EGYPT BUSINESSMEN VISITS TEI 2010

With total number 44 person of Egyptian businessmen has visited Indonesia accompanied by the Ambassador of Indonesia for Cairo and his staff in conjunction Trade Expo Indonesia 2010 order to see and search for Indonesian products which have potential market in Egypt. Some products of interest has been purchased such as office furniture, wooden furniture (indoor & outdoor), wooden door, plywood (HDF & MDF), car batteries, plastic ware, stationery, children's clothing and baby supplies, soap, shampoo, coffee beans and Handicrafts.



Whole program of business visit has arranged by the Indonesian Embassy in cooperation with travel agent to arrange transportation travel services, pick-up, hotel & accommodation, and translators for entrepreneurs activities during in Indonesia until all of delegation members return to their country.

As results of business visit program, there are some products that were not available in the fairground of TEI 2010, as anticipated the embassy in Cairo has been communicated with several companies exporters Indonesia, Medan, Jepara and Bali in case to set business meeting. In this action delegation has getting transaction from business contacts between businessmen of Egypt and Indonesia recorded amount U$ 8,279,500 (eight million two hundred seventy-nine thousand five hundred U.S. Dollars) the product which has purchased are office furniture, wooden door, teak & mahogany furniture, banana leaf furniture, car batteries, soap, plastic ware and Handicrafts, and most transactions are obtained from furniture and wooden door.

Source: Atdag RI Cairo & www.nafed.go.id
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Crop Circle in Indonesia; UFO or Man-Made?

Police Don’t See Artful, or Funny, Side of Crop-Circle ‘Vandalism’
Candra Malik|January 26, 2011

Yogyakarta. Police and government investigators say they have proof the curious crop circles that appeared in rice fields in Sleman and Bantul this week are, believe it or not, man-made and that those responsible for them could be charged with vandalism.



Sri Kaloka Prabotasari, head of the Center for Applied Sciences at the National Space and Aviation Agency (Lapan), told the Jakarta Globe late on Tuesday that evidence had been found linking the Sleman crop circle to a more earthly creation — footprints.

She said the agency found four other signs supporting their conclusion that the phenomena were man-made.

“We found a 25-centimeter-deep and four-centimeter-wide hole in the center of the crop circle that we believe was made by a pole or a pipe,” she said, adding that there were also broken and uprooted paddy stalks “because someone stepped on them.”

The agency concluded that a piece of rope was used to form the patterns.

The one in Bantul, Sri said, was easier to figure out.

“We found that the radius of the circle is not consistent. One side was 2.1 meters, while the other was 2.5 meters. It was clearly man-made.”

The agency’s analysis was backed up by aerial photographs taken by geodesy investigators from the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), which revealed inconsistencies in the pattern that dispelled any notion they could have been made by landing spaceships.

“For instance, the pattern of eight fishes in the second-line circle are not symmetrical,” Catur Aries Rokhmana, head of the Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing laboratory at the university’s School of Geodesy, said on Wednesday.

However, Catur added that the people responsible for the crop circles deserve credit for managing to produce the patterns so quickly.

But local police were not so complimentary.

Adj. Comr Danang Kuntadi, Sleman Police Chief of detectives, said police were intent on finding the crop circle makers and would follow up claims on the Web site www.studentmagz.com that science and mathematics students from UGM were the culprits behind the stunt.

He said they would be charged with vandalism, with a maximum punishment of two years and eight months in jail.

Chairil Anwar, dean of UGM’s Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, said police should not take the crop circles so seriously.

“Regardless of how much rice was damaged, we must appreciate the crop circles as a beautiful work of art. If the farmers and the field owners complain of lost crops and if our students are proven to be involved, we are ready to be consulted about the compensation we should pay,” he said.

No students have yet come forward to make a confession.

