Vertical-Lifestyle Enthusiast “It’s time for city-dwellers to ‘get into’ a vertical lifestyle,” Veri Y. Setiady says, peering down at traffic congestion from his office on the 25th floor of an office block in a prime area of South Jakarta. His view reflects the fast-growing population in big cities has been a major factor in the price appreciation of urban land. “Traffic congestion is incontestably affecting demand,” he continues. “Many people are seeking a solution where a mix of land uses like shopping, living, entertainment and work are combined into one destination. They want to live closer to their work and spend more time with their family.” Involved with an array of development projects by the Agung Podomoro Group (APG) since 1999, Veri has made his mark in completing The Peak apartment block at Jl Sudirman and has been a mover and shaker at Senayan City mixed-use development. In addition to being Senayan City’s marketing director, Veri is currently taking a lead role in another huge Agung Podomoro mixed-use project, Central Park, as director of commercial retail and shopping centre. Occupying two high-level posts under the APG umbrella is no easy task. He adds that the upcoming presence of Central Park will greatly contribute to the one-stop lifestyle that is happening now in big cities. In spite of some challenges that developers faced after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, Veri says that property markets are relatively healthy. Rising consumer demand and an increase in private investment have urged banks to participate in the enthusiasm for bringing the property sector back to life after the crisis.

Having The Right Attitude A disciplined upbringing in North Sumatra lies behind Shell (Indonesia) CEO Darwin Silalahi’s approach to business and life. “If Indonesia is one of the better-performing economies in the region and we started from a lower base … we can only go up!” That is the rallying call Shell Indonesia president director and country chairman Darwin Silalahi has been known to make at strategy meetings of senior staff to boost morale when the daily diet of world business news is a grim smorgasbord of company closures, redundancies and bailouts. Darwin talks with enthusiasm about the nation’s energy industry potential. Given the depletion of reserves in existing oil and gas fields, Indonesia has, within the last few years, become a net importer of oil. Opportunities in the upstream sector have therefore become more technologically challenging. “Globally, Shell has the biggest research and development (R & D) programme of all the international oil companies. We invested more than US$1.2 billion in R & D in both 2007 and 2008,” Darwin adds. But now the immediate pressures of the global economic recession must be confronted. Darwin acknowledges that we now live in a highly interconnected world and that Indonesia is not isolated from these difficulties. “No bell will ring at the lowest point in the downturn so, for Shell, it’s all hands on deck … we have to be prepared for anything,” he concludes, on a somewhat serious note.