visitors, and the number is equal to 12% of the Expo’s total visitors. It successfully promoted Indonesia in tourism, and trade sector

• In October, the number of tourist visiting Indonesia reached an all-time record at 5.2 million, set to achieve the target of 7 million tourist visiting Indonesia in 2010. Tourists visiting Indonesia in 2009 spent up to $7.5 billion, a bulky money for the country.

• In November, Jakarta International Airport (Soekarno Hatta) was recognized as World’s 22nd busiest airport (according to other source, it’s the World’s 16th busiest ). This is a clear indicator that Indonesia’s economy is growing reflected trough the growing number of Indonesians traveling by air. This year, the airport is expected to serve more than 40 million passengers.

• As world largest CPO producer, Indonesia managed to bring home $15 billion from CPO export in 2010. In December, Indonesia confirmed that it will from now onwards use local CPO reference price at the Indonesia Commodity and Derivatis Exhange (BKDI), using the local reference price for local futures trading, it is expected that there will be an increase in the trade volume of local CPO physical transactions that makes our domestic futures trading deemed important.

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