Malaysia and RI companies sign business accords
JAKARTA (JP): Six firms from Malaysia and Indonesia signed agreements here yesterday on join operations in telecommunications, power generation and banking.
The agreements, whose signing was witnessed by Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto and Malaysian Premier Mahatir Mohamad, included the establishment of PT Daya Mitra Malindo, internationally guaranteed giro order services (IGGO) and the 5,000-megawatt ASEAN power project.
PT Daya Mitra Malindo is a telecommunications consortium 40 percent controlled by PT Intidaya Sistelindomitra and 25 percent by Telekom Malaysia. The other owners include American International Assurance Co. Ltd., a cooperative, and ALatief Corporation of Indonesia.
Under an agreement signed yesterday by Telekom's president, Mohd. Rashdan, and Intidaya's chief commissioner Rachmat Badruddin, the consortium will participate in the development of the telecommunications industry in Indonesia.
Intidaya's president, Benny Nasution, told reporters after the signing ceremony that the consortium is one of the 12 consortia selected by the government to take part in the open bid for the establishment of two million telephone lines in Indonesia.
The consortium, led by Intidaya, is proposed to be capitalized at US$10 million.
The government expects to install five million telephone lines in the coming five years, including two million lines that will be offered to private companies. The other three million lines will be established by the state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom with a total investment of Rp 15 trillion (US$6.88 billion).
Benny said that his company chose Telekom because it has developed modern telecommunications facilities in Malaysia. Telekom has also won contracts in Sri Lanka and India.
Mohd. Rashdan said that his company has installed 2.6 million telephone lines throughout Malaysia. "We install 14 lines for every 100 people."
Power plant
Meanwhile, Ponco Sutowo, an indigenous tycoon and executive of PT Bukit Asam Power Plant, signed an agreement with Zainal Osman of Sikap SPP Transystems of Malaysia on the establishment of a mine-mouth power generation plant in southern Sumatra.
Ponco said that the agreement will be followed up with several negotiations about the construction phases.
He said that the project, when implemented, will form part of ASEAN super grid enabling power transfer between Indonesia and Malaysia as power producers and Thailand, Singapore and other power consumers.
The project is estimated to cost $7.5 billion.
Besides Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) also groups Brunei and the Philippines.
The coal-fired power plant, described as the single biggest project of any type in Southeast Asia, will be completed within the next 15 to 20 years. The first phase will involve the construction of a 500-megawatt unit on a 50-50 basis by Malaysia and Indonesia. It will have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and is due to be able to provide power to Java island and Malaysia.
The state-owned Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) also signed an agreement with Malaysian Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) to introduce money remittance service from Malaysia to Indonesia.
BTN's president Widigdo Sukarman, who signed the agreement with BSN's chairman Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said that the service, called IGGO, will facilitate the remittance of money as there are lots of Indonesians workers in Malaysia.
"About one million Indonesian work in Malaysia. Each of them is estimated to send at least 500 Malaysian ringgit ($200) every month to Indonesia," he said. He added that the money transfer will be made easier by the service.(icn)