Drop tariffs on imports of GSM hardware: Joop<\/p>\n
BANDUNG, West Java (JP): Minister of Tourism, Post and
\nTelecommunications Joop Ave confirmed yesterday that his office
\nhas asked the Ministry of Finance to exempt duties on imports of
\nglobal system for mobile (GSM) telecommunications equipment.<\/p>\n
\"My job is to make telecommunications equipment available to
\neverybody at the lowest possible price. Indonesians are still
\nvery poor, if we do not give an opportunity to make this
\naffordable, then I think it would be a deterrent,\" he said at a
\nthree-day telecommunications conference opened here yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"For that reason, according to my convictions,
\ntelecommunications is the most important infrastructure for
\nhumanity. If we accept that, then the more telecommunications
\nfacilities you have, the faster your country will have an
\nopportunity to get along,\" Joop added.<\/p>\n
The request, he said, has not yet been approved.<\/p>\n
An executive of PT Satelindo, a provider of GSM service, said
\nlast week that there was a possibility that the import duty on
\nhandsets would be lowered from the current level of 25 percent to
\nzero percent.<\/p>\n
Such a regulation is considered necessary due to the
\nincreasing mobility of handset-holders. It is also expected to
\nhelp lower handset prices, making them more affordable to the
\nmajority of Indonesians.<\/p>\n
Handsets are currently priced at around Rp 1.89 million
\n(US$845) each, down from around Rp 3.95 million last year, when
\nthey were first introduced to the Indonesian market.<\/p>\n
The executive calculated that importers have to pay an extra
\n47 percent for each handset to compensate for levies including
\nimport duties.<\/p>\n
Currently the GSM operators in Indonesia are Satelindo and PT
\nTelkomsel, while PT Telekomindo is expected to start operations
\nin the near future.<\/p>\n
Telkomsel, jointly owned by state-owned PT Indosat and PT
\nTelkom, announced earlier this month that it intends to open up
\nto foreign ownership.<\/p>\n
Telstra<\/p>\n
The chief executive officer of Telstra of Australia, W. Frank
\nBlount, said yesterday that Telstra was interested in engaging in
\nTelkomsel's GSM business and had approached the company several
\nmonths ago. He refused to disclose developments of the talks so
\nfar.<\/p>\n
\"We intend to carry out long-term partnerships with
\nIndonesian companies and will not limit activities to what we
\nhave achieved so far,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Telstra, together with Japan's NTT and its Indonesian company,
\nTelekomindo, earlier this year won the bid to provide 400,000
\ntelephone lines in Central Java. The project -- conducted under a
\nrevenue-sharing operational cooperation scheme with state-owned
\nTelkom -- is part of the government's plan to establish five
\nmillion telephone lines by the end of the Sixth Five-Year
\nDevelopment Plan period in 1999. Two million lines will be
\nprovided by the private sector and the remaining three million by
\nTelkom.<\/p>\n
According to Telstra's general manager for Indonesia, Ross
\nAbbott, Telstra will invest more than US$120 million over the
\nnext 15 years in the Central Java project which will involve a
\ntotal of $700 million.<\/p>\n
Construction of the project will begin early next year.<\/p>\n
Telstra's revenues last year reached A$13.3 billion and its
\nassets A$21.1 billion. (pwn)<\/p>",
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