KL keen on buying IPTN shares: Report
KL keen on buying IPTN shares: Report
JAKARTA (JP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has
expressed his government's intention to buy shares in PT Industri
Pesawat Terbang Nusantara, Indonesia's state-owned light aircraft
manufacturer.
The Malaysian prime minister said that his government is keen
to purchase a small portion of IPTN stocks to support the
financing of the Indonesian aircraft company.
The promise was made last week during his visit to the IPTN
pavilion at the Paris Air Show, in response to Indonesian State
Minister for Research B.J. Habibie's offer, the Antara news
agency reported Saturday.
Habibie told Mahathir that the equity participation of the
Malaysian government is needed to back up the operation of the
Indonesian aircraft company, which is now preparing its
assembling plants in the United States and Germany.
Habibie said that another alternative in supporting the
aircraft company's financing is to generate public funds through
the sales of the company's stocks.
"If two million Indonesians, or about one percent of the
country's population buy IPTN shares, at an average spending of
US$1,000 each, there will be about $2 billion worth of fresh
funds available," he said. "That sum is significant to develop
IPTN."
IPTN plans to establish an assembling plant at Alabama in the
United States, to support its marketing network in North America,
and another assembling plant in a German city, to back up its
marketing in Europe.
Habibie, who was accompanied by Transportation Minister
Haryanto Dhanutirto in the German visit, said that the test
flight for IPTN's N-250 aircraft, the latest type of its light
commuter airplanes, would be carried out on Aug. 15.
"An Airbus pilot has been in Indonesia since last October, to
test the airplane," he added.
During the visit, Habibie presented the Malaysian prime
minister a model of the N-2130, a new type to be developed by
IPTN in the future.
The N-2130 is designed by Ilham, Habibie's son, who is now
working for Boeing. IPTN is expected to start the production of
the new 130-seat aircraft by the year 2000.(hen)