Source: www.detik.com (for Image)& www.thejakartaglobe.com (for News)
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TELKOM-EBAY UNITED

Plasa.com and eBay Collaborate
to Drive E-commerce Growth in Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia, October 7, 2010 – Plasa.com today announced a partnership with eBay (NASDAQ: eBay) that is designed to drive e-commerce growth in Indonesia by empowering Indonesian businesses to sell internationally. This partnership is expected to open up opportunities for Indonesia’s local businesses to enter and better compete in the global market, which will contribute and spring forward the country’s economy even further.


According to the APJII (Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association) during the 2010 National Summit in Bali, Indonesia experienced explosive growth in Internet penetration with approximately 45 million Internet users in 2010, compared to only a
million Internet users in 1999. By 2015, Indonesia is expected to see 120 million internet users or half of the nation’s population. With this growing number of Internet users and the increasing accessibility of the Internet in all parts of Indonesia, both parties – Plasa.com and eBay – feel that there is no better moment than now, to empower businesses to venture online and expand their markets beyond Indonesia.

Under the agreement, Plasa.com will assist Indonesian businesses to ramp up and implement cross border trading into their existing business model. eBay, through Plasa.com, will also be providing selected Indonesian businesses with a consultation
and mentorship program where they can find out how to effectively conduct market research, undertake sourcing and marketing of products as well as provide customer service for the merchant sector.

Additionally, Plasa.com and eBay have set up a co-branded information portal, accessible via http://www.plasa.com/ebay or http://sea.ebay.com/plasa, where users can learn how to participate in international trade via eBay’s global websites. Aimed at supporting Indonesian businessess, the information portal available in Bahasa Indonesia has been developed and will be managed by Plasa.com.

"Indonesia is a rapidly growing online market with tremendous potential," said Oliver Hua, Chief Operating Officer at eBay,overseeing Greater China, Southeast Asia and Japan. "We are pleased to partner with Plasa.com in creating this information portal which is designed to help Indonesian businesses engage effectively in cross border trade. eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace with over 90 million active users, and a leader in cross border trade, can help fuel Indonesia’s e-commerce growth and exports by granting local businesses access to new markets, thereby stimulating the country’s economy.

"Through our joint efforts with eBay, we expect to encourage more Indonesian businesses to actively sell online thus accelerating the growth of e-commerce in Indonesia." said Shinta Dhanuwardoyo, CEO of Plasa.com, Mojopia. "Since the economic crisis in 1998, Indonesia is now back on track and on its way to solid growth. With e-commerce, Indonesian businesses – small, medium, or large – now have equal opportunities to grow and compete globally and thus would be able to contribute positive growth to Indonesia’s economy."

# # #

For more information, please contact either of the following:

For Plasa.com:
Citra C. Setya & Haryo Adjie
Stratcom
+62 21 721 59099
citra@stratcom.co.id /
haryo@stratcom.co.id

For eBay:
Jean Ow-Yeong
eBay Southeast Asia
+65 6510 4520
jowyeong@ebay.com

About Plasa.com
Re-established in March, 2010 by PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk (TELKOM), Plasa.com serves to be an E-Commerce site from its launch day and onward. In noticing the growing opportunity of E-Commerce in Indonesia and the national need to empower

Indonesian business and entrepreneurship, Plasa.com has expressed its willingness to provide the platform for trading and communications. To address the common obstacles of consumers’ online-buying behavior, Plasa.com is committed to online trading security by positioning itself as ‘Indonesia’s Most Trusted Online Store’.

About eBay
Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) connects hundreds of millions of buyers and sellers globally on daily basis through eBay, the world's largest online marketplace, and PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive online payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, and eBay Classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about company and our global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.

About eBay Southeast Asia
eBay Southeast Asia is responsible for driving marketplace development with a focus on growing cross border trade in 6 markets namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. An English and Thai language information portal at http://sea.ebay.com/ has been set up to provide users advice on how to expand their businesses internationally via eBay’s global websites.. In Southeast Asia, eBay for Business is an exclusive program developed to help retailers and wholesalers in exporting their products to US, UK, Australia and Europe by providing free selling support services in using eBay as an export channel. Visit http://sea.ebay.com/ebayforbusiness.

