Private company to procure vehicles for APEC
JAKARTA (JP): A private company will manage the purchasing of a number of luxurious vehicles for the transportation of delegates for the November leadership meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) here and in Bogor, West Java.
Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told reporters at Bina Graha here yesterday that the purchasing of the vehicles will be arranged in the same way as that for the 10th Non-Aligned Movement Summit held here in 1992.
Moerdiono, who is also chairman of the organizing committee of the APEC leadership meeting, refused to disclose the name of the company and how many vehicles will be prepared for the November event.
"I forget the name of the company," he said, adding that he did not know whether the vehicles have already been delivered or not.
A source at the organizing committee, whose secretariat is on the 17th floor of Hotel Atlet Century Park in Senayan, Central Jakarta, said that the vehicles, Volkswagen Caravelles, BMW 740is, Nissan Infinity and Patrols and Mercedes S-600s, will likely total 160.
The source said that a company run by one of President Soeharto's children will import the cars. However, Achmad Fuad Afdal, the corporate secretary of Bimantara Citra, which is owned by Bambang Trihatmodjo, denied that it was assigned to import the vehicles.
In the NAM summit, 860 luxury cars were purchased for the transportation of some 100 visiting heads of states. The cars, including 105 Mercedes 500 SELs, 200 Volvo 960s, 220 Nissan Patrols, 315 Nissan Cedrics and 450 units of 500cc motorcycles were imported by Indo Citra, a consortium of Salim Group's Indomobil and Bimantara Citra.
Accommodation
Chairman of the Jakarta Chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association Arman Rachman Iskandar told The Jakarta Post that all of five-star hotels in the city have been listed to host APEC's delegates.
Leaders of the APEC members will likely stay at Hilton International Hotel, where senior official and ministerial meetings will be held.
The forum groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, China, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and South Korea.
According to Arman, who is in charge of accommodation affairs for the committee, all the five-star hotels in Jakarta are scheduled to submit reports on the availability of their rooms for the APEC delegates next Monday.
There are nine five-star hotels here with some 5,000 rooms. Arman said that the hotels should not have to cancel reservations.(yns/icn)