BPPT plans to develop 12 projects in Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) will develop 12 industrial megaprojects along Irian Jaya's Mamberamo River to speed up development in eastern Indonesia.

The projects would help prepare the area for free trade next century, Jayapura regent Yan Pieter Karafir said yesterday.

Karafir said a team of BPPT experts recently arrived to conduct a sociodemographic study on the communities living along the river to prevent any negative impact on these people and their environment.

"Projects along the Mamberamo river are no longer a national issue but an international issue," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Six ministers approved the projects last October.

The developments will include agroindustry, electricity, non- oil energy sources, sea transportation, an electric railway, steel, methanol, petrochemical, copper and nickel.

Earlier, BPPT chairman and State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie said the Mamberamo projects would include the creation of rice fields along the river and the building of dams for power projects and irrigation.

Industrial projects would be set up downstream, he said.

"The Mamberamo project will provide rice fields with good soil about the size of Java," Habibie said.

He said natural gas from Natuna island, Indonesia's largest gas field, would be brought to the Mamberamo industrial projects to make synthetic gas, methane and ethanes.

Karafir said the developments would start next year and involve local people.

"The people in the area are expected to prepare themselves soon with the skills and knowledge these projects need," Karafir said.

The Mamberamo River covers 100,000 square kilometers of land in six regencies, including Nabire, Biak, Jayapura, Jayawijaya, Yapen Waropen and Mimika. (jsk)