For those looking to make a buck, head to tsunami-wrecked Sumatra, says Indonesian entrepreneur Sigip Samsu. He rushed there in the wake of the disaster and hasn't stopped reaping the benefits of a land in need of plenty.
Samsu moved his helicopter charter service to Sumatra just after the Dec. 26 disaster and has been booked solid by aid agencies, journalists and "businessmen looking for opportunities."
Few flinch at his fee of up to US$1,500 an hour.
"We are fully booked," Samsu says of his shuttle service from the Sumatran city of Medan into hard-hit Aceh province. "It's the business of the future."
This disaster, like others before it, has a long list of profiteers. Some are black-market vendors making money off misery: pirated DVDs of the tsunami's real-life horror show are now on sale in Indonesia, Thailand and India.
Then there are people and companies making legitimate profits from the business of disaster relief.
Aid agencies distributing critical food and medical supplies are doing much of their buying locally -- pumping millions of dollars into companies that make the dried noodles, rice, mineral water and medicine that gets handed out to survivors.
USAID, the US government's foreign-aid agency, has spent US$39 million in Indonesia since the disaster struck, spokeswoman Roberta Rossi said by telephone from Banda Aceh.
Buying supplies is only part of the expense. Cartons of aid need to be delivered in vehicles, and the agency allocated US$1 million just to cover the rental of 80 trucks and drivers, Rossi said.
Acehnese who speak English are in high demand by aid agencies and journalists who need translators. The going rate is US$50 a day -- the rough equivalent of a civil servant's monthly wage in pre-disaster Aceh.
Other basic expenses for outsiders in Aceh include drivers, about US$60 a day, and housing. Most aid agencies and media have settled in an upper-class Banda Aceh neighborhood untouched by the disaster, where current market rents rival those of New York City. The rent for a two-bedroom home that previously cost the equivalent of a few hundred dollars has soared as high as US$5,000 a month.
The big work remains ahead -- the rebuilding of bridges, homes and full city blocks of cement buildings that collapsed. Millions of dollars in aid donations are earmarked for the rebuilding phase.
Indonesian companies specializing in infrastructure, cement and heavy equipment have seen share prices soar.
Since Dec. 26, the share price of Adhi Karya, a majority state-owned construction firm specializing in building bridges and roads, has jumped 39 percent, while heavy equipment specialist United Tractors has seen its stock price jump 16 percent.
Overall infrastructure-related firms are outperforming the Jakarta stock exchange index, which has risen only 3 percent over the same period.
"This will be a year of construction," said Baradita Katopo, head of research and Kim Eng Securities. "Many firms are already benefiting from Aceh."
Both local and international telecommunications companies are also raking in money from the increased traffic of aid workers and journalists chatting for hours on mobile phones and satellite systems.
The Thuraya satellite-phone company, widely used across the Middle East and Africa, is accelerating previous plans to boost coverage in Asia.
Samsu, the helicopter pilot, said many of his clients worked for telecommunications firms. Some rented his helicopter on 20-hour contracts.
The 44-year-old entrepreneur who transferred to Sumatra from Jakarta said he's in such high demand he often sends prospective clients to his competitors.
Indonesia's debt-ridden national airline, Garuda, was experiencing booming business.
Banda Aceh's once sleepy airport transformed into an international hub for relief workers, with thousands of aid workers needing flights.
Garuda, which had previously operated two flights a day into Banda Aceh, increased its service to as many as 10 flights daily, said airline spokesman Pujobroto, who goes by a single name.
International conglomerates have given tonnes of aid to tsunami-stricken countries -- and would prefer to focus on that rather than tsunami-related revenue.
Danone, the food and drink conglomerate, has donated 1 million bottles of its mineral water Aqua, the top-selling bottled water in Indonesia.
It has also given 1 million packs of Danone biscuits and 400,000 bottles of milk -- though that is just a fraction of the Danone products purchased by aid workers for distribution.
Stefanus Felix, a spokesman, said Danone was selling its products at a "special price" to humanitarian groups but declined to elaborate.
"Talking about business in a situation like this," he said, "I don't think it's appropriate."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese