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)