Wed, 26 Feb 1997

ISO certification for two more firms

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed telecommunication provider Indosat and PT Krakatau Engineering Corporation received yesterday ISO certification for their services.

Indosat, which is listed on Jakarta and New York stock exchanges, received ISO 9002 certification from Geneva-based Societe Generale de Surveillance for its international quality service in telecommunications.

Indosat's president, Tjahjono Soerjodibroto, said obtaining ISO certification was an important objective in Indosat's goal to win international recognition.

Indosat now intends to improve the quality of its marketing, customer services and operations.

"We plan to improve the quality of our customer services by increasing the speed and clarity of our telecommunications operation," Tjahjono said.

Krakatau Engineering Corporation received ISO 9001 certification for its quality service on engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPC) from Britain's Lloyd Register Quality Assurance.

Krakatau Engineering's president Djoko S. Widodo said yesterday the certification was essential to enhance the company's competitiveness in taking advantage of Indonesia's growing construction sector.

"Many big manufacturing projects with large foreign investment now use foreign EPC services," he said.

In industrialized nations, the ISO 9000 certificate has become a requirement to prove a company's standard quality, he said.

He said about 70 percent of manufacturing projects in Indonesia used foreign EPC companies.

Krakatau Engineering, a subsidiary of PT Krakatau Steel, controls between 10 and 15 percent of the domestic market of EPC, he said.

Djoko said the company's contract value was expected to increase to Rp 150 billion (US$62.39 million) from about Rp 80 billion in 1996.

"The increase would be expected to come from the development of new manufacturing plants, especially steel plants from Krakatau Steel," Djoko said.

Krakatau Engineering's operation has also expanded into other sectors, including chemical, petrochemical, infrastructure, and plant maintenance. (02)