Govt plans to merge ship makers

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Following its plan to merge state enterprises in several industries -- including mining, plantations and port operators -- the government will also merge several state-owned ship makers by 2009.

State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto said during his visit to the country's biggest ship maker PT PAL Indonesia over the weekend the state company would be required to build synergies with PT IKI Ujung Pandang in Makassar, South Sulawesi, and PT Dok Bahari Jakarta before being merged.

The government has planned to merge a number of state enterprises and set up several holding companies to oversee smaller state firms in a bid to help restructure and revitalize state enterprises, most of them which are in bad shape.

From a total of 158 state firms as of last year, 54 of them would be merged into 21 new entities while 38 would be included in 10 holding companies and 66 would remain unchanged.

At present, three state enterprises -- telecommunication company PT Telkom, gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) and state oil and gas company PT Pertamina -- have contributed the biggest dividends to state coffers.

Sugiharto reiterated that his office would first restructure the management of state firms in bad shape prior to merging them with others.

"This restructuring would take between three and five years," he said.

On Sept. 22, Sugiharto said the government was considering to merge three state-owned mining firms -- PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) and PT Timah.

Apart from the mining firms, the government also plans to merge 14 plantation companies (PT Perkebunan Nusantara numbers I through XIV), four port operators (PT Pelindo numbers I to IV), four airport operators (PT Angkasa Pura numbers I to IV) and four forestry firms (PT Inhutani numbers I to IV).