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)