PLN starts decentralization in project bid
PLN starts decentralization in project bid
JAKARTA (JP): The State Electricity Company (PLN) will offer
80 percent of its tenders for the procurement of electricity
cables to manufacturing companies through its provincial offices,
a company executive says.
"The decentralization of our policies on tenders will begin in
the provinces in Java," PLN's head of operation and logistic
division, Sudarso, said after attending a ceremony for the
operation of PT Voksel Electric's new cable plant in Cileungsi,
near Bogor in West Java over the weekend.
He said the policy is part of the company's efforts to meet
the government's call for decentralization aimed at boosting
provincial economies.
He added that only 20 percent of PLN's tenders will be offered
through its headquarters in Jakarta.
He declined to elaborate on the schedules for the bidding.
In response to PLN's new tender scheme, the chairman of the
Indonesian Association of Cable Producers (Apkabel), Kusudiarso
Hadinoto, hailed PLN's decentralization scheme but he expressed
his pessimism over the competitiveness of domestic cable
producers because most of them have not implemented international
standardization schemes on their products.
"Out of Apkabel's 25 members, only five have cooperated with
foreign companies which can help improve the quality of products
through a transfer of technology," he said.
Kusudiarso, therefore, urged the association's members to
invite foreign investors to help improve the quality of their
products.
He cautioned that the state-owned domestic telecommunications
monopoly, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), also plans to
require the use of the internationally recognized ISO 9002
quality standard in the production of cables to be supplied for
its transmission and distribution networks next year.
"It seems that investors from Australia, the United States and
Europe are still reluctant to run cable businesses in Indonesia.
I hope PLN's decentralization scheme will attract foreign
investment," Kusudiarso said. (fhp)