Hydrogen Still in The Eco-Car Race

Kompas, Sunday, 18 April 2010 | 08:47 WIB

A model leans on the side of a Dodge Challenger at the Lebanon Motor Show 2010 in Beirut on April 8. The show, which runs to April 18, is one of the years largest in the Middle East with some 400 models are on display, from cost-friendly Kias and Toyotas to ultimate luxury by Maserati and Bentley.

BERLIN, KOMPAS.com – Hydrogen, one of Earth's most abundant elements, once was seen as green energy's answer to the petroleum-driven car: easy to produce, available everywhere and nonpolluting when burned.

Hydrogen energy was defeated by a mountain of obstacles — the fear of explosion by the highly flammable gas, the difficulty of carrying the fuel in large, heavy tanks in the vehicle, and the lack of a refueling network. Automakers turned to biofuels, electricity or the gas-electric hybrid.

But hydrogen, it turns out, never was completely out of the race. Now Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs claim to have brought hydrogen energy a step closer by putting it in much smaller, lighter containers.

Rather than using metal or composite cylinders of compressed gas that look like bulky scuba gear, hydrogen is packed into glass filaments which, once out of the lab, will be only slightly thicker than a human hair.

These 370 glass capillaries are bundled into a glass tube called a capillary array, about the width of a drinking straw. The scientists say 11,000 such arrays will fuel a car for 400 kilometers (240 miles), take less than half the space and weight of tanks currently installed in the few hydrogen cars now available.

"We have shown new materials that can store more hydrogen than any other system," says Dan Eliezer, chief scientist of C.En Ltd., the company based in Geneva, Switzerland, where the Israelis are developing their invention.

The scientists make no attempt to improve the standard fuel cell, which is not much different today from when it was invented more than 150 years ago. A fuel cell makes electricity from chemical reactions involving hydrogen and oxygen, producing only water vapor as a byproduct. The fuel cell can be compared with a standard car's engine, while the capillary arrays would be comparable to the gasoline tank.

The system was unveiled in Berlin at a demonstration for The Associated Press at the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, known as BAM, which has been testing the materials since 2008 and has pronounced the system safe. Also attending was a representative of Italian-based Generali Insurance, which has invested $10 million in the project.

While its backers call the technology a breakthrough, it is unlikely to gain traction without a large injection of capital to scale up development. It also would need a distribution system and the support of major car companies, which have poured billions of dollars into their own closely guarded research programs.

Auto companies "are still investing significant amounts of money in hydrogen and fuel cells," and have hundreds of researchers working on the technology, said David Hart, director of E4tech, a business and energy consultancy in London. Automakers refuse to disclose details of their research or funding.

Hart said the glass capillaries appear to be an "interesting" technology that would be "very significant" if it were to provide the energy claimed by the company. But if it means creating a new refueling infrastructure, "it may still not be the right answer for cars," he said.

Like electric cars, the driving force behind hydrogen research is the need to break away from oil and rein in emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, especially carbon dioxide from industry and transport. Transportation adds about 13 percent of manmade carbon to the atmosphere.

Hydrogen boasts zero emissions. It can be produced from water through electrolysis, or harvested as the waste product of nuclear reactors and chemical plants.

"In terms of saving carbon dioxide, you do a great deal more with renewable hydrogen," said Danny Dicks, a biofuels expert from the British consultancy group Innovation Observatory. "So ultimately, hydrogen is where things ought to be driving toward."

Automakers, for now, still are focused on battery power. At the Geneva Motor Show last month, nearly all major manufacturers displayed their latest electric vehicles or plans to produce them. The few hydrogen vehicles on the floor attracted little attention.

It was not always that way.

U.S. President George W. Bush allocated $1.2 billion for hydrogen research and said in his 2003 State of the Union address: "The first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution free." The Obama administration largely scrapped the program.

In Europe, too, hydrogen is low-priority. The Dutch government, for example, recently announced a euro5 million ($6.75 million) subsidy for hydrogen, but gave eight times more for electric cars. Buyers of plug-ins get tax breaks and rebates, and cities like London and Amsterdam are planting charge-up pillars on their streets.

"Electricity is taking all the subsidy schemes. It's taking it away from hydrogen," said Robert van den Hoed of Ecofys, an independent Dutch consultancy on renewable energy.

The main reason is cost. Electric cars are road-ready and in production, while hydrogen vehicles are still experimental. Nissan's new electric car, the Leaf, will go on sale for about $25,000 in the United States, including a government rebate.

Honda has produced a roadworthy hydrogen vehicle, the FCX Clarity, but it is not for sale. Only 50 of them are available for lease in the United States at $600 per month; Honda says it intends to increase the fleet to 200 this year. Honda declines to put a sales tag on the Clarity, but some experts say the market price would be $1 million each. Toyota, a leader in electric car technology, plans to put its first hydrogen vehicle on the road in 2015.

