ASEAN members form joint venture to launch satellite
ASEAN members form joint venture to launch satellite
JAKARTA (JP): Three telecommunications companies from Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines last week formed a joint venture company to launch a telecommunication satellite by August 1988.
The managing director of PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN), Adi Rahman Adiwoso, said here over the weekend that his company, Jasmine Telecommunications of Thailand, a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), and the Philippines Long-Distance Telephone, established the new venture with an initial paid-up capital of US$150 billion.
"In a meeting in Bangkok this week, we agreed that each of us will pay $50 billion in equity," Adi said after opening PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo)'s outlet at Golden Plaza, South Jakarta, on Saturday. Adi is also Satelindo's commerce director.
Adi noted that the new company, to be called Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACSS), will be incorporated in Indonesia, with a total investment of US$600 million. The company's operation is centered in Batam, Riau, while its headquarters will be in Jakarta.
"The Batam authority and the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications have given the green light and we have prepared everything," Adi said.
Preference
Under the Association of Southeast Asian Nation's industrial joint venture agreement, Adi said, any joint venture company incorporated in one of the ASEAN countries with at least 51 percent of its shares held by companies in ASEAN countries is entitled to preferential treatments in all ASEAN member countries.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Vietnam will become an ASEAN member later this year.
"We want this company to receive such a preferential facility because all of its shareholders are companies in ASEAN countries," Adi noted.
He said the state-owned international telecommunications firm PT Indosat had expressed its intention to enter the new venture company. Indosat is the first state-owned company floating its shares on an overseas stock market.
"We haven't discussed it yet in detail with Indosat. But maybe, the scenario is that Indosat will take 20 percent of PSN's portion in ACSS," Adi said.
PSN, together with Satelindo, will operate the Hughes-built Palapa-C1, whose launching has been rescheduled from October or November of this year to May of next year.
Adi noted that ACSS is still in the process of negotiating with Lockheed Martin of the United States over the construction of a telecommunications satellite.
The satellite offered by Lockheed weighs 4,200 kilograms and has a total capacity of two to five million telephone circuits and a coverage range from India and China to all Southeast Asian countries.
Adi said if the negotiations can be finished by June 15 at the latest, "by August 1998 we will be able to start our commercial operation".
"However, if we cannot reach an agreement by June 15 over the pricing and other terms with Lockheed, we will shift to another satellite manufacturer -- that is Hughes of the United States." (rid)