INDONESIA A NEWS

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono outlined plans to lift the country's growth rate to a level on par with emerging-market superstars like China, even as the country faces criticism from some economists who believe it is failing to reach its economic potential. In a major speech on Friday to the nation, he outlined what he called a "master plan" to boost investment and lower government barriers to growth, which some analysts say have kept Indonesia from rising to the ranks of the world's most dynamic emerging markets. The plan would push annual economic growth in the world's fourth-most populous country after China, India and the U.S. to between 8% and 9%, he said. Indonesia's gross domestic product climbed 6.1% last year and economists expect it to clock another 6.5% in growth this year. "With strong economic growth, we will reduce poverty and unemployment rates," he said in the televised speech Friday. "It is impossible to achiev

MUHAMMAD Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer who is implicated in a bribery case, fled to Singapore on Monday, Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said. 'We have banned (Nazaruddin from fleeing overseas) from May 24, but on May 23 he went to Singapore on Garuda (Airlines),' Mr Patrialis said, as quoted by tempointeraktif. com. The Immigration office received a request from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to ban Nazaruddin from traveling overseas on Tuesday at 6pm. Mr Patrialis said that he did not know if Nazaruddin had returned. Nazaruddin is implicated in an alleged bribery case centering on the construction of a SEA Games athletes' dormitory in Palembang, South Sumatera. The KPK has named Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry secretary Wafid Muharram, businesswoman Rosalinda Manurung and a top executive of PT Duta Graha Indah Muhammad El Idris as suspects.

labour agents expect to despatch 1,000 domestic workers every month to Malaysia after the republic lifts the two-year moratorium.   Association of Indonesian Labour Exporters chairman Yunus Yamani said recruitment agencies had been training workers over the past two months in anticipation of the lifting of the ban. He said many Indonesian maids still preferred to work in Malaysia due to language and cultural similarities. 'Some (workers) went to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Taiwan but ended up returning to their villages to wait for the ban (on Malaysia to be lifted) or to find work nearer home. 'Before the ban, some 3,000 Indonesians entered Malaysia to work as domestic workers,' he told The Star in an interview. Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta have signed a Letter of Intent to give a new dimension to the employment of domestic workers in Malaysia and the two countries agreed on revised terms.