In December, the German luxury carmaker BMW ended an experimental run of 100 hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines and retreated back into the laboratory for more research. "We learned everything we wanted to learn from this huge field test," said spokesman Tobias Hahn, and BMW is now working on the next generation.

"We are still committed to hydrogen as the long-term alternative for switching to sustainable mobility," Hahn said, speaking from Munich, adding that the biggest problem is on-board storage.

Among U.S. carmakers, General Motors produced a test fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell cars and let 5,000 people test them over a 25 month period. Like BMW, Chevrolet is withdrawing the vehicles to upgrade the technology.

A combination of plug-in electric and hydrogen may emerge as the most eco-friendly solution. "A fuel cell hybrid looks like a good long-term option," said Hart. "It's not an either-or. It's both, most likely."

Public transport also is experimenting with hydrogen. The Vancouver Winter Olympics deployed 20 fuel cell buses. The European Union and 31 industries teamed up to run a four-year trial of hydrogen buses on regular passenger routes in 10 cities ending last year, and a new generation of buses will begin operating later this year, said Frits van Drunen, who runs the project for the Dutch public transport network GVB.

"We predict that by 2017 these buses will be priced per kilometer at the same level as diesel buses," said van Drunen, interviewed at GVB's hydrogen refueling station in Amsterdam.

At BAM, the Berlin testing site, researchers guided a remote-controlled model truck around the laboratory floor powered by a fuel cell and three hydrogen-filled arrays bound together, about the thickness of a thumb. A similar device lit up a panel with 20 LED bulbs. The researchers say such devices can be built into power packs for laptop computers and even mobile phones.

BAM's research director, Kai Holtapples, said the C.En system can be on the road within two to five years if it can be developed as a replaceable rack that can be swapped at filling stations. Eventually, cars will be able to refuel with nozzles, like gas pumps today, he said. "Both systems will need some engineering, of course, but some ideas already exist."

BAM has no financial stake in the capillary array project, he said.

Moshe Stern, C.En's chief executive, said the electric car will dominate the market for years to come, but the cheap and unlimited supply of hydrogen will make it the power source of the future.

Within a few years, perhaps a decade, hydrogen fuel will shift the world's energy balance away from oil, he said.

"The real revolution is not the technical revolution, it is the political revolution," said Stern.

"We are Israelis. We know what it means to be blackmailed by oil," he said.

AFP

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Holdups at Indonesian Immigration Will Ease Up: Officials

Jakarta Globe, Ary Adji, Dessy Sagita, Candra Malik & Made Arya Kencana, April 19, 2010

More than two weeks since the introduction of new immigration security measures at Indonesian airports, officials say they are pleased with progress, despite waiting times for incoming passengers of often longer than 90 minutes.

“Security checks will be done as humanely as possible,” Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday. Indonesia is the first Southeast Asian nation to apply sophisticated fingerprint and biometric scanners, he said.

Patrialis said documenting everyone coming into the country was necessary to identify known or potential criminals, adding that similar systems had long been in use in countries such as the United States, France and Japan.

The system, which reads the fingerprints of travelers with visitor visas and crosschecks them against a database of international fugitives and foreigners with deportation records, is initially being used at four airports. Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Adi Sumarmo in Solo and Adisucipto in Yogyakarta installed theirs two weeks ago, while Ngurah Rai in Bali will introduce the system this Thursday.

Maroloan Barimbing, spokesman for the ministry’s Directorate General of Immigration, said that within three years there would be 130 fingerprint and biometric scanners at the country’s international border points, including its 27 international airports.

Maroloan acknowledged that the unintended consequences included longer lines at immigration counters.

“In the first few weeks or even months after the system is applied, some adjustments will still be needed, and the officers in charge of the devices also need some time to adapt,” he said, adding that processing was getting better and faster.

In the system’s first few days at Soekarno-Hatta, arriving passengers reported waiting times in the stuffy arrivals hall of up to two hours, with officials observed pulling families with distressed babies or children out of lines into empty express channels after more than an hour.

But waiting times in the past week have apparently lessened and passengers are being understanding, said a spokesman for state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II. It had received no formal complaints, he added.

“It only took me few minutes, so it wasn’t an issue,” David Cheetam, a British tourist, said at Soekarno-Hatta on Sunday.

Belgian businessman Gregoir Francis said he also didn’t mind. “I know it’s for security,” he said.

Adi Sumarmo duty manager Edy Martono said each officer “only needs three minutes” to fingerprint a visitor. “Nothing to lose, and this need not be politicized,” he told the Globe.

But with lines often stretching to 50 or more people, an extra three minutes for many would add up to a long wait for those at the back.

Maroloan called for patience.

“By next year we will be able to perform faster and more professionally,” he said.

