Japan mission arrives here

Japan mission arrives here

JAKARTA (JP): A Japanese mission arrived here yesterday to
discuss Japan's aid for Indonesia under its Official Development
Aid (ODA) scheme for fiscal 1994-1995.

The Japanese embassy said that the mission, led by Shigekazu
Sato, the soft loan director of the Economic Cooperation Bureau
of Japan's Foreign Ministry, will meet with Coordinating Minister
for Economy and Finance Saleh Afiff and State Minister of
National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita during its
April 10-16 visit.

The mission consists of representatives of the ministries of
foreign affairs, finance, international trade and industry,
fisheries, forestry and agriculture, transportation, post and
telecommunications and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund
(OECF).

Indonesia has been the largest recipient of Japan's official
development aid. Japan, a member of the Consultative Group for
Indonesia, pledged $1.44 billion in economic and technical
assistance for Indonesia in fiscal 1993-94.(03)

Voksel's new cable plant

JAKARTA (JP): PT Voksel Electric, an electricity cable
producer, starts operating its new Rp 40 billion (US$18.67
million) plant in Cileungsi, Bogor, West Java, to produce
middle-voltage cables.

"The new plant, with an installed capacity of 6,000 tons of
20-kilovoltage cables per year, is expected to meet the
increasing demand for cables in the country," Voksel's president,
Sugih Tjandrawinata, said during the inauguration of the plant
over the weekend.

He said the company, in cooperation with Showa Electric Wire
and Cable Co. of Japan, has thus far produced around 19,500 tons
of aluminum low-voltage cables, 1,160 tons of enameled wire and
1,750 single core kilometers (ScKm) of telephone cables per year
from its plants in Pulogadung and Cakung, both in East Jakarta.

Most of its products are supplied to the State Electricity
Company (PLN), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and PT
Indosat. PLN is reported to need some 15.4 million kilometers of
cable per year, while the demand for telephone cables is
estimated at 28.3 million ScKm. (fhp)

Exhibition ship introduced

JAKARTA (JP): The Agency for the Management of Strategic
Industries (BPIS) will prepare a semi-container ship, to be
called Caraka Niaga III-7, for a floating center that can be
leased to private companies to promote their goods.

Achmad Subianto, an official of BPIS's Economic and Finance
Department, said in Pantoloan, Central Sulawesi, on Saturday,
that the ship will be available for private companies soon after
it completes an exhibition tour of the 27 provinces in Indonesia.

According to Achmad, the floating exhibition on Caraka Niaga
III-7 will have many advantages because such a mobile exhibition
is able to reach potential markets with a greater number of
prospective buyers. (03)

S'pore retains tax privilege

SINGAPORE (Kyodo): Japan on Saturday acceded to Singapore's
request to retain until the year 2000 a tax privilege that Japan
grants to developing countries, although the island republic is
now Southeast Asia's most developed economy.

Under a taxation agreement signed by officials from the two
countries here on Saturday, most Japanese companies operating in
the island republic will continue to be exempted from taxation on
their profits both in Singapore and Japan.

Currently, most Japanese companies here are exempted from
paying corporate tax because Singapore has offered tax
concessions to attract foreign companies to set up businesses in
the country.

These companies also do not pay tax in Japan because Japanese
tax authorities view them as having paid tax in Singapore -- a
privilege Japan normally grants only to developing countries to
help them lure much-needed foreign investments to build up their
economies.

EU's investment projects

ATHENS (AFP): Finance minister of the European Union meeting
here over the weekend identified 10 large projects -- mainly
high-speed rail and roads -- to kick off a large-scale investment
program to boost economic growth.

But France, Britain and Germany maintained their opposition to
helping fund the projects through special "union bonds".

EU Finance Commissioner Henning Christophersen said the 10
projects would be formally approved at an EU summit in June, and
construction work would start within two years.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke said: "I
wasn't the only one to express doubts about a new loan."

The meeting focused on a 120 billion Ecu (US$135 billion)
project to build transport, telecommunications and energy
networks across Europe by the turn of the century, which was
launched at an EU summit last December.

It is a key part of an EU initiative to fight unemployment and
promote recovery from economic recession.

Most countries remained skeptical of an earlier European
Commission proposal to raise a six-year loan of 48 billion Ecu
($54 billion) to finance the some of the work, saying that
existing sources of finance were sufficient.

Russian oil output falls

MOSCOW (Reuter): Russia's steep drop in crude oil output in
the first quarter of this year is a direct consequence of the
chain of debt strangling the economy, Fuel and Energy Minister
Yuri Shafranik said.

"The decline in demand (due to lack of solvent consumers) has
been accumulating for a long time...There comes a time when you
just have to shut down wells," he told Reuters after a meeting
devoted to the nuclear industry's financial crisis on Friday.

The Fuel and Energy Ministry's Infotek news service said on
Thursday that crude oil and gas condensate output fell to 73.9
million tons in January-March from 88.3 million tons in the same
1993 period.

The fall of 13.4 million tons, 15.1 percent, was one of the
biggest recorded since annual output started to slide from its
1988 Soviet-era peak of 570 million tons.

The latest first-quarter figures did not include output by
joint ventures, but still suggested the 1994 output target of 327
million tons, down from 354 million in 1993, could be in
jeopardy.

IDB's regional office in KL

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank
(IDB) is to open a regional office in Kuala Lumpur later this
year to coordinate its activities in Asia, its president was
quoted saying Saturday.

"The opening of the Kuala Lumpur office, scheduled for the
third quarter of the year, is part of our new strategy to expand
the role of the IDB", Bernama news agency Saturday quoted Osama
Faquih as saying.

Osama left for home late Friday after a brief visit to the
Malaysian capital, where he held talks with Deputy Premier Anwar
Ibrahim and Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi.

The regional office's functions would include receiving
project applications, monitoring projects and liaising with key
officials in the Islamic countries of the region, Osama said.

The IDB, set up 19 years ago, has 47 members, including
predominantly-Moslem Malaysia, which is one of its founder
members.