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)