PLN to work with Singapore company

PLN to work with Singapore company

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned electricity company PLN is
slated to sign a memorandum of understanding with a Singaporean
counterpart next week for cooperation to increase its power
generation capacity, PLN's chief executive said.

"The agreement with the Singaporean company will have two
functions: the transfer of technology and the improvement of
investment," Antara quoted Djiteng Marsudi as saying over the
weekend.

He said he expected that with this cooperation, PLN will be
able to meet the ever-increasing demand for power.

PLN's power plants throughout the country currently have a
total generation capacity of over 13,500 megawatts.

Djiteng said that under the planned agreement, the Singaporean
partner is expected to put equity into PLN's subsidiaries, PT
Pembangkitan I and PT Pembangkitan II, which operate power plants
in Java and Bali.

He explained that foreign investment is necessary because the
government's budget is very limited.

"The planned agreement with the Singaporean company will be
the fifth after the previous agreements with National Power and
National Grid of Britain, Hongkong China Light Power Ltd., and
Electricite de France," said Djiteng.

Indonesia has set targets to set up additional power plants
with a total capacity of 13,000 megawatts during the current five
year development plan period (1994-1999), including plants with a
combined capacity of 10,000 megawatts to be established by PLN
and the remainder by private companies.

Djiteng said the construction of these power plants will
require annual investments of Rp 10 trillion (US$4.3 billion).
(kod)