The collective research effort of senior and junior scholars from Indonesia and beyond, The Road to Nusantara: Process, Challenges and Opportunities examines the political, economic, socio-cultural, security and environmental implications of President Joko Widodo's historic plan to move Indonesia's national capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, East Kalimantan. This volume will be of interest to policymakers, Indonesia's neighbours near and far, prospective investors, and students of Indonesia who wish to understand the complex challenges underlying this megaproject. "The chapters in this book are important contributions to the study of Indonesia today .... Ground-breaking and meticulously documented using post-independence archival material and contemporary essays on new capitals .... Essential reading for a better understanding of the impetus behind Nusantara, made even more critical as the future of Nusantara hangs in the balance." -- Edward Lee Kwong Foo, Chairman of Indofood Agri Resources Ltd and former Singapore's Ambassador to Indonesia, 1994-2006

This newly designed edition includes a full-colour section at the front of the guide featuring the authors'' selected highlights of the country. Throughout there is in-depth coverage of all the sights from Bali''s stunning white beaches and temples tothe enigmatic ruins of Java and the jungles of Sumatra. There are first-hand recommendations of the best places to surf, dive and trek and comprehensive listings of the best-value accommodation and eateries for all budgets. A detailed contexts section provides the reader with informed background on Indonesia''s history, religions and music.

This book establishes that a tension exists between how we frame democratisation and the conclusions we arrive at. It demonstrates how and why interpreting ambiguity matters in the study of Indonesia's post-authoritarian settlement and highlights the need for dialogue with proponents of social conflict theory.

Ever since the East Asian financial crisis it has been recognized that emerging market economies are vulnerable to both excessive inflows of capital and sudden outflows. This book presents new research on the determinants and effects of capital flows as well as the effectiveness of capital control policies in dealing with volatile capital flows in emerging Asian countries. It examine three issues related to capital movements in Asia: (1) the key factors determining such mobility; (2) the impact of capital movements in a home country, especially on real exchange rates; and (3) the effectiveness of capital account policies.

Indonesia is Southeast Asia's largest economy and freest democracy yet vested interests and local politics serve as formidable obstacles to infrastructure reform. In this critical analysis of the politics inhibiting infrastructure investment, Jamie S. Davidson utilizes evidence from his research, press reports and rarely used consultancy studies to challenge mainstream explanations for low investment rates and the sluggish adoption of liberalizing reforms. He argues that obstacles have less to do with weak formal institutions and low fiscal capacities of the state than with entrenched, rent-seeking interests, misaligned central-local government relations, and state-society struggles over land. Using a political-sociological approach, Davidson demonstrates that 'getting the politics right' matters as much as getting the prices right or putting the proper institutional safeguards in place for infrastructure development. This innovative account and its conclusions will be of interest to students and scholars of Southeast Asia and policymakers of infrastructure investment and economic growth.

The vast enterprise known as ‘Astra’ has now entered its sixth decade. From the earnest and precise efforts of a young William Soeryadjaya to capture business opportunities, Astra has incredibly developed into a Company that deserves to be known as a ‘pride of the nation’. Behind the challenging journey of Astra to continuously stand as the pride of the nation are the core values and modern management which go hand in hand to produce excellence – the theme of this book. It is exemplified in the Latin phrase per aspera ad astra, ‘Reach for the stars through diligence.’