Government to reduce state firms to 50

JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to reduce the number of state enterprises to 50 from 155 at present, through mergers, State Minister of the Empowerment of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng said on Thursday.

"After the restructuring program, it would be ideal to have only a maximum of 50 state firms, 30 of which will be retained at their current structure," the state minister said during a media conference.

"There would be merged companies, holding companies and the 30 companies that will remain under their old structure."

He said each holding company would have four to five business units under its umbrella.

The government announced last May that it would consolidate 155 state enterprises into some 15 holding companies, but later reduced the number to just 10.

He added, however, that the final decision on the proposed state company restructuring would be taken by the new government.

Tanri, however, suggested that his ministry be abolished and a state company supervisory agency be set up to oversee all state businesses.

"A ministry would only invite political intervention into the management," Tanri warned.

He added that his concept of the state company restructuring program had been elaborated on in 18 volumes of books due for further studying by the new government. (03)