BPPT plans to develop 12 projects in Irian Jaya

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)