Indonesia Industry

Bobby Grahm is willing to go to great lengths to get an edge on his competition. However, when Grahm in 1985 decided to go all the way to Indonesia--venturing into wild, mountainous regions devoid of telephones and paved roads to set up manufacturing facilities--some friends believed that he may have gone too far. After all, manufacturers in Taiwan were already providing Grahm's Los Angeles-based import business with a steady supply of hand tools, portable lamps and kitchenware.

A 21-year-old woman with little formal education and bleak prospects, Rasiya never considered herself a radical. But she did not hesitate when her fellow workers got up from their sewing machines and marched out on strike. Rasiya is one of 6,000 young women employed by an ethnic Chinese businessman to make Adidas sports shoes for the American and European markets. The shoes cost more than $100 a pair when they finally reach the boutiques of the West, but the workers take home only $1.39 a day.

The Republic of Indonesia, which once relied on oil as its chief asset, has worked hard to diversify its economy since oil prices began tumbling in the early 1980s. Those efforts have begun to pay off. The agriculture and service sectors have shown growth and manufacturing is growing rapidly. ECONOMY: In the past decade, Indonesia has experienced growth in gross domestic product similar to the fast pace of growth in other Southeast Asia nations.

By removing longstanding barriers to outside investors, Indonesia is generating a foreign investment surge that may help transform the nation, the world's fifth-most populous. By adopting measures to woo investors, the island nation is trying to join the ranks of the Four Tigers--financially fierce Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

A 21-year-old woman with little formal education and bleak prospects, Rasiya never considered herself a radical. But she did not hesitate when her fellow workers got up from their sewing machines and marched out on strike. Rasiya is one of 6,000 young women employed by an ethnic Chinese businessman to make Adidas sports shoes for the American and European markets. The shoes cost more than $100 a pair when they finally reach the boutiques of the West, but the workers take home only $1.39 a day.

Suyatmi, a shy, 20-year-old factory worker, is too poor to know much about sneakers. She never heard of Bo Jackson and is too skinny to care about aerobics. Her world consists of a rented, five-foot-square room in a shantytown where she sleeps on the concrete floor with three other young women. Every day at 7 a.m., Suyatmi begins work at P. T. Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry, one of six companies in Indonesia making sports shoes for Nike Inc., the spectacularly successful U.S.

Indonesia's economic crisis has devastated its poultry industry and the nation is expected to run out of chicken this month, posing "extreme stability concerns," the U.S. Agriculture Department said Friday. Poultry supply virtually all animal protein for Indonesia's population of more than 200 million, the USDA said in its monthly world livestock report.

Malaysia's outspoken trade minister on Monday defended her government's decision to bail out several troubled companies such as the powerful Sime Bank, arguing that letting them go bankrupt would lead to increased joblessness, social instability and a slowdown of the nation's economic recovery.

The Republic of Indonesia, which once relied on oil as its chief asset, has worked hard to diversify its economy since oil prices began tumbling in the early 1980s. Those efforts have begun to pay off. The agriculture and service sectors have shown growth and manufacturing is growing rapidly. ECONOMY: In the past decade, Indonesia has experienced growth in gross domestic product similar to the fast pace of growth in other Southeast Asia nations.

Suyatmi, a shy, 20-year-old factory worker, is too poor to know much about sneakers. She never heard of Bo Jackson and is too skinny to care about aerobics. Her world consists of a rented, five-foot-square room in a shantytown where she sleeps on the concrete floor with three other young women. Every day at 7 a.m., Suyatmi begins work at P. T. Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry, one of six companies in Indonesia making sports shoes for Nike Inc., the spectacularly successful U.S.

By removing longstanding barriers to outside investors, Indonesia is generating a foreign investment surge that may help transform the nation, the world's fifth-most populous. By adopting measures to woo investors, the island nation is trying to join the ranks of the Four Tigers--financially fierce Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

Bobby Grahm is willing to go to great lengths to get an edge on his competition. However, when Grahm in 1985 decided to go all the way to Indonesia--venturing into wild, mountainous regions devoid of telephones and paved roads to set up manufacturing facilities--some friends believed that he may have gone too far. After all, manufacturers in Taiwan were already providing Grahm's Los Angeles-based import business with a steady supply of hand tools, portable lamps and kitchenware.

Uly Marisa picked up her broom and swept away broken glass and shattered pottery Sunday as the haunting wail of noon prayers rang out over her battered neighborhood in Padang. The radio station employee has lived through several earthquakes since she moved to this port city of 900,000 people several years ago. But last Wednesday's magnitude 7.6 quake, which killed hundreds of people, was the worst by far. It left her deeply shaken and reflective. "Everything happens as a lesson from God to us," she said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed Wednesday to the world's most populous Muslim country by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who offered to mediate new international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. "Indonesia hopes that on this very critical issue we could cooperate well in reducing the tensions and finding a way for the continuation of talk and negotiations," Yudhoyono said after the meeting.