Iceland ash cloud chokes Asian airports

Reuters, Saeed Azhar, SINGAPORE. Sat Apr 17, 2010 4:08am EDT

Flights across Europe were cancelled because of a cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. (Photograph: David Jones/PA) - guardian.co.uk

(Reuters) - The air travel chaos caused by a huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano has blown through to Asia, with hotels from Beijing to Singapore straining to accommodate thousands of stranded passengers.

Dozens of Europe-bound flights were canceled from Sydney to Tokyo and New Delhi, costing airlines millions of dollars in lost revenues and mounting hotel bills as distraught passengers braced for enforced stopovers of more than a week in Asia.

In Singapore, a major transit route for Europe-bound flights, 22 flights were canceled on early Saturday, Ivan Tan a spokesman for Changi Airport told Reuters, with more than 40 canceled since the disruption began.

"We don't know where to stay," said Dirk Kronewald, a German citizen. "Singapore hotels are full."

Singapore Airlines' said they were giving priority to elderly passengers and those with young children for hotel accommodation, but right now there were some shortages in Singapore hotels.

The airline was paying for two nights of hotel accommodation for affected passengers, for as much as S$300 per room a night, according to a pamphlet being distributed to passengers.

Mirjam, a Dutch national who was queuing at an airline counter with her husband Jules Vandamme and two dozen passengers, said the couple had to sleep at the airport late on Wednesday night before shifting to the nearby Crowne Hotel.

"One thousand people had to spend the night in the transit area" airline officials had told her, she said.

NO MORE NEW BOOKINGS

Cathay Pacific had canceled 29 flights so far since Thursday and said it would not be accepting new bookings to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam for next the new few days.

"We encourage passengers not to go to the airport. For some passengers, who have already checked in, we have provided accommodation," a Cathay Pacific spokeswoman said.

"So far the situation seems to be OK. It's a global issue so passengers seems to be understanding," she added.

At least 70 flights out of India, most of them headed for various European destinations were canceled on Friday and authorities said they are staring at similar cancellations at the weekend as volcanic ash continued to cover many parts of Europe.

"We might be here for another week. We don't know," a tourist told Times Now news channel in Mumbai airport on Saturday.

Aviation industry officials reported a loss of at least $1 billion in revenues due to cancellation of flights to Europe, an AAI official told Reuters.

Chinese newspapers reported long lines at Beijing airport as passengers lined up to change their tickets, and airlines struggled to find enough hotel rooms for stranded customers.

"I will just go and try my luck," Ka Ka, a young local woman and office worker, who was scheduled to board a flight to Frankfurt to begin a long-planned European trip, told the Shanghai Daily in China.

"It's hard to imagine something like this, taking place thousands of miles away from your place, could actually disrupt your life and plans," she said.

Some foreign tourists had more pressing problems.

"Accommodation is an issue, but what's worse is that in a few days this group's visas will have expired," a guide for a group of Russian visitors told the newspaper. "They risk having to stay here illegally. I don't know what to do."

(Additional reporting by Harry Suhartono in Singapore, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Jacqueline Wong in Shanghai, Bappa Majumdar in New Dehli; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Public Order Agency head suspended

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/16/2010 10:55 PM

Governor Fauzi Bowo has decided to suspend Public Order Agency head Harianto Badjoeri following Wednesday’s clash involving agency officers in Koja, North Jakarta which claimed three lives and injured 128 others.

Fauzi said Friday the suspension was aimed at facilitating an investigation into the incident.

“For the sake of an independent investigation, I have suspended the head of the Public Order Agency,” Fauzi told a plenary meeting at the provincial legislative council held to demand the governor’s explanation of the fatal clash.

During the plenary session, some of 87 councilors at present asked the governor of officials responsible for the violence. They also questioned why the Public Order Agency did not withdraw the officers despite tension and request from councilors who happened to mediate a negotiation between local residents and the officers.

A councilor questioned the finding of alcoholic drinks inside public order official vehicles.

Data from the administration said the clash cost the city administration Rp 22.9 billion as as 24 trucks, 36 cars, 14 pick-up trucks, two commander cars, one motorcycle were set ablaze or damaged during the uprising.

Volcanic ash cloud 'spreading towards London': forecast

Telegraph.co.uk, by Alastair Jamieson, 8:39AM BST 15 Apr 2010

The cloud of ash caused by the eruption of a volcano in Iceland is forecast to spread south towards London today, adding to disruption of flights across the country.

The Met Office ash cloud forecast for 6pm local time on Thursday 15 April, issued at 6.35am. The area inside the red line is affected by volcanic ash.

A set of charts issued by the Met Office shows how the cloud is set to drift southwards across Britain, mostly at three and three-quarter miles (6km) above ground.

The maps show the estimated location of the ash cloud at 6pm and midnight tonight.

