At least 200 companies to participate in rice bid

JAKARTA (JP): A final decision on the awarding of government contracts to import a total of 600,000 tons of rice will be made today, with at least 20 companies still in the running, the acting chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), Rahardi Ramelan, said on Monday.

Rahardi said companies going forward into the final stage of the selection process were to be chosen on Monday from over 100 companies which tendered for the contracts.

"As of 9 p.m. last night (Sunday night), 109 companies had submitted bids," Rahardi, who is also Minister of Industry and Trade, told reporters after a ceremony to install new officials at the ministry.

The selection process required each company to submit two sealed envelopes, one containing the technical and administrative details of the bid and the other the price at which the rice would be supplied, he said.

The technical aspects of each bid are scrutinized first, he said.

Bulog requires each bid to include details of commodities supplied, company performance, a sample of the rice, a guarantee to supply the requested amount, a bank reference, an export reference and, in the case of foreign companies, a reference from the relevant embassy.

"If a company does not meet our technical requirements, their tender is rejected," he said.

Antara reported that several foreign companies failed to include a reference from their embassy and their tenders were consequently rejected. The companies included Continental GR, Andre & CE, Hong Yiah Seng and Glencore.

Other companies were excluded for failing to provide export references and company performance details.

The news agency quoted a Bulog source as saying that out of more than 100 companies that tendered for the contract, only 50 returned all the necessary forms and documents. Twenty eight had subsequently failed to meet the required technical specifications, leaving 22 companies in the running for contracts.

Fourteen of the remaining companies are from overseas. They include Thai Maparn, Toepfer, Siam Rice, Orco, Huay Chuan Rice, Thai Hua, Nissho Iwai, and Nichimen Corp.

Local companies include P.T. Drasindo, PT Bahtera, PT Stelkon, PT Mega Eltra, PT Repindo Raya, PT Dwi Tunggal, PT Mahakia Niaga and PT ADM.

Rahardi said the contracts on offer were to import rice from China, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand because rice from these countries was of a similar quality.

Private traders will be allowed to import 1 million tons of the 4.1 million tons of rice the government has said it will import in the current fiscal year.

The contracts to import 600,000 tons of rice to be awarded later today come from the private sector's 1 million ton quota.

Rahardi said bilateral negotiations aimed at securing government to government aid to help with the remaining rice requirements for this year were currently underway.

He said the government was currently negotiating with the Egyptian government to buy rice using loans from the Islamic Development Bank.

He also said the government was trying to rearrange a trade financing grant to import wheat from the U.S. government so that the money could instead be used to import rice.

"There is currently a surplus of rice in Louisiana," he said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Importers Association of Indonesia (Ginsi), Amirudin Saud, said some importers had begun to import sugar, soybean, wheat and wheat flour as a result of the government's recent move to open up the trade in these commodities.

"We have enough wheat flour, sugar and soybeans to last for the next two to three months," Amirudin told reporters after meeting Rahardi.

Amir said that when buying the commodities, importers had transferred money directly rather than using letters of credit to speed up the process of purchase and shipment. (das)