Crisis 'won't affect telephones'

JAKARTA (JP): The currency crisis will not affect the government's target to install 8 million telephone lines in the current Sixth Five-Year Development Plan, which will end in March, 1999.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said in a statement that the currency crisis, which has cut the value of the rupiah by around 35 percent against the U.S. dollar in the last thee months, would not affect the plan to install 6.7 million fixed-telephone lines and a network of 1.3 million mobile telephones in the current development plan.

The government raised the target for new telephone lines by 60 percent, from five million to eight million, in December, last year.

State-owned PT Telkom and its five contractors are in charge of telephone-line installation. The private firms are responsible for installing and operating at least 2.2 million fixed-telephone lines, as well as operating existing lines in five different regions under a 15-year joint-operation contract signed in October 1995.

Last September, the government announced the postponement or review of government and state-related projects worth Rp 105 trillion (approximately US$30 billion) as part of the drastic measures initiated to cope with the currency upheaval.

Rupiah and other Southeast Asian currencies have been under speculative attack due to the domino effect of the devaluation of the Thai baht in early July.

As part of the retrenchment program, the government also decided to postpone Rp 38.92 trillion worth of investment projects sponsored by state and private companies and to review other projects worth Rp 62.69 trillion. (icn)