Freeport denies ignoring local people

JAKARTA (JP): American mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia has denied an Antara report that the company had failed to improve the lot of the local community in Irian Jaya in the more than 25 years it has been there.

In a statement made available to the news agency on Friday, Freeport said the company had allocated Rp 35 billion (US$3.18 million) this year for the local community's development.

The news agency said members of House of Representatives Commission VIII for the state budget, finance, research and technology told a plenary session on Thursday that their recent visit to the province alerted them to the local people's discontent about the firm. Freeport is one of the country's biggest taxpayers.

The news agency quoted the commission report as saying that people living around the company's gold and copper mines remained poor.

Freeport's public relations deputy director, Yuli Ismartono, said she regretted the report, given that the legislators visited the company's community development projects.

In 1997, she said, the company allocated some Rp 25 billion for the construction of houses, roads and school buildings and for the development of animal husbandry, fisheries, youth and sports.

In 1998, she said, the sum allocated for these purposes had been raised to Rp 35 billion.

One of the company's programs is on malaria control aimed at reducing the incidence of the disease in lowland areas, she said, noting that the number of locals suffering from it had reduced from 68 percent before the program was launched to 6 percent at present.

Yuli said that the program required US$ 3.3 million a year and was supported by 200 doctors and paramedics.

Moreover, she said, the company had set up hospitals in Tembagapura and free clinics in the nearby areas.

The company had also intensified efforts to develop small- scale businesses and boost education, she said.

"We wish to stress here that since 1996, we have spent some Rp 730 million on 300 scholarships," Yuli was quoted as saying by Antara. She also said that the company had paid royalties, dividends, corporate income tax and other levies amounting to some US$ 1.1 billion since 1991.

Freeport Indonesia, which began operating in the 1960s, is a joint venture, 81.28 percent of which is controlled by the New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.

The government owns 9.36 percent, while a minority stake in the company is controlled by a charitable foundation headed by former president Soeharto. (byg)