Indonesia barters airplanes for Thai rice

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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