The red areas show the risk of ash at lower levels between ground and 20,000ft - marked in "flight levels" as FL200 - while green areas show the risk of ash between 20,000ft and 35,000ft - marked as FL200/FL350.

Blue areas show the cloud between 35,000ft and 55,000ft - marked as FL350/FL550.

The spread of all three layers over southern England suggests even more disruption to flights is expected later today, as controllers extend air space closures, currently affecting every UK air traffic 'sector' north of London.

A spokesman for the Met Office said it was not immediately clear how long the flight disruption could be expected to last.

He added that the cloud was thinly dispersed at high altitudes and that there was little risk of Britain being dusted with ash, although it is possible many will enjoy a bright red sunset.

Hundreds of flights have already been cancelled at airports in Scotland and northern England, and air traffic controllers in Brussels in charge of strategic management of flights across Europe have issued warnings to pilots that many flights into Britain can expect to be diverted to other countries or cancelled.

Flights in Norway and other parts of northern Europe have also been disrupted.

Volcanic ash is extremely dangerous in airspace, as it causes engines to malfunction, restricts vision and even cause severe damage to the metal 'skin' of the aircraft.

Because of the threat to aviation, a global early warning system, known as theInternational Airways Volcano Watch, has been established. Iceland is considered as particularly vulnerable to volcanic disruption.

Authorities on Tuesday evacuated 800 residents from around the Eyjafjallajokull glacier as water gushed down the mountainside and rivers rose by up to 10 feet (3 meters).

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted for the first time in 200 years on March 20, in a dramatic display that sent fountains of lava spewing into the air.

The first eruption did not trigger any major flooding, as was initially feared, because the active vents were in a mainly ice-free part of the volcano.

But Tuesday's eruption came from a different vent beneath a 650-ft (200m) thick block of ice, unleashing a torrent of glacial meltwater.

Smoke billows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull April 14, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Ingolfur Juliusson)

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Cargo aircraft crashes in northern Mexico; 5 dead

Reuters, Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:12am EDT

(Reuters) - A cargo aircraft crashed late Tuesday near the airport in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, killing five people, Mexican emergency authorities reported.

The aircraft, operated by privately held AeroUnion, crashed near a major road leading to the airport, killing as many as two people on board the aircraft and three on the ground, Mexican media reported.

Emergency officials were unable to confirm the number of fatalities.

Mexican security forces blocked off the area around the crash site as firefighters battled a blaze on the ground, according to a Reuters witness.

(Reporting by Armando Tovar in Mexico City and Tomas Bravo in Monterrey; editing by Todd Eastham)

Garuda to phase out old Boeings

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 04/13/2010 9:48 PM

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia plans to phase out 16 old Boeing planes as part of rejuvenation of its fleet.

Garuda, however, will buy or lease 24 new planes to increase its fleet to 116.

"As of today we operate 72 planes. This year Garuda will receive 24 new planes, but actually we will only have 8 more planes, because 16 classic units will be phased out,"

Garuda president director Emirsyah Satar was quoted by Antara on Tuesday.

The arrival of 23 units of Boeing 737 New Generation and one unit of Airbus 330-200 will help the company improve efficiency and safety, he added.

He said the lease of some of the 16 planes had expired and therefore they would be returned to their owner in France.

By 2014 the company will operate 116 planes consisting of 90 Boeing 737 NG and 26 A330-200s.

Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said all classic Boeing 737 300, 400 and 500 would be phased out.

Cathay Pacific Flight from Indonesia Makes Emergency Landing in Hong Kong, Five Injured

Jakarta Globe, April 13, 2010

Five people were injured Tuesday when a Cathay Pacific Airbus flight from Indonesia made an emergency landing at Hong Kong airport due to an engine failure, the government said. (AFP Photo)

Five people were injured Tuesday when a Cathay Pacific Airbus flight from Indonesia made an emergency landing at Hong Kong airport due to an engine failure, the government said.

The more than 300 passengers and 14 crew members on board the CX 780 flight from Surabaya, Indonesia were evacuated, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Department told AFP.

“The plane made an emergency landing after discovering a problem with one of its engines,” he said.

“Five people were injured after the landing and all of them were sent to hospital.”

The spokesman was unable to confirm media reports that the engine had caught fire.

AFP

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Merpati Plane Overshoots Runway, 20 Injured

Jakarta Globe, April 13, 2010

Children watching technicians attempting to remove a Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane from the tarmac of Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Makassar after its right rear tire blew out during an attempted take off recently. This morning, a Merpati flight overshot the runway in at Manokwari Airport in West Papua, injuring at least 20 people. (Antara Photo/Yusran Uccang)

A PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines 737-300 overshot the runway at Manokwari Airport in West Papua and crashed into a river on Tuesday morning, injuring at least 20 people, the Ministry of Transportation is saying.

