House studies possibility of amending postal law

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives is studying the possibility of amending the country's postal law in order to allow private companies to perform postal services.

Chairman of the House's Commission IV on transportation, tourism, post and telecommunications, Ferdinand P.D. Lengkey, said here yesterday that the members of the commission were currently considering the option.

"If we find that the amendment is necessary, we will take the initiative rights to do so," he said when inspecting PT Pos Indonesia's headquarters in Lapangan Banteng, Central Jakarta, yesterday.

With such rights, the House would not have to wait for a proposal from the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications to amend the postal law, he added.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said last week that Postal Law No. 6/1984, which gave the sole rights to PT Pos Indonesia to provide postal services, needed an amendment to allow private companies to provide postal services.

"This may be the time for private companies to enter into the postal business," he said.

The minister indicated that the state-owned PT Pos Indonesia could only handle 10 percent of postal service opportunities in the country and the remaining 90 percent of potential postal services had remained untapped.

Such an amendment would terminate the postal monopoly of Pos Indonesia.

In a related development, Pos Indonesia's marketing director, Soemitro Roestam, said yesterday that his company was ready to compete with private firms if its monopoly was terminated.

He said that Pos Indonesia would launch new services and improve its public services.

Among the new services would be "priority delivery", which would provide priority delivery services for special mail like credit cards, he added.

"We will also launch next month an electronic money transfer service," he said.

He said Pos Indonesia was also on the way to setting up a subsidiary, likely to be called Admail Plus, which would focus on the delivery and mailing of advertising brochures and other printed promotional materials.

"We plan to set up the subsidiary with the Australian postal service of Australia, but domestic companies may also participate," Soemitro said, adding that his company was waiting for approval from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications. (icn)