Govt plans to merge ship makers

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).