JAKARTA (Reuters) – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc halted operations at the world’s second largest copper mine in Indonesia on Wednesday as rescue workers scrambled to find 25 workers caught underground in a tunnel collapse a day earlier.

The head of Freeport Indonesia said he would travel to the remote West Papua site later on Wednesday to assess rescue operations and decide on when to resume production at the Grasberg mine, which also holds the world’s largest gold reserves.

SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, April 10 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s oil
export revenue is falling far below government expectations as
output drops to a more than 40-year low, piling pressure on
authorities to confront a widening trade deficit fuelled by
energy subsidies that encourage consumption.

Aging fields and years of scant new discoveries mean
Indonesia is exporting less crude, bringing home to the former
OPEC member the $22 billion cost – 4 percent of economic output
last year – of its generous subsidy programme.

TANJUNG BENOA, Indonesia (Reuters) – CT Corp, one of Indonesia’s emerging conglomerates, has proposed an all-cash deal for a controlling stake in media firm PT Visi Media Asia (VIVA.JK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), valued at up to $1.8 billion, to strengthen its position in the media business in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

The founder and chairman of CT Corp, Chairul Tanjung, told Reuters that his firm wanted to purchase Visi Media, a unit of Indonesia’s powerful Bakrie family, without any partners.

TANJUNG BENOA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesia should slap a nationwide ban on the use of subsidized fuel by the country’s 11 million private cars, a move that would save the government $8.6 billion this year and erase a widening fiscal deficit, a presidential adviser said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is struggling to find a way to deal with runaway fuel subsidy costs that now account for more than 30 percent of state spending and are draining funds that should be used for much-need infrastructure in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

TANJUNG BENOA, Indonesia, March 29 (Reuters) – CT Corp, one
of Indonesia’s emerging conglomerates, has proposed an all-cash
deal for a controlling stake in media firm PT Visi Media Asia
, valued at up to $1.8 billion, to strengthen its
position in the media business in Southeast Asia’s biggest
economy.

The founder and chairman of CT Corp, Chairul Tanjung, told
Reuters that his firm wanted to purchase Visi Media, a unit of
Indonesia’s powerful Bakrie family, without any partners.

JAKARTA, March 27 (Reuters) – The Indonesian share market
hit a record high on Wednesday after parliament gave approval
for Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo to move over to head the
central bank, with attention turning to who might succeed him at
the finance ministry.

The Jakarta Composite rose as high as 4,923.7, up
1.6 percent from Tuesday’s close, supported by expectations that
Martowardojo would not make drastic changes to monetary policy
in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Scraping out a living on $5 a day, taxi driver Sukarjo fears losing what many poor Indonesians see as the main economic help they get from their government: a subsidy that allows for Asia’s cheapest fuel prices.

Indonesia’s government is again trying to confront runaway fuel subsidy costs that now account for more than 30 percent of state spending and are draining funds that should be going for much-needed infrastructure in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

JAKARTA, March 20 (Reuters) – Indonesia plans to buy more
than a dozen Russian Sukhoi fighter jets and domestically made,
missile-equipped patrol ships as part of a $15 billion five-year
campaign to modernise its military, defence officials said on
Wednesday.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy has sharply increased its
defence budget since 2010 as the military looks to bolster its
capacity to protect shipping lanes, ports and maritime
boundaries.

JAKARTA, March 14 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s leading oil and
gas shipper PT Berlian Laju Tanker reached a deal with
creditors to restructure its $1.9 billion debt, averting what
could have been one of the country’s biggest bankruptcies in
years.

Once the world’s third-largest chemical shipper, the group
secured support for its restructuring plan on Thursday just four
days before a court-mandated deadline.

JAKARTA, March 5 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s finance minister
passed his first hurdle on the road to become central bank
governor on Tuesday, amid growing opposition over his candidacy
that has raised concerns over the future management of Southeast
Asia’s largest economy.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s surprise decision to
name his finance minister, Agus Martowardojo, as the sole
candidate to head the central bank has worried some that
Yudhoyono may be seeking someone more malleable to run the state
coffers ahead of next year’s elections.