Innovation and self-sufficiency are the watchwords in the archipelago of islands that make up Indonesia, but an eyebrow or two has to be raised at the story that a construction company, PT Nusa Kirana Real Estate, was so frustrated at the lack of telephones for a new development just eight miles north of Jakarta, where waiting lists for phones are legendary, that it built its own $4m, 2,000 line telephone exchange: since telecommunications is a state monopoly, the exchange had to be handed over to the government once it was completed – but the Ministry of Tourism is sending the firm a letter of appreciation.
