Govt calls for aircraft maintenance facility<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government says it will invite local and
\noverseas companies to open an aircraft maintenance facility
\nwithin the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines growth area to
\nstimulate local economic growth.<\/p>\n
The invitation is one of the proposed measures to spur the
\ndevelopment of the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) which links the
\nboundary areas of the four countries, the Minister of
\nTransportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said in a statement read out
\nat a seminar on \"ASEAN Strategies and Action\" yesterday.<\/p>\n
The seven-nation ASEAN group includes Brunei, Indonesia,
\nMalaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The
\nEAGA includes Brunei, southern Philippines, Malaysia and
\nKalimantan, Sulawesi and Maluku of Indonesia. The growth area was
\ncreated to stimulate tourism, industry and agriculture.<\/p>\n
In his statement read out by chairman of the Research and
\nDevelopment Agency of the Ministry of Transportation Soebagijo
\nSoemodihardjo, Haryanto said that other proposals included an
\ninvitation to private firms to extend the airports in the growth
\narea.<\/p>\n
\"The open sky policy may also be adopted by the participating
\nnations and the airlines of the nations are encouraged to set up
\njoint airline facilities to serve the region.<\/p>\n
\"The EAGA's working group on air links concluded recently that
\nthe load factors of the airlines serving the growth area are very
\nlow, so joint operations among the airlines are feasible for the
\nregion,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that Indonesia will improve the seaports and airports
\nin its territories covered by EAGA to stimulate tourism and
\ntrade.<\/p>\n
\"We are improving the seaports at Bitung in North Sulawesi and
\nBalikpapan in East Kalimantan and the airports in Manado, North
\nSulawesi, and Pontianak, West Kalimantan.<\/p>\n
If the proposed aircraft maintenance facility in the EAGA
\ngrowth area is realized, it will be the third of its kind in the
\ncountry. Indonesia has an aircraft maintenance facility in
\nJakarta which is owned by state-owned Garuda Indonesia. The other
\nfacility is on Batam island in Riau. It is owned by Indonesian
\nand Singaporean parties, and is still under construction.<\/p>\n
At a recent meeting in Bali, the ASEAN agreed to gradually
\nliberalize air transport services in its growth areas. The EAGA
\nwill be the first growth area to do this. The other target
\nregions are the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle and
\nthe Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle.<\/p>\n
The policy to give ASEAN countries' airlines better access to
\nthe regions is to encourage the development of tourism there.<\/p>\n
At yesterday's seminar, Minister of Tourism, Post and
\nTelecommunications Joop Ave said that despite the cooperation
\namong ASEAN members to boost tourism, the competition among the
\ncountries had to continue.<\/p>\n
\"It's true that we have formed intelligent cooperation, but
\nit's nonsense to abandon competition because each of the nations
\nhas its own national interests,\" Joop said. \"Meanwhile, the
\npattern of international travel will change. Europeans, for
\ninstance, previously only traveled to Indonesia or Thailand in
\nAsia, but now they also visit nearby countries.\"<\/p>\n
He said the East Asia-Pacific region will continue to be one
\nof the most popular destinations for international tourists in
\nthe world.<\/p>\n
\"Based on data from the World Tourism Organization, there were
\n567 million international tourist arrivals there last year with
\ninternational tourist revenue of US$373 billion,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The number of international tourist arrivals had increased by
\n41.5 percent since 1970 and the international tourist revenue had
\nincreased by almost 2,000 percent.<\/p>\n
Joop said that 700 million international tourists were
\nexpected to arrive there in the year 2000.<\/p>\n
\"The East Asia-Pacific region will have a high growth rate of
\narrivals of 15.3 percent,\" he said. (icn)<\/p>",
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