Japan ready to fund new airport development in North Sumatra
Japan ready to fund new airport development in North Sumatra
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Japan Banking International Cooperation (JBIC) is ready to
disburse US$600 million to help finance the development of a new
airport in North Sumatra to replace Polonia International Airport
in Medan, said local officials.
The new airport will be built on at least 1,500 hectares of
land in Kuala Namu, a district in the city of Deli Serdang, about
30 kilometers from Medan.
Bachtiar Sonar Siregar, a deputy speaker of the North Sumatra
provincial legislative council, said the disbursement of the loan
was awaiting approval from both the Japanese and Indonesian
governments.
He was speaking to journalists after meeting visiting Japanese
delegates from the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and
Cultural Advancement (OISCA), Kenji Suwada, Tomoji Suzuki and
Miyazawa, on Thursday.
Chairman of North Sumatra's Indonesian Chamber of Commerce
(Kadin), Yopie Batubara, who attended the meeting, said the
development of the airport at Kuala Namu was included on the
priority list of projects being funded by the JBIC.
He confirmed that the Japanese agency was prepared to provide
soft loans for the airport project with an interest rate of 0.75
percent per year and a repayment period of 40 years.
"The point is that, should it be endorsed by the Indonesian
and Japanese governments, the project will be carried out
immediately," Yopie said.
He said the JBIC offered to provide 90 percent of the total of
the loan and the remaining 10 percent should be covered by the
Indonesian government.
The foreign investment must be approved by the Indonesian
government before June, otherwise the Japanese agency will revoke
the plan, Yopie added.
The OISCA team also met with North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal
Nurdin earlier on Wednesday to discuss JBIC's preparations for
the project.
Rizal said he was fully supportive of the plan and urged all
parties involved to implement the project soon.
Many legislators have expressed support for the project, but
Bachtiar admitted that the local legislative council was yet to
decide on its official stance.
"We will first raise the plan for discussion at the council's
plenary meeting," he said.
The plan to relocate the airport to Kuala Namu was approved
several years ago but was put on hold after former president
Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti "Tutut" Rukmana
resigned as the project's main investor.
Yopie claimed the land dispute at the proposed site had been
settled thoroughly.
He said the decision to relocate the airport had been made
because Polonia airport could no longer be expanded to
accommodate new runways, as it lay in the city's center.
Polonia airport's susceptibility to flooding is also believed
to have influenced the local government's decision to approve the
plan.
Also, construction of buildings exceeding a height of 45
meters in areas surrounding the airport was banned, he added.