Minister installs 64 new commissioners
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah yesterday installed six new advisers at his ministry and 64 new state-owned plantation firm commissioners.
The newly installed executives consist of 14 chief commissioners and 50 commissioners for the 14 plantation companies under the agriculture ministry.
"I hope that the new commissioners will cooperate with the managements to boost the performance of the companies," Sjarifudin said in his inaugural speech.
Yesterday's appointments were a follow-up to the restructuring of state-owned plantation firms, which was completed last month.
Under its restructuring program, the government merged 26 PTP Nusantara plantation firms into 14 entities last month.
PTP Nusantara I-VII are based in Sumatra, PTP Nusantara VIII- XII in Java, PTP Nusantara XIII in Kalimantan and PTP Nusantara XIV in Sulawesi. Each company has a paid-up capital of between Rp 300 billion (US$128 million) and Rp 1.7 trillion.
The minister installed the new boards of directors of the 14 firms on April 9.
The new advisers appointed yesterday include Soedjarwo for regional agricultural development, Farid A. Bahari for agricultural conservation, Suherman Muljodihardjo for manpower and farm mechanization, Nelson P. Hutabarat for economic and trade cooperation and commodities, Djunaedi Tossin for food crop diversification and Achmad Saubari Prasono for institutional relations.
Director General of State-owned Companies Bacelius Ruru was appointed as chief commissioner of PTP Nusantara IV.
Sjarifudin urged the plantation companies to improve their performances to face global competition.
Sjarifudin, however, declined to elaborate on the plan to privatize several plantation companies.
"I prefer not to make further comments because any statement I make will be considered as my promise," he contended.
Ruru also declined to comment.
"I would say that the planned initial public offerings by several plantation companies are still under preparation," he said. (08)