Ministry spokesman Bambang Erfan told the Jakarta Globe that the plane, which had departed from Sorong, also in West Papua, was carrying 103 passengers and crew.

There are no reported deaths, he said.

The injured have been taken to the Navy Hospital and are receiving treatment.

The plane has been removed from the river and the airport has since reopened.

The airline has had its fair share of problems.

Just last month, the government said it would force the ailing carrier to resolve its Rp 1.5 trillion ($163.5 million) debt dispute with state energy producer PT Pertamina, as a part of a restructuring plan after years of mismanagement.

“We already called Merpati to present their 2010 and 2011 business plan,” said Said Didu, the secretary for the State Enterprises Ministry. “One of the main issues is the debt restructuring plan.”

He added that a Rp 250 billion debt to PT Bank Mandiri has already been settled.

In August last year, a Merpati Twin Otter flight between Jayapura and Oksibil 300 disappeared on August 2, 2009. Its wreckage was found two days later. All 13 passengers and 3 crew were killed.

In July last year, just days after the European Union agreed to partially lift its ban on Indonesian carriers, a Boeing 737 operated by Merpati ost a front wheel shortly after taking off on Monday from Biak, Papua.

None of the 110 passengers and six crew members on board the flight for Makassar, South Sulawesi, were injured in the incident, though the timing of the incident was an embarrassment to the government.

The incident happened just four days after the EU’s Air Safety Commission met in Brussels and decided to recommend lifting the ban on four Indonesian airlines.

Merpati was not among the four airlines affected by the commission’s decision. The four are flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and charter airlines Premi Air and Airfast.

Indonesian soldiers and police examine a Merpati airline 737 plane after it overrun the runway on landing in Manokwari this morning. (AFP Photo)

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Jakarta Police to hold routine traffic inspections

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 04/11/2010 5:13 PM

Jakarta Police’s traffic unit will hold routine inspections of disordered public transportation, motorcyclists using non-SNI (Indonesian National Standard) helmets and unlicensed minivans, starting Monday.

“We will give tickets to violators on the spot,” head of the traffic unit Sr. Comr. Condro Kirono told tempointeraktif.com on Sunday.

Around 2,300 police personnel will be deployed in Jakarta's worst traffic spots, said Condro. “For example, in Slipi and Grogol, West Jakarta, as well as Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta,” he added.

Condro promised that officers would maintain police protocol during the inspections, which are scheduled to end May 1.

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Polish president's plane crashes in western Russia

English.news.cn 2010-04-10 16:28:18

Polish President Lech Kaczynski speaks in front of a Polish government Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft at Krakow airport in this August 8, 2008 file photo. Kaczynski was feared dead after his plane crashed on approach to a Russian airport on Saturday. (Xinhua/Reuters)

MOSCOW/WARSAW, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed near the Smolensk airport in western Russia Saturday, killing all people on board, said Russian officals.

The Polish Foreign Ministry confirmed that the president and his wife were on the plane. Full story

This TV grab taken on April 10, 2010 shows the crash site of a Tupolev Tu-154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski near the Smolensk airport in western Russia. The plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed near the Smolensk airport Saturday, killing the president and all 132 people on board, said Russian officials. (Xinhua)

Singapore Airlines on the top 50 list of 2010's most admired companies

The Jakarta Post, Thu, 04/08/2010 11:55 AM

Singapore Airlines has once again stepped into the limelight as one of the world's most admired companies.

According to a survey conducted by Fortune Magazine participated in by business practitioners around the world, Singapore Airlines has confirmed its place as the only international airline, which made it onto Fortune's top 50 list of the most admired companies of 2010.

"In another industry pummeled by the recession, airlines continue to face daunting challenges - and yet Singapore Airlines managed to impress its peers, moving up from No. 33 to No. 27 and to take the No. 1 spot in the airline industry rankings," Singapore Airlines said in a statement.

Meanwhile, CEO Chew Choon Seng said the company had not compromised on what mattered. "Even as we scaled back supply to match the impact of the global financial crisis on demand, we made it a point not to touch spending on safety and security, nor on staff training and skills development," he said. - JP

Jet rehearsal

The Jakarta Post, Antara, Wed, 04/07/2010 1:38 PM

Four Air Force's jet fighters display a flying formation as they pass over Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base in Jakarta on Wednesday during a rehearsal for the Air Force anniversary ceremony, to be held Friday. Military chief Gen. Djoko Santoso is slated to lead the anniversary ceremony. Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf

Indonesia Orders New Trains From Bombardier

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 06 April, 2010 | 19:18 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Transport Department has handed Swedish vehicle producer Bombardier Inc. a 32-million euro contract to build ten sets of electric trains for Indonesian railway company PT Kereta Api.

The departement said the trains will reinforce Jakarta's commuter railway network and Bombardier is expected to complete the trains in 2011.

