NEC buys into Bakrie

NEC buys into Bakrie

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's NEC Corp. has acquired about one percent
of Indonesian telephone contractor PT Bakrie and Brothers for
three million dollars, hoping to win orders for 750,000 lines, a
spokesman said Friday.

The spokesman said NEC also planned to help Bakrie develop a
national television network across Indonesia and might take part
in plans by Bakrie to expand its telecommunications business to
Vietnam and other Asian countries.

NEC has already received orders for switches and microwave
transmitters for 250,000 telephone lines from Bakrie, the
spokesman said.

The Indonesian holding company, listed on the Jakarta Stock
Exchange but controlled by the Bakrie family, reportedly aims to
boost sales tenfold from the 1993 level of 311 billion rupiah
($140 million) by 1998.

In addition to acting as a contractor for Indonesia's state-
owned telecommunications company PT Telekom, Bakrie has
diversified interests in the steel and pipe industries as well as
automotive components, construction, electronics, engineering,
garments, mining and petrochemicals.