New oil palm estates

JAKARTA (JP): Eight Indonesian and Malaysian private firms will establish 50,783 hectares of oil palm plantations in South Sumatra's Lahat regency, an official said.

Lahat Regent Solichin Daud was quoted by Antara yesterday as saying that the Medan-based PT Pan London Sumatera Plantation and seven Malaysian companies had committed large investments to the plantations.

The news agency did not mention the sum of the investments.

The Malaysian firms are PT Multrada Multi Maju, PT Perjapin Prima, PT Arta Prigel, PT Aditarwan, PT Padang Bolak Jaya, PT Eka Jaya Multi Perkasa and PT Tri Mitra Sumber Perkasa.

Solichin said 21,193 of the 50,783 hectares allocated for the plantations had been acquired by the companies.

Multrada Multi has been making the most progress. It has developed 5,428 of the 8,280.7 hectares allocated to it by the government. (pwn)