Investors assured of quick investment return

Investors assured of quick investment return

JAKARTA (JP): Government officials yesterday assured that
private investors would recover investments for infrastructure
projects in Indonesia within the first seven to 13 years of
operation.

Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Works Ruslan
Diwiryo, Director General of Electricity and Energy Development
Arismunandar and President of PT Telkom, the state-owned
telecommunication company, Setyanto P. Santosa said at the World
Infrastructure Forum-Asia 1994 here yesterday that investments in
toll roads, power plants and telecommunication projects are
bankable and thus they should be attractive for private
investors.

Ruslan noted that the government is trying to improve the
setting for investments and provide investors with certain
facilities, such as assisting land acquisition which has become a
major problem for most investors in toll roads.

As the government has a limited budget for land acquisition,
it is developing a bridge financing scheme, which allows
investors to finance land appropriation for their toll road
projects, and after a certain period of time the state-owned toll
road operator PT Jasa Marga will pay them back.

The government is inviting foreign investors to take part in
the development of 310 kilometers of roads over the coming five
years.

When opening the forum yesterday, President Soeharto called
for both foreign and local investors to finance most of the US$50
billion needed for the development of infrastructure facilities
in the coming five years.

Arismunandar stated that the electricity sector will need huge
investments from the private sector because new power plants with
a total capacity of almost 4,000 megawatts will be needed in the
next five years.

"We are flooded with hundreds of proposals, and thus we can be
more selective as there are more choices... This is evidence that
investments in electricity are attractive enough," he said.

Setyanto of Telkom also invited foreign investors to take part
in the country's telecommunication projects which will offer five
million new telephone lines within the next five years.

Next month, Setyanto said, the government will tender
contracts for the installation of two million telephone lines.

Setyanto said investments in telecommunication projects can be
recovered within seven to nine years. (rid)