Export credits to be granted for aircraft sales
Export credits to be granted for aircraft sales
JAKARTA (JP): The government will establish mechanisms for the
provision of export credits for sales of aircraft produced by the
government-owned company PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara
(IPTN), which has thus far encountered difficulties in competing
with foreign producers, a minister says.
"Based on a direction from President Soeharto's, we will be
holding meetings with the Governor of Bank Indonesia, the
Minister of Finance and IPTN executives to discuss mechanisms for
providing credits for the export of aircraft," Minister of
Research and Technology B.J. Habibie said yesterday after
installing new IPTN executives and officials of the Agency for
the Management of Strategic Industries (BPIS).
Habibie, who is chairman of BPIS and president of IPTN,
acknowledged that the absence of export credit facilities for
buyers has made it difficult for IPTN to sell its aircraft.
He explained that IPTN recently won a contract to supply 52 of
its CN-235 aircraft to Turkey "but we gained only about 30
percent of the total sales value of the aircraft, with the other
70 percent going to CASA of Spain, IPTN's partner in the
production of the aircraft, which offered export credits to the
buyers."
The CN-235 is a commuter airplane developed jointly by IPTN
and CASA.
"Export credit facilities will be very important, particularly
for the sale of the N-250, an aircraft which IPTN will
manufacture on the basis of its own design and engineering,"
Habibie said.
IPTN expects that the maiden flight of the prototype of its N-
250 will be later this year. The aircraft will have a capacity of
70 seats.
The minister said export credits are also likely to be
provided for the sale of the N-250 aircraft to be produced by
IPTN's planned subsidiary in the United States.
The planned subsidiary, to be called American Regional
Aircraft Industry (Amrai), is expected to establish an assembly
plant in Alabama or Georgia, which, according to Habibie, will
sell about 700 aircraft to customers in the Americas within 20
years.
Habibie said the absence of export credits had also caused
difficulties in the sale of products by other companies overseen
by BPIS.
Besides IPTN, BPIS also overseas nine other companies:
electronics manufacturer PT LEN; arms manufacturer PT Pindad;
railway equipment producer PT Inka; telecommunications equipment
manufacturer PT Inti; steel producer PT Krakatau Steel; ship
builder PT PAL; explosives manufacturer PT Dahana; and
engineering firms PT Bosma Bisma Indra and PT Bharata.
Export credits will also be sought to support the sale of
goods produced by the other nine BPIS companies, Habibie
said.(icn)