SOURCE: http://www.plasa.com Read more...

HOW TO DELIVER YOUR IMPORTS FROM INDONESIA

Several ways to deliver your Imported Products from Indonesia:

1. 20ft. Container (30 cubic meters)
2. 40ft. Container (60 cubic meters)
3. 40ft. High Cube Container (72 cubic meters)
4. LCL Sea Cargo (less than a container – charged per cubic meter)
5. Air Cargo

LCL & Full Container Load ( recommended, because more effectively cost )
The enclosed steel containers are available in 2 sizes 20 ft, 40 ft , and 40 ft jumbo, provide the customer with loading



space of 30, 60, 72 Cubic Meter respectively, or roughly 300, 600, 720 normal size shipping boxes.
This type is the most commonly used in the cargo field. The Advantages of using the enclosed container are product protection

and safety, and allowing the most economical use of space.

Less Container Load ( LCL)
This service is dedicated to those shipment whose space is insufficient to fill a 20 ft container. Shipments are individually

crated and consolidated on freight carries bound for intended destination. L.C.L. loads are appropriate for sending smaller

shipments, samples, gifts and personal items. Orders less than a container volume are calculated by the cubic meter. Please

contact us for more information regarding shipments of less than a container volume.

Air Freight
Air Freight is fastest way to ship, but also the most expensive one.
Cargo do charge by the kilo, but in addition, also by volume, whichever happens to be greatest. A standard carton box is 50 x

58 x 33 cm (20 x 23 x 13 inches). According to the cargo calculation, that carton’s volume is equal to about 15 kilos. If

there is less than 15 kilos of product in that carton box, then you still will pay for 15 kilos. If there is more than 15

kilos, you pay the greater amount. Let’s say the air cargo rate for you is about $4.00 per kilo which means that carton costs

you in cargo expense at least $60.00. In some cases you will have paid more for the cargo than you paid us for the Bali

handicraft.

Shipping Time by Sea Freight
Shipping to most International ports takes approximately 4 weeks from Indonesia. Shipping to Asia/Southeast Asia destinations

are approximately 2 weeks.

Shipping Cost by Sea Freight
Cost of shippping depends on the shipping destination and volume or quantity of the shipment, All of our shipping quotes

include documentation fees, local handling & trucking fees, packing & stuffing fees, port loading fees and all other local

charges levied in the packing and delivery of your container to the port. D.D.C. fees (Document & Destination Charge) levied

by the port of destination are not included. Some International ports charge a D.D.C. fee upon the arrival and handling of

your shipment in your local port. Please do check with your customs department for more information on D.D.C. charges. When

you contact us we will give you a definitive quote for your destination.

Shipping Insurance
When shipping full containers and LCL cargo via our recommended shipping company we can insure the shipment for of the goods

against any damage whilst in transit, until the time the consignment reaches your door. Cost is 2% of the total value of the

cargo. Read more...

MEDIUM-LOW FURNITURE FINISHING MATERIALS

Traditional finishing materials are the materials that are traditionally used in furniture finishing in early time when furniture industry start to finish the furniture, when coating as finishing material has not been found yet. At that time spray gun which is now become the most popular equipment to apply the finishing materials still has not been used for the furniture finishing process. Finishing materials are applied in a traditional way such: pad, dipped, brush or wipe.
Now although most of the finishing processes are done with modern materials and using modern equipment, but apparently there is also demand for a furniture with traditional finishing materials. Because the traditional finishing with traditional material produce a unique appearance that can not be imitated exactly with modern finishing. Some traditional finishing materials that now used still used are: oil, wax, varnish and shellac.


