Canadian, local firms to sign accord
Canadian, local firms to sign accord
JAKARTA (JP): Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is
expected here Monday to witness the signing of an agreement
between Canadian and Indonesian parties on an air traffic control
project.
The president and chief executive officer of Hughes
Asia/Pacific, John E. Kohler, said here yesterday that he will
sign the agreement with an executive of Hughes Canada, Paul
Austin, and Indonesian Minister of Transportation Haryanto
Dhanutirto.
Kohler said that the project will also involve PT LEN, a
state-owned electronic firm under the supervision of the
Management Board for Strategic Industries.
He said Hughes, one of the world's leading electronics
manufacturers, will also sign an agreement on Wednesday with PT
Ratelindo, a joint venture between the Bakrie Electronics Company
and PT Telkom, which operates fixed cellular radio phones.
"Hughes will provide engineers to assist Ratelindo in
installing infrastructure for radio phones. We will supply the
hardware system and, in the long term, we will get involved in
maintenance," he said.
Indonesia has been a faithful customer of Hughes for
manufacture of its domestic Palapa satellites since 1976.
Indonesia has launched seven Hughes-made telecommunications
satellites, including the Palapa-B2, which failed to reach its
proper orbit when it was launched in 1984.
The third generation of the Palapa satellites, called the
Palapa-C series, will also be developed by Hughes. The launching
of Palapa-C1 is scheduled for late next year. Palapa-C2 will then
be launched in the following six months. The Palapa-C satellites
will be managed by PT Satelindo, partly controlled by the
diversified Bimantara Group, which is owned by President
Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo.
Study
Kohler, who is also the vice president of Hughes Aircraft
Company, said yesterday that Hughes Communications Inc., a unit
of a Hughes subsidiary, General Motor Hughes Electronics, has
just completed a feasibility study on the Asian mobile geo-
stationary satellite telecommunication system in cooperation with
PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara of Indonesia, Singapore Technologies
Ventures and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. The project, worth
US$900 million, will cover major parts of Asia.
PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, operating in satellite recycling
and management, is 30 percent owned by the state domestic
telecommunications operator Telkom and 20 percent by PT
Elektrindo Nusantara, a subsidiary of the Bimantara Group. The
other shareholders include Hughes, Telesat of Canada, PT Pasifik
Satelit Nusantara executives Adi Adiwoso and Iskandar and a
number of other executives.
Hughes Network System, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft, also
signed an agreement with Ratelindo in April, on the supply of a
high-capacity fixed wireless digital telephone system for 250,000
subscribers in Jakarta. The telephone project's first phase,
worth $78.5 million, will be completed by April 1995. (icn)