Peruri to cooperate with foreign firms

Peruri to cooperate with foreign firms

JAKARTA (JP): State securities paper and bank note printing
company Peruri will cooperate with foreign companies in building
its new securities paper plant.

"The plant should have been established last year but since
our former partner PT Tridaya could not realize the plan, we have
to seek new partners," Peruri's president F.G Lesilolo said
Thursday.

Establishment of a new plant, he added, was urgent to reduce
operational costs because the price of imported securities paper
had increased sharply with the collapse of the rupiah.

Lesilolo said the country did not have its own securities
paper plant and still relied mainly on imports to meet local
demand.

He said Peruri initially agreed to cooperate with PT Tridaya
Esta, controlled by former president Soeharto's son Bambang
Trihatmodjo, in establishing the plant but the latter pulled out
due to financial problems.

Lesilolo said Kuwaiti-Malaysian and Chinese-German joint
ventures won the tender to replace PT Tridaya.

He said the foreign partners would invest about US$100 million
in the project, which is expected to produce 4,000 tons of
securities paper per year.

Local demand for securities paper reaches that amount per
year, he told Antara. (gis)