50 Chinese officials to attend Bali forum
50 Chinese officials to attend Bali forum
About 50 Chinese top government officials and corporate
leaders will attend the first meeting of the China-Indonesia
Energy Forum in Denpasar from Sept. 25 to 27, the organizing
committee said on Tuesday.
Chairman of the organizing committee Michael Sumarijanto told
The Jakarta Post that the energy forum was established in March
this year by both governments during the visit of President
Megawati Soekarnoputri to China.
He said the Chinese delegation would be led by Zeng Peiyan,
the chairman of China's State Development Planning Commission, an
agency which supervises four ministries, with delegates including
the top leaders of state-owned energy firms CNOOC, Sinopec and
Petrochina.
Aside from the government officials, all other Chinese
delegates were representatives of state-owned companies,
according to Michael.
"The list of delegates to attend the meeting show that China
takes the meeting serious," Michael said.
Indonesia's delegation, comprising of about 100
representatives of state-owned and private energy companies, will
be led by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo
Yusgiantoro.
The delegates will muster the possibility for both countries
to strengthen cooperations in the power sector, coal production,
the development of gas pipeline linking East Kalimantan to East
Java and the US$400 million soft loan provided by China for
Indonesia to develop a power plant in Sumatra.
Purnomo earlier said Indonesia expected to sign the contract
for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Fujian
province during the Bali meeting. Indonesia will supply the gas
from the Tangguh LNG plant in the Papua province being developed
by a consortium led by Anglo-American firm BP PLC.
China, which has been tipped to become an economic superpower
comparable to the United States and Japan in several decades, has
been looking for business opportunities in Indonesia's lucrative
energy sector, which has been dominated for decades by the U.S.
and Japanese companies.
Earlier, China's offshore oil giant CNOOC bought the
Indonesian assets of Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF for US$585
million in cash, its biggest international expansion to date.
The purchase allowed the Chinese firm to control or co-own
five oil and gas blocks in Indonesia and made it instantly the
largest offshore oil producer in the country with an output of
about 130,000 barrels per day.