House studies possibility of amending postal law

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)