West Papua Governor Dominggus Mandacan met with Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Wang Lutong at the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta on Nov. 11, 2025. The meeting discussed cooperation in various fields and potential Chinese investment in West Papua. Mandacan was accompanied at the meeting by, among others, West Papua Regional Secretariat Development Administration Bureau Head Onasius P. Matani, West Papua Environmental Office Head Reymond R.H. Yap, and West Papua Liaison Agency Head Erix I.W. Ayatanoy.

West Kalimantan Governor Ria Norsan confirmed that a new international flight route from Pontianak City, West Kalimantan to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will begin operating on Jan. 5, 2026. He conveyed the information after the governor received a visit from Lion Air Group Corporate Communations Strategic Danang Mandala Prihantoro at the West Kalimantan Governor's Office in Pontianak City on Dec. 29, 2025.

Indonesia may face a tax revenue shortfall this year, as recent data show the country had realized only 74.62 percent of its annual tax target as of November, underscoring mounting difficulties in sustaining revenue growth amid global and domestic economic headwinds. The World Bank Group (WBG) has projected Indonesia's tax ratio, the share of tax revenue in gross domestic product (GDP), to fall to 9.4 percent in 2025, down from 10.1 percent in 2024. The downward trend is a worrying signal for future state spending, particularly as the government rolls out costly flagship programs that risk widening the fiscal deficit.

Foreign investors from Malaysia and China are reportedly interested in investing Rp 62.3 trillion in total to Central Java Province. Central Java Governor Ahmad Luthfi revealed that foreign investors from the two countries had signed Letters of Intent (LoIs) for the investments.

The direct election mechanism as a way of choosing political leaders could become a thing of the past in Indonesia, starting with the election of the heads of regional administrations, but it could go all the way up to the election of the head of state.

Indonesia's ambition to strengthen its domestic steel industry is being quietly undermined from within. While policymakers continue to champion downstream industry development, industrial resilience and import substitution, recent findings by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) reveal troubling weaknesses in steel import governance. The problem extends beyond illegal imports, pointing instead to regulatory gaps, weak inter-ministerial coordination and administrative failures that continue to erode the credibility of Indonesia's industrial policy.

In a surprising turn of events to cap off the year, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, has been shaken by turmoil that many observers are calling an internal coup. At the center of the storm is the sudden political ousting of Yahya Cholil Staquf as chairman of NU’s executive body Tanfidziyah.