Bakrie to invest $1b in Uzbekistan

Bakrie to invest $1b in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT (Reuter): Indonesia's Bakrie Group plans to invest around US$1 billion in the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan over the next five years, the company's country director said yesterday.

Most of the money would be invested in telecoms, Bakrie's director for Uzbekistan, Robert Sutrisno, told Reuters in an interview.

Earlier this year, Bakrie and Uzbektelekom formed a joint venture company, Uzbektelekom International, of which Uzbektelekom holds 51 percent and Bakrie 49 percent.

The joint venture plans to build and repair 220,000 telephone lines in four regions in the former Soviet republic, with investment of around $220 million.

Bakrie will also put $438 million into Buztel, a company consisting of 100 percent foreign capital, to establish 115,000 GSM standard mobile telephone lines and 385,000 fixed overlay cellular lines.

"We hope to take the leading position in the development of fixed overlay cellular lines in a fast growing city like Tashkent," Sutrisno said.

He said Bakrie and the country's communications ministry were also negotiating a project for the production and use of ARTS (advanced rural telecommunications system) equipment outside major cities in the republic but did not say how much would be invested in the project.

Sutrisno said his company would also bid for the tender to rebuild Tashkent's shaky telephone system.

Old Soviet-era telephones and mechanical exchanges in the republic of 23 million make it a challenge even to place calls within the capital.

"Taking account of the good investment climate in Uzbekistan, Bakrie is also interested in joint ventures in tourism, energy and the republic's chemicals industry," said Sutrisno.

Bakrie subsidiary Bakrie Communication Corp already has a 40 percent stake worth $6 million in AO Tashkent-Taksofon, founded to develop payphones in the Uzbek capital over the next 25 years.

Sutrisno added the group has taken a 25 percent stake in the state-owned Akola Bank and invested in the luxury Le Meridian Hotel in Tashkent.