Cement shortage will not affect Perumnas target
JAKARTA (JP): The President of Perum Perumnas III, a state- owned housing company, said yesterday that the increasing price of cement will not hamper the company's target to build 90,000 low cost houses in the Greater Jakarta area by 1998.
"To cope with the cement supply and price problems Perumnas has signed an agreement with PT Cipta Mulia Nusa Persada, a distributor company of Semen Padang, to provide cement to all of the company's contractors," said M. Latief Malangyudo.
Latief told newsmen that the agreement requires the distributor to supply cement to all of Perumnas contractors for the building of low cost houses in the Greater Jakarta area, including the townships of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi, all in West Java.
However, Latief said the agreement has also stipulated that the price of cement per 40-kilogram sack will not be based on the government-set local price of Rp 5,930. The agreed upon price from August to December is to be Rp 7,700 per 40-kilogram sack.
He added that to have an adequate cement supply from the distributor the contractors and developers should plan ahead and place their orders three months ahead of demand.
According to Latief, the scheme has produced good results because the shortage of cement supplies and its ever soaring prices are not hampering the contractors' working process.
Meanwhile, Santyoso Yuwono, the company's Planning and Development manager, said that another favoring factor is that cement is not the prime component of a low-cost house.
"A low cost house needs only 41 sacks of cement," Santyoso said.
According to a government decree, the price of a low cost house must not exceed Rp 4.5 million which may be paid in installments over a 20 year period.
Latief said that the target of building 90,000 low cost houses in Jakarta is also supported by some state bodies which agree to provide plots of land to build low cost housing complexes for their own employees.
"We are now discussing an agreement with the Ministry of Information to build a residential complex for its employees in the Cimanggis area in Bogor," he said.
Obligation
He said that under the agreement Perumnas has the obligation to build the complex while the ministry will provide the land.
Latief said that the company is also planning to build low cost residential complexes for some state bodies, such as the government auditing agency in Bojong Gede in Bogor regency, the coordinating agency for national stability and security also in the Bojong Gede area, and the West Jakarta mayoralty in Meruya Udik, West Jakarta.
Responding to questions from reporters about whether or not the company supports the city administration program in promoting "apartment lifestyles" for Jakartans, Latief said that Perumnas will build a low cost apartment complex with 880 units in the Kemayoran area, Central Jakarta.
"We also plan to build more low cost apartment complexes in Cilincing, North Jakarta, Cengkareng, West Jakarta and in Pulogebang in Bekasi regency," Latief said.(03)