Safety and Technical Director of the Transport Department's railway directorate Hermanto Dwiatmoko said on Tuesday, german KfW banking Group provided soft loan for the trains through a deal signed with the Finance Department in 2008.

International tender was part of the requirements by KfW Bank for the order, which then held in europe and won by Bombardier which teamed up with PT Kereta Api.

“Bombardier will produce motor traction and control system while PT Kereta Api will assemble an install the system,” Hermanto said.

The project also involve order for two 5,000-kilowatt railway substations, won by Siemens – PT LEN Industri.

The railway directorate said to inspect production of the traction motor and control system in Bombardier's facility in Sweden, next week, although production is scheduled to begin later this year.

DESY PAKPAHAN

EU visa deal will ease travel for millions

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 6 April 2010 - 4:20pm, by Vanessa Mock

The long bureaucratic nightmare of applying for a visa to travel to the European Union became a thing of the past over the weekend. From now on, millions of travellers will be able to get in and around the 22 EU countries that are part of the Schengen zone a lot more easily.

No borders

Just one visa is now required to travel within the Schengen Area, a zone with no internal borders that also includes non-EU members Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Previously, foreigners encountered problems with many of the new EU member states such as Poland, Latvia and Slovakia, all of which required a separate visa.

The European Commission says the changes are designed to make life "simpler and fairer" for travellers, though they will not apply to anyone looking to stay longer than 90 days. In 2008, around ten million visa requests were received for Schengen Area countries.

Truckers and traders

Life should also become simpler for people such as lorry drivers and small traders who need to weave in and out of the EU on a regular basis, as they will be granted multiple-entry permits more easily. The waiting time for the document should also, in theory, go down to a maximum of four weeks.

However, there are limits: The United Kingdom and Ireland have both opted out of Schengen and Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania are not yet part of it. All these countries therefore still require separate visas.

Activists go free

Although many non-EU countries, such as Macedonia and Russia, already have visa arrangements in place with the EU, the new code will make a big difference to countries such as Belarus, which is frozen out due to its autocratic regime. In the past, this has made it hard for traders and pro-democracy activists to visit the EU, especially as the visa fee of 60 euros was the same as a month's salary.

People taking part in NGO-sponsored events and people aged 25 or under will now pay nothing, while children will pay 35 euros instead of the standard 60 euro fee.

Japan Airlines to cut 16,500 jobs

Reuters, Tue Apr 6, 2010 1:56pm EDT

(Reuters) - Japan Airlines Corp (JALFQ.PK) plans to reduce its workforce by a third within the fiscal year to lower labor costs by 81.7 billion yen a year, the Nikkei business daily said.

The restructuring proposal compiled by the carrier and the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan suggests to cut 16,500 jobs.

The proposed cuts include 5,405 workers from cargo and other peripheral operations, 2,460 flight attendants, 2,043 sales representatives and 775 pilots. Staffing at Kansai International Airport and Central Japan International Airport will be slashed 70 percent to 642 employees, reflecting reduced flight schedules, the Nikkei added.

Japan Airlines is currently soliciting 2,700 volunteers for early retirement, with two more rounds slated in the coming months, the newspaper said.

The airline had planned to cut 15,700 jobs over three years under the rehabilitation plan submitted with its bankruptcy filing in January. But operating losses of up to 1 billion yen a day have forced the faster restructuring, the Nikkei said.

(Reporting by Vinay Sarawagi in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)

Dutch people enthusiastically welcome Garuda in Amsterdam

Antara News, Monday, April 5, 2010 15:53 WIB

Official Opening Pasar Malam Indonesia 2010 in The Hague by Mr. Ben Bot, former Foreign Minister of the Netherlands and Mr. JE Habibie, Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands. (Photo: Indonesian Embassy)

The Hague (ANTARA News) - The Dutch people enthusiastically hailed Garuda Indonesia in the promotion campaign at Indonesian Fair at Malieveld in The Hague, from April 1 to 5, the Indonesian national flag carrier`s general manager for Europe and the Middle East Iswandi Said told ANTARA`s London correspondent Sunday.

Garuda`s pavilion opposite that of the National Education and Tourism Ministry had been frequently visited by many visitors to the Indonesian Fair asking for information on the airline company`s resumption of its Holland-Indonesia flights.

Iswandi Said stated that it appeared that the Dutch people were very interested in flying on Garuda, although it would not be until June 2010 that it would start resuming its Amsterdam-Indonesia flights through Dubai.

Garuda flies Amsterdam seven times a week, and it is expected to facilitate tourists going to Indonesia, and helps the Indonesian government develop the tourism sector.

Garuda offered its passengers the Garuda Indonesia Experience (GIE) or Indonesia Hospitality.

