The State Ministry of National Development Planning announced on Wednesday that it was offering eight infrastructure projects worth a total of $4.5 billion to investors through joint government and private sector partnerships. The government said it could afford only about 30 percent of the Rp 1.429 trillion ($124.32 billion) needed to finance infrastructure projects it has planned for 2010-14. It hopes to secure the rest from the private sector.

A subsidiary of PT Medco is planning to divert as much as 49 billion British thermal units of gas per day initially planned for a power plant in Java to a power plant in Batam Island in Riau Islands Province, an official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Thursday.