With prices for key commodities at record highs, Indonesia — Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and a key exporter — should, at first glance, be enjoying good times.
But with high oil prices leading to a government fuel subsidy blowout and rising food prices hitting the poor, analysts say most Indonesians are being squeezed.
Indonesia is the world’s [...]

Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association president Boon Weng Siew said the price control mechanism under the Cooking Oil Subsidy Scheme (COSS) was causing the industry to suffer.
Responding to Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad’s suggestion to review price control and subsidies, Boon said artificial price controls led to shortages in the market.
Cooking [...]

Asia faces the threat of higher inflation, slower growth and tougher times for exporters after oil prices hit new highs and the dollar plunged last week.
Farmers, miners and oil companies could benefit from high commodity prices. But most of Asia is dependent on imported energy and raw materials, and even some oil-exporting countries such as [...]

IOI Corporation Berhad Tuesday said it has signed agreements to acquire stakes in several companies in oil palm plantation in the east Malaysian state of Sarawak for RM439, 852203 (US $ 139 million).
IOI’s effective participation in the plantation lands owned by corporations is equivalent to 65 per cent in terms of value, with the balance [...]

PetroSun, Incorporated is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, PetroSun BioFuels Australasia, has entered into a Letter of Intent with Icon Drilling of Brisbane, Australia. The purpose of the transaction is to create a publicly traded alternative fuel company in Australia. Icon Drilling is a wholly owned subsidiary of Icon Energy that is [...]

PetroSun, Incorporated is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, PetroSun BioFuels Australasia, has entered into a Letter of Intent with Icon Drilling of Brisbane, Australia. The purpose of the transaction is to create a publicly traded alternative fuel company in Australia. Icon Drilling is a wholly owned subsidiary of Icon Energy that [...]

CRUDE oil processor, Agumil Phils. Inc., is expected to start putting up its P360 million refinery in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) within the year, a senior investments official said.
Agumil, a joint undertaking of Malaysian and Filipino investors, has applied with Armm’s Board of Investments in March 2006 and was subsequently issued registration [...]

Plantation firm PPB Oil Palms Bhd. said Thursday it is confident Malaysian regulators won’t block its US$4.3 billion (euro3.6 billion) merger with Singapore palm oil refiner Wilmar International Ltd.
“I don’t think the government will stop (the deal) but they might impose conditions,” Oh Siew Nam, executive chairman of PPB Group Bhd. which is the parent [...]

Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and refined petroleum products recorded a double digit growth in 2006, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said.
Exports of LNG, which accounted for 29.4 percent of total exports of minerals and mineral fuels in 2006, increased by 12 percent to RM23.29 billion, MITI said in the 2006 [...]

Union leaders in Guinea have given President Lansana Conte one week to name a prime minister, saying they will restart a suspended general strike in the West African country if he fails, a union negotiator said on Tuesday.
The public ultimatum reflects the suspicions of union bosses that Conte is dragging his feet over implementing a [...]