William Soeryadjaya, a modest businessman, dies at 87

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Sun, 04/04/2010 9:19 AM

William Soeryadjaya, founder of Indonesia’s largest automotive company PT Astra International, passed away Friday. He will be remembered as a modest businessman who was a pioneer in the country’s automotive industry, say a number of businessmen.

William, famously known as Om Willem, died Friday night at South Jakarta’s Medistra Hospital where he had been hospitalized. He was 87.

Businessman Aburizal Bakrie said William influenced how people in the country did business. “I sometimes looked up to him from afar, applying his strategies for my businesses,” said Bakrie as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday.

William, he added, was a good example for other businessmen as he started his business from nothing. “One thing he always did was share his profits with other people and often helped others,” Bakrie said, adding that William was a friendly and down-to-earth person.

President director of PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia Tbk Benny Tjoeng, who used to work with Astra, shared similar sentiments.

“Indonesia has lost one of its best citizens. Whenever I met with him, for business or otherwise, my impression was Om Willem really cared about other people and paid attention to his employees,” said Tjoeng. He added that William was a visionary because when he founded Astra, he did not only establish an automotive sector but ran the financial sector by establishing Astra Credit Companies and PT Federal International Finance.

Born in West Java’s Majalengka on Dec. 22, 1922, William was orphaned at 12 and dropped out of school when he was 19.

He sold papers and products such as rice and sugar to make ends meet, but his spirit and determination led him to study leather coating at Leder & Schoenindustrie in the Netherlands.

After running a number of companies, William established PT Astra International in 1957, developing it into a trading company with an automotive business as the core product.

Astra grew to become one of the country’s largest companies, with subsidiary businesses expanding into finance, banking and property.

Besides running his businesses, William himself was known as a public figure who lobbied for improving Indonesia’s education standards.

As an example of his philanthropic nature, in 1984 William sold his land in Cilandak, South Jakarta, below market value to be affordable enough so that the Prasetya Mulya Institute of Management could be built on the land.

William’s body is lying in state at the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital in Central Jakarta and will be cremated on Monday.

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Philippines' Airlines Whacked with European Ban

Jakarta Globe, Jonathan Stearns, March 31, 2010

The European Union has aiprohibited all airlines based in the Philippines from flying in the bloc under the latest changes to a list of unsafe carriers.

The EU said “serious safety deficiencies” in the Philippines’ regulation of carriers justified the operating ban. The European Commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive arm, cited assessments by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Airlines from the African nation of Sudan were also banned.

“We cannot accept that airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international safety standards,” EU Transportation Commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement today in Brussels.

The EU also restricted the operations of Iran Air, eased curbs on TAAG Angola Airlines by letting it fly to all EU destinations under “strict conditions‚“ rather than only to Lisbon, and permitted North Korea’s Air Koryo — on the list since 2006 — to operate in the bloc with two approved aircraft.

This is the 13th update of a blacklist first drawn up by the commission in March 2006 with more than 90 airlines mainly from Africa. The ban already covers carriers from nations including some air carriers in Indonesia, as well as bans on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Liberia and Rwanda.

According to the Jakarta Globe archives, the EU imposed a blanket ban on all Indonesian airlines in 2007, based on their failure to meet ICAO safety requirements. In July, the EU removed restrictions on flagship carrier Garuda Indonesia, Mandala Airlines, Airfast and PrimeAir.

The move was in response to what the European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, deemed “significant improvements” by the Indonesian civil aviation authorities.

Airline crashes in 2004 and 2005 that killed hundreds of European travelers prompted EU governments to seek a uniform approach to airline safety through a common blacklist. The list, updated at least four times a year, is based on deficiencies found during checks at European airports, the use of antiquated aircraft by companies and shortcomings by non-EU airline regulators.

In addition to imposing an operational ban in Europe, the blacklist can act as a guide for travelers worldwide and influence safety policies in non-EU countries. Nations that are home to carriers with poor safety records can ground them to avoid being put on the EU list, while countries keen to keep out unsafe foreign airlines can use the European list as a guide for their own bans.

The new measures affect about 40 carriers in the Philippines including Philippine Airlines Inc. and Cebu Air Inc. and 12 in Sudan, Helen Kearns, transport spokeswoman at the commission, told reporters. None of those carriers currently operates services to the EU, she said later by telephone.

Bloomberg

Chinese take over the reliable Volvo

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, by Abel Borghuis + agencies, 29 March 2010 - 5:06pm

Volvo C30

Volvo Cars is now in the hands of Chinese automobile manufacturer Zhejiang Geely, a few months after another Swedish car brand, Saab, was sold by General Motors to the Dutch company Spyker. So the future of the Swedish auto industry has been assured – at least for now.

The Chinese hope to achieve the success with Volvo that has eluded Ford in the past decade. Geely sees enormous potential in the Swedish brand, not only internationally but especially on the domestic market in China, which overtook the United States as the world's No.1 auto market last year.

