Indonesia barters airplanes for Thai rice
JAKARTA (JP): Thailand and Indonesia yesterday signed a US$34 million deal to barter two Indonesian CN-235 airplanes for 110,000 tons of Thai rice.
The deal was inked in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Indonesian State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie and Thailand's Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Suwit Khunkitti.
Witnessing the ceremony at Merdeka Palace were Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa and Indonesia's President Soeharto.
The Thai prime minister is here for a two-day visit to exchange views with Soeharto. This is Banharn's first visit here since becoming prime minister last July.
After his meeting with Soeharto, Banharn left for a brief junket to Yogyakarta to see the famous Buddhist Borobudur temple and hold a prayer at the nearby Mendut temple before returning home to Bangkok.
The two CN-235s are made by the Bandung-based IPTN, the state- owned aircraft manufacturing company.
Thailand purchased five Indonesian NC-212s in a similar deal several years ago. The new planes are expected to join the previous batch which have been used by Thailand for seeding clouds.
Elaborating further on the rice imports, head of the State Logistics Agency Beddu Amang said that about 50,000 tons of the rice will be of the sticky rice variety, and 30,000 would be fine grain rain. The rest would be regular rice of high quality.
The rice will probably be imported during the dry season since it is the time Indonesia is likely to be short of rice.
"Since the imported rice has to be of the highest quality, it will not hurt local farmers," said Beddu as quoted by Antara.
After the two heads of state had a tete-a-tete behind closed doors here yesterday, Indonesian Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said Thailand also expressed interest in Indonesia's Natuna gas field for its growing energy needs.
"Indonesian and Thai officials will study this possibility," Moerdiono told journalists.
The Natuna fields have potentially one of the world's largest natural gas reserves with an estimated 210 trillion cubic feet of gas. In 1994 the state-owned oil company Pertamina signed a $42 billion deal to develop the area with United States oil giant Exxon. Other countries that have expressed interest in purchasing liquefied gas from Natuna are Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Separately yesterday Thai officials said discussions over the possibility of establishing a pipeline from Natuna to Thailand have been going on for the past four months.
The official said negotiations are expected to continue for at least another year. (mds)
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