PT Indosat gears up for ISO certification

PT Indosat gears up for ISO certification

JAKARTA (JP): The country's international telecommunications
operator PT Indosat has said it is seeking ISO-9002 certification
this year, in an effort to become a leading global
telecommunications carrier.

A company spokesman, J.B. Basuki, said here yesterday that
such a certificate would help the company's performance.

The ISO-9002 is one of the six series of guidelines and
standards on quality systems introduced by the International
Standardization Organization which was established in New York in
1987 by dozens of industrialized countries.

Basuki said yesterday that ISO certification, however, would
not be the only target of Indosat because, "as a public company,
we have to reach higher growth for corporate value, profit and
efficiency."

Indosat floated its shares on the Jakarta and New York Stock
Exchanges in 1994. The company's shares closed Rp 25 higher at
Rp 8,325 on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) yesterday.

Last year Indosat made a total profit of Rp 459.4 billion
($197 million), 59 percent more than the previous year.

Basuki said that in addition to the preparations for the ISO
certification, Indosat has also applied for the technical
standard set by an institute supervised by the Swiss-based
International Telecommunications Union.

The standard is vital for technical aspects in the
telecommunications industry, including the power of earth
stations, microwave and switching circuits, he said.

Indosat will be the first telecommunications operator in
Indonesia to get ISO certification. The state-owned
telecommunications equipment manufacturer, PT Industri
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Inti), last year gained an ISO-9002
certificate for its management and digital telephone hub
production lines.

A research unit of J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong late last year
said in a report that Indosat would be among the best performing
telecommunications stocks in Asia in 1996.

The report said the company has extremely attractive prospects
with a strong position in the profitable international gateway
business.

Basuki said yesterday that the successful call ratio (SCR) in
international calls in Indonesia reached an average of 65
percent, depending on the networks in the countries which receive
the calls using the Indosat code. The current SCR rates of local
calls and long distance calls in Indonesia are 53.81 and 46.92
percent respectively. (icn)