Govt's ambitious cyber plan doubted

JAKARTA (JP): Experts and industry players voiced on Thursday pessimism over the feasibility of the government's plan to establish 500,000 integrated Internet and telephone kiosks across the nation by 2004.

To date, according to government data, there are 2,500 Internet kiosks and 187,000 telephone kiosks across the country operated independently.

Adi R. Adiwoso, president of PT Pasific Satelit Nusantara, said the target would be difficult to meet due to uncertainties in obtaining funds. PT Pasific plans to connect 50,000 villages with telephones next year.

"It is still uncertain we will receive grants from other countries to meet the target," he said at a seminar.

"If no countries provide the financing, where will the government get funds for the program from?" he added.

The country needs hundreds of millions of dollars to establish 500,000 kiosks across the country as each kiosk requires an investment of between US$1,000 and $2,000.

Many experts and industry players gathered at the seminar to discuss the government's ambitious plan, which was recently unveiled by Deputy Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dipo Alam.

Dipo earlier said the establishment of 500,000 Internet and telephone kiosks was among the 75 information, communications and technology (ICT) programs to be proposed to foreign countries, including Japan, for financing. The government has named each integrated kiosk as a "business information center" (SIBM).

The Japanese government has reportedly pledged to provide $15 billion to help Asian countries, including Indonesia, develop ICT.

South Korea and the United State Agency for International Development (USAID) have also offered to help Indonesia develop its ICT.

However, the cyber kiosk project is still in the initial stages of planning as the government has yet to announce the plan in detail .

Adi was also pessimistic that local banks will finance the project as many banks are now reluctant to grant loans to the private sector because of the many nonperforming loans since the economic crisis hit the country in mid-1997.

"Therefore, we should be more realistic when setting a target," he said, but he was reluctant to give a more realistic target.

Rudi Rusdiah, chairman of the Indonesian Internet Kiosks Association (Awari), said at the seminar that he was not optimistic that the 500,000 cyber kiosk target could be met by the end of 2004.

He said aside from the banks reluctance to provide loans, current government policies on technology and communications were also not supportive to achieving the target.

He cited the government's plan to increase telephone rates, which he said would reduce cyber kiosks customers and earnings, and discourage the development of more kiosks.

"Unless the government stops issuing counterproductive policies, we will not be able to reach the target," Rudi said.

He urged the government to provide incentives such as discounted telephone rates and loans with low interest rates to encourage the establishment of cyber kiosks in the country.

Another participant at the seminar, Mas Wigrantoro Roes Setiyadi, who is a senior executive of Telecommunication Society (Mastel), said the government should provide details of its plan and not just release numbers to pursue grants from other countries.

"It's not clear how the government set the target because no preliminary surveys were conducted," he said.

He said the target should match market demand to avoid a cyber kiosk oversupply. (05)