Bakrie Group's subsidiary wins international status
Bakrie Group's subsidiary wins international status
By Riyadi
SINGAPORE (JP): Bakrie Nusantara International Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the widely diversified Bakrie Group of Indonesia, won an Approved International Trade (AIT) status from the Singapore government yesterday.
Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry Yeo Chew Tong presented an AIT certificate to the group's president, Aburizal Bakrie, in a ceremony yesterday.
Bakrie Nusantara, set up here in 1990, is the first Indonesian company to receive AIT status. AIT certification was introduced for the first time in 1990 by the Singapore Trade Development Board in order to attract international trading firms to operate in the island republic. Such status is conferred on Singapore- incorporated companies which meet certain criteria, including an annual turnover of at least US$100 million.
The board's chief, Barry Desker, said that companies awarded AIT status benefit from a concessional corporate income tax rate of a mere 10 percent, as compared to the normal rate of 27 percent.
Aburizal said that, with the status, Bakrie Nusantara will also have special access to financial services in Singapore.
He said Bakrie Nusantara is committed to doubling its annual turnover to $200 million by 1998 and to helping promote Indonesia's non-oil exports.
About 75 percent of the company's trading activities are exports from Indonesia. "Of the Indonesian exports, only 25 percent come from the businesses of the Bakrie Group," Aburizal said.
Commodities
Bakrie Nusantara's managing director, Ramchandra Hegde, said that the company concentrates on the trading of commodities, such as coal, cotton, steel, palm oil, cement powder and sugar.
Apart from normal trading, the company is also involved in counter trade. "For Myanmar, for example, Bakrie Nusantara supplies Indian cement, on a counter-trade basis, in exchange for rubber," he said.
He said the company plans to commence trading in seamless pipes, to take advantage of the booming construction industry in the region.
Aburizal said that the Bakrie Group, whose subsidiaries operate in manufacturing, finance, mining, property, trading and communications, is considering new investments through Bakrie Nusantara to integrate its trading activities with shipping and warehousing.
Besides Bakrie Nusantara, the Bakrie Group has two other trading affiliates -- Bakrie Trading and Lewis & Peat.
The group acquired Lewis & Peat, which has offices in New York, London and Singapore, in 1991, to provide global trading networks for Indonesia's latex and natural rubber.