Foreign firms may take part in telecommunications tender
Foreign firms may take part in telecommunications tender
JAKARTA (JP): Overseas telecommunications firms, which failed
in the prequalification process, still have the opportunity to
participate in next month's tender for the establishment of two
million telephone lines offered by the government.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications Jonathan Parapak said such foreign
telecommunications firms have the chance to join consortia which
passed the prequalification process last September in bidding for
certain projects for the establishment of the telephone lines.
"If the Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications
agrees on the joining of the foreign firms in the consortia and
the consortia members also approve, why not?" he said when
attending a fast breaking gathering at the house of Minister of
Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave on Thursday
evening.
The government expects to install five million telephone lines
within the current Sixth Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VI)
period, of which two million lines will be offered to private
companies. The other three million lines, all of which will be
located in Jakarta and East Java, will be established by the
state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom with a
total investment of Rp 15 trillion (US$6.81 billion).
A total of 12 consortia, comprising of foreign and domestic
companies, passed the prequalification last September and will
enter an open tender next month. The announcement of those
awarded contracts will be made in the second semester of this
year.
Foreign telecommunications firms which passed the
prequalification process are, among others, Telstra of Australia,
Singapore Telecom, Malaysia Telecom, Bundest Post of Germany, New
Zealand Telecom and France Telecom. Other companies, including
PTT Netherlands, Bell Atlantic, British Telecom, Swedish Telecom,
US Sprint, NTT of Japan and Ireland Telecom, failed in the
process because their local partners were considered unqualified
for the projects.
Parapak said that so far only NTT wants to join an appointed
consortium -- Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia, which groups
Indosat, Telstra and a cooperative of the Association of
Indonesian Telecommunications Firms.
NTT was previously grouped in the Sekar Langgeng Krida
consortium, which failed in the prequalification process.(icn)