Bukaka, Singtel win E. Indonesia contract
JAKARTA (JP): The government has selected a consortium led by Indonesia's Bukaka Group and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. as the winner of the joint operation contract for the telecommunications network in Indonesia's eastern islands.
"With this last selection, all the joint operation contracts for the telecommunications networks in the five regions offered to Indonesian-foreign joint ventures have been awarded," Jonathan L. Parapak, secretary general of the Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Ministry said yesterday.
Parapak said the Bukaka-Singtel consortium would invest at least US$300 million to operate and install 403,000 new telephone lines in the country's eastern islands.
The consortium, he added, will also include Transpact Capital Pte. of Singapore and three cooperatives based in the eastern islands which cover Sulawesi, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Irian Jaya.
The government announced on June 19 the winners of the joint operation contracts for the telecommunications networks in four regions: The Astra-France Telekom consortium for Sumatra (460,000 lines), U.S.West Inc.-Rajawali Group for West Java (500,000 lines), Indo-sat-NTT-Telstra for Central Java (440,000 lines) and A. Latief Corp.-Telekom Malaysia for Kalimantan (237,000 lines).
Under the joint operation contracts, the investor/contractors will operate the existing telecommunications system and install new telephone lines in their respective regions for 15 years.
Parapak said early last week that the winner for the contract for the eastern islands had yet to be decided because only the Bukaka-Singtel consortium had submitted a bid for that region.
"But the evaluation team has made its decision and the Bukaka- Singtel consortium was selected as the winner," Parapak added.
He hoped that the five consortia would complete the incorporation of their respective joint venture companies under Indonesian law before the end of the year so that they could immediately start operations in January. (vin)