The advantages of the other traditional finishing materials, is his simple application, does not special equipment and room. Therefore, those finishing materials, is good choice when the equipment and finishing facilities is not available and the desired quality of finishing is not too high.

1. Oil finish
Oil as a finishing material may be is the oldest. This finishing materials type is very easy and very simple in application and does not require a special finishing equipment and room. The furniture is brushed or dipped and wiped equally with rag or cloth. The finishing results is very natural, show the beauty of the wood with very alive and interesting look. The disadvantage is: oil finish almost does not form color, so the color is highly dependent of the basic colors and quality of the wood underneath. This finishing also very thin layer almost does not form film so can not provide the maximum protection to the wood underneath.
There are many names for this oil finish such as teak oil, danish oil, china oil, etc. Oil finish is made from extracted beans or trees (linseed oil), tung oil is made from extracted the seeds of a tung plant which is known in china, so also known as china oil. Oil plants can also be heated to a temperature 500 degrees Fahrenheit to increase gloss result and reduce drying time. Development of the next oil finish is then processed and mixed with resin to improve its quality and is known by the name of varnish.

2.Varnish.
Varnish is a finishing material that is made from oil with chemical processes using a mixture of the phenolic resin, alkyd and urethane. The oil used is the same type with oil that used for oil finish. Varnish will react with the hot air to produce a strong and elastic film. The drying time of this material is relatively long, up to 1 day for each layer application. Varnish is usually clear without any color, although can also be mixed with pigment to form a specific color. The application can brush or wipe, but now it can also be diluted with thinner and sprayed. Thinner that is used to thin this material is a kind of oil like turpentine or mineral spirit. Varnish will form a film on the surface, and will give protection to the wood underneath. The film thickness depend on the application times, so to get the thick film we need to apply varnish several times. The drying of every layer is very important, we have to make sure the previous layer is really dry before apply the next layer on it.

3. Wax finish
As the oil finish, wax will produce a very natural appearance with very soft and smooth surface. The most widely used wax is the wax obtained from the bee farm (beeswax), which will melt at a temperature about 140 degree Fahrenheit. Wax applications is very easy, brush or wipe evenly on the surface then cleaned with a cloth. The resulting surface is very unique: slippery and smooth, when being touched with very natural look. Wax is available in natural or colored, usually brown and black. Although wax is available with some color but the finished color produced by this materials is very limited. So the color and appearance that is produced depends on the color of wood underneath. Wax finish is also give only very small protection to the wood underneath.

4. Shellac (politur)
Approximately since 1820 until 1920 shellac is an extremely popular used as a finishing material for the wood before it is replaced by the coating. This finishing material provides a layer of film that be able to provide better protection than oil or wax finish. Shellac is basically have a yellowish color and when applied will produce a yellow color depending on how thick the layer of shellac on the wood surface. In the next development there is also available uncolored shellac (bleach shellac), which provided film without any color. The bleach shellac is use to finish natural or white color.
Shellac is made from natural resin produced by plants from India, shellac is available in the store in the chips form. The pieces need to solve in alcohol to make liquid form before applied to the surface of the wood. The application was originally by padding on the surface using cloth. The padding is repeat many times until get the desired thickness. The previous layer of shellac must be dry before the next application. The more application layer the thick film formed, the gloss will be generated and higher and the resulting color will darker or yellower. But now shellac is also possible to be sprayed by spray gun. By spray method the application is much faster and easily controlled to obtain the desired thickness.
The finishing layer get from shellac will provide sufficient protection to the wood underneath. The disadvantages of this material is that he requires long drying time for each application, the color selection and gloss is very limited and the difficulties in controlled. Now the finishing process with shellac is almost entirely replaced with the coating as a modern finishing material. Shellac is still used in the furniture industry especially because his application is simple. This material can applied with cloth without using special equipment and room. The other reason is because this material is save and almost does not make pollution to the environment.

SOURCE: http://www.wisnofurniturefinishing.com Read more...