12 consortia to joint phone project tender
JAKARTA (JP): The government has chosen 12 consortia to take part in the tender for the establishment of two million telephone lines within the current Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period.
"An inter-ministerial team comprised of various officials and experts announced today the 12 consortia which have passed the pre-qualifications," Secretary-General of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Jonathan Parapak told reporters after attending the closing ceremony of the ministry's three-day workshop here yesterday.
He said the consortia were selected from among 30 that sent applications to the government.
"The following step will be the submitting of tender documents within a period of three months, to begin at the end of this month. The contracts for the project are expected to be signed in the first quarter of next year," Parapak said.
He refused to disclose how many consortia will be selected in the bid.
The government expects to install five million telephone lines within the Repelita VI period, of which two million lines will be offered to private companies. The other three million lines will be established by the state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom with a total investment of Rp 15 trillion (US$6.88 billion).
Parapak said that telephone line projects, except those in Jakarta and East Java, which will be established by Telkom, are open to private companies.
Parapak said the 12 qualified consortia comprise both domestic and foreign companies.
"The leaders of all of the consortia are domestic companies," he added.
Chairman of the Jakarta office of the Indonesian Association of Domestic Telecommunications Firms (Apnatel), Audy Tambunan, told The Jakarta Post that one of the qualified consortia is Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia, which groups eight companies. The consortium includes an operator, a supplier, a cooperative and a foreign company -- Telstra of Australia.
He said the other consortia involve foreign companies from Europe, the United States and Japan. (icn)