NTT, Itochu and Sumitomo eye RI telecom

NTT, Itochu and Sumitomo eye RI telecom

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT), the Itochu Corp. and the Sumitomo Corp. plan to jointly bid for a two billion dollar telecommunications project in Indonesia, company officials said yesterday.

NTT and the two trading houses are also calling on local companies, including the Salim conglomerate, to join the Japanese companies in an international tender scheduled for August, Itochu officials said.

Under a five-year plan to build five million telecommunication lines, the Indonesian government is to allow several international groups to install a total of two million lines, they said.

The government has already placed an order with state-run telecommunications operator, Telekomunikasi Indonesia, for building the first three million lines.

The Japanese companies plan to submit documents for the tender by the end of June, the officials said. The Indonesian government is expected to announce the result as early as December.

Groups that win the order will be in charge of constructing, managing and repairing the telecommunicaitons lines until they can recoup their investment.