Bukaka, Singtel win E. Indonesia contract
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)