Private company to procure vehicles for APEC

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)