Like many Chinese automakers, Geely hopes someday to emulate the global success of Japanese and Korean players like Toyota, Honda Motor Co and Hyundai Motor Co. Owning a global brand like Volvo gives Geely a chance to build up its profile in China, where it is known more for small, inexpensive cars, and to catch up with its bigger state-owned rivals, who have long partnered with the likes of GM and Volkswagen, analysts said.

Li Shufu, the chairman of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is a self-made entrepreneur who built Geely from nothing into the country's 10th-biggest car maker in less than two decades, and is banking on China as a saviour for Volvo. The charismatic founder said on Monday that he aims to turn around Volvo within two years. He is already planning a factory in Beijing that will make 300,000 Volvo branded cars a year, doubling its current output.

Safety

For years, Volvos have been known as reliable family cars. Another distinguishing feature is their safety. Fifty years ago, Volvo was the first manufacturer to fit three-point seatbelts as standard in its cars. But safety has faded into the background as a ‘unique selling point’ over the past couple of decades, simply because other brands have caught up with Volvo. For the Swedes, as a relatively small producer, it became increasingly difficult to stand on their own feet due to the rising costs of developing new models.

In 1999, the American giant Ford indicated that it wanted to position Volvo at the higher end of the international market. Ford put 6.4 billion dollars on the table and spent billions more on modernising the brand. But despite the investment, it failed to make a success of Volvo, and now, a little over a decade later, it has sold the brand for just 1.8 billion dollars – less than a third of the price it paid in 1999 - to Geely.

Own vision

Geely says it will do everything possible to allow Volvo to retain its own identity, as long as it’s made clear what precisely its own vision is. The Swedish brand will retain its own management, with Gothenburg as its headquarters. The Swedish unions have received assurances that the factories in Sweden and Belgium, which employ a total of 22,000 people, will remain open. But Jacques Wallner, car editor of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, urges caution. "China has no tradition of unions, co-determination and respect for workers ... it is a hierarchical society. Hopefully, Geely and China will learn more from Volvo than just the technology," he said.

At the moment, the plans for Volvo’s future are not really concrete. In the short term, the Chinese will profit from the western technological know-how that Volvo has in house. The question is whether Geely is prepared, as Ford did, to invest billions in the development of new Volvos.

Related Article:

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Editorial: Clearer Steps Needed to Clean Up Jakarta's Skies

Jakarta Globe, Editorial, March 28, 2010

Jakarta is infamous for its air pollution. (Photo: SP)

Blue skies are a rarity in Jakarta. On most days, residents of the capital are subjected to pollutants that are considered serious health hazards. During the dry season, pollution can get so bad that a continual haze hangs over the city like a blanket.

Much of this pollution is caused by motor vehicles. Although new emissions standards have been introduced, they are often not enforced, particularly for public transportation vehicles. Buses continue to spew thick black smoke from their badly maintained diesel engines.

Efforts have been made to reduce the level of pollution in the capital. Beginning in 2007, the Jakarta administration introduced a car-free day on the last Sunday of every month along Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin, which has since expanded to other areas. Starting this month, locations such as Old Town in West Jakarta, Rasuna Said in South Jakarta, Boulevard Artha Gading in North Jakarta, Jalan Pemuda in East Jakarta and Jalan Letjen Suprapto in Central Jakarta will hold car-free days at least twice a year.

These efforts have had some results, at least according to the city’s environmental agency, which declared that this year’s car-free days helped to improve air quality in Jakarta more than in previous years.

“The most recent measurement showed that the car-free days had helped to reduce dust particles by up to 40 percent, carbon monoxide was reduced by 63 percent and nitrogen monoxide by 71 percent,” said Rina Suryani, head of natural resources monitoring at the Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD).

Despite these claims, however, car-free days have minimal impact on air quality in Jakarta. The level of pollution may be reduced on a particular Sunday, but no doubt shoots straight back up as millions of vehicles take to the roads for the start of the work week.

City police data show that last year the number of vehicles in Jakarta rose to 9.9 million, including 133,000 public transportation vehicles, while the number of residents, based on data from the Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency, was 8.5 million. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment reported that the city produced 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide daily last year.

Clearly, concrete action needs to be taken if we are to tackle air pollution. For starters, authorities must move swiftly to crack down on public buses that are the biggest polluters. They must be replaced by cleaner hybrid buses. Tougher emissions standards must also be enforced for private vehicles to ensure that only cars that use unleaded gasoline are allowed on the roads.

Clean air is a basic right, just as clean water is. The government has introduced regulations to ensure that all citizens have access to clean air. But as the heavy smog that envelops the city on most days illustrates, enforcement has been weak or nonexistent. How long must Jakartans continue to endure these unacceptable conditions?