Bali to host 11th AsiaConstruct
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Bali is to host the 11th annual AsiaConstruct Conference, starting on Friday, where state officials and construction industry players from Asia-Pacific nations will meet to exchange information and business opportunities.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla is expected to open the event, which would also feature several economics ministers, organizers said.
The conference would hopefully complement the government's drive to develop the country's ailing infrastructure, event chairman Sulistijo Sidarto Mulyo said.
"(The Infrastructure Summit) put more emphasis on generating funding, while (this event can) promote the domestic construction industry's ability to work cooperatively on these projects," said Sulistijo, who is also the chairman of National Construction Service Development Board (LPJK).
The government held the summit in January, offering investors 91 infrastructure projects, worth US$22.5 billion as part of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's efforts to push annual average economic growth to more than 6 percent.
The projects offered spanned the country and included priority concerns -- toll roads, gas pipelines, power plants, airports and seaports, water systems, railroads and telecommunications.
However, almost eight months after the summit, there has been limited progress in luring investors, with only six projects so far having successfully been tendered out of the planned 91 projects, prompting the government to delay its plan for a second Infrastructure Summit from November to February next year.
Sulistijo said he hoped the Bali conference would help facilitate infrastructure programs in well-planned steps.
"We aim to create a guide that would ensure sustainability, continuity and stability. In this way, the working plans (of industry) wouldn't have to be halted midway, say, due to changes in government," he said.
Participants in the conference would also focus on best-work practices, as a way to improve their competitiveness.
The event, which was first held in Japan in 1993, now hosts industry players from Australia, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
LPJK deputy chairman A. Sutjipto said the conference would also pay special attention to construction issues regarding natural disasters, after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit South Asia and the recent impact of Hurricane Katrina.
"By anticipating the future, we hope construction industry players will be more ready to face such occurrences," Sutjipto said.
The two-day conference in Jimbaran, Bali, is to feature a business forum and exhibition.