Hardiyanti to visit Manila for road project

Hardiyanti to visit Manila for road project

MANILA (AFP): Indonesian President Soeharto's daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana is to visit the Philippines next month to present a proposal for a US$450-million road project here, a senior official says.

The announcement of the visit came amid a diplomatic row involving Manila and Jakarta over the former's hosting of an ongoing human rights conference on East Timor, the former Portuguese colony which has been integrated into Indonesia since 1976.

Public Works Secretary Gregorio Vigilar said in a radio interview here Thursday that Hardiyanti is to arrive in Manila "sometime next month" to present the financing arrangements for the joint venture to President Fidel Ramos.

Jakarta has canceled a visit by the Indonesian industry minister to Manila but Vigilar said he was confident Hardiyanti's visit, and the project would go ahead.

Ramos said on Wednesday that the total cost of the road project involving the Citra Lamtoro Gung group controlled by Hardiyanti was US$450 million.

Citra sources in Jakarta said a subsidiary, PT Citra Metro Manila, would be undertaking the project. Ramos said PT Citra would undertake the project with Philippine National Construction Corp., which is majority-owned by the government.

Vigilar said Manila was continuing discussions with PT Citra.

"Our target now is to finish the detailed engineering which has been ongoing now for several months to try to make the first ground-breaking by September," he said.

He said the six-lane elevated highway project, which would link the financial district of Makati with Manila's densely- populated southern suburbs, should be finished in two years' time.

Vigilar said PT Citra would initially put in at least 10 percent of foreign funding for the skyway, gradually raising it to 30 percent which would be converted into equity once the project is completed.