Joint infrastructure projects poorly implemented: Rahardi
Joint infrastructure projects poorly implemented: Rahardi
JAKARTA (JP): The government pays too little attention to the
improvement of efficiency in the implementation of infrastructure
projects undertaken in cooperation with the private sector, a
senior official said yesterday.
"Over the past two years, a number of state-owned companies
have offered several projects for development in cooperation with
private firms but the development of some of them has not run
smoothly because of inadequate preparation," Deputy Chairman of
the National Development Planning Board Rahardi Ramelan told a
seminar here.
He said that the government's attention was focused mostly on
the financial aspects of cooperative projects.
"For instance, the initiatives to invite private firms to
participate in electricity and clean water projects is focusing
merely on the creation of larger capacity, but efficient means of
distribution has not been well-prepared," he said.
He said that, if financing were the only problem, the
government could raise funds on the capital market.
"The state-owned manager of toll roads, PT Jasa Marga, and the
electricity provider, PT PLN, have been successful in floating
bonds, while PT Indosat, the state-owned international
telecommunications operator has also floated its shares on
domestic and international bourses successfully," he said.
According to Rahardi, floating shares is one of the most
transparent ways of raising funds from the public.
Transportation
Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto told
the seminar -- on opportunities for private firms in
infrastructure development -- that the attitude of the management
personnel of state-owned firms needed to improve.
"They should be more professional. I find that some the
decision-makers in the companies supervised by my office are less
than professional. They often suspend meetings for negotiations,"
he said.
Haryanto said that there were many opportunities for private
sector companies to cooperate with the government or its firms in
the development of air, land and sea transportation.
"In air transportation, for instance, we plan to relocate the
airports in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara; Medan, North Sumatra; and
Samarinda, East Kalimantan. We will also refurbish the airports
in Manado, North Sulawesi; Ambon, Maluku; Ujungpandang, South
Sulawesi; Bandung, West Java; Surabaya, East Java; and Surakarta
and Semarang, Central Java," he said.
Some of the projects had already involved private firms at the
design stage, he said.
"We have an inventory of 126 projects whose development can be
offered to private sector companies and 74 of them have already
received commitments from certain parties," he said, adding that
the other 52 projects, which had not received commitments,
included container ports in Cirebon, West Java; integrated
terminals in Bandung, West Java, and Surabaya, East Java; a
passenger terminal at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta; a container
terminal in Palembang, South Sumatra; and an integrated loading
terminal at Belawan port in North Sumatra.
In land transportation, the projects included railway
facilities in East Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra, he said.
The president of the state railway company Perumka, Soemino
Eko Saputro, said that a feasibility study was currently being
conducted regarding the introduction of a high-speed express
train which would link Jakarta and Surabaya within three or four
hours.
The fastest Jakarta-Surabaya train trip currently takes nine
hours. (icn)