Regents told to raise funds for national plane project
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday asked regent chiefs and city mayors throughout Indonesia to lead the fund raising campaign in their respective areas for the $2 billion jet project of state aircraft maker IPTN.
"Let's mobilize our 200 million people in the name of the Second National Awakening. I'm confident that through gotong royong (mutual help), we can do this," Soeharto said at a meeting with local administrators.
"This plane will be the pride and joy of not only a handful of people. It should be the pride of all our people," he said.
Soeharto was speaking in his capacity as chief commissioner of PT Dua Satu Tiga Puluh (DSTP), the company established in February explicitly to raise the $2 billion needed to build the twin-engine short-distance commuter jet named N-2130.
The 130-seater plane is the latest venture on IPTN's drawing board.
The company last year celebrated the maiden flight of the twin propeller N-250, the first plane designed and built locally. The plane is currently still undergoing tests.
DSTP President Saadilah Mursyid, who is also a cabinet minister, said that a recent shareholders meeting agreed to change the capital structure of the company to two million shares with a nominal value of Rp 4.6 trillion ($2 billion).
Shares
The 400,000 shares valued at Rp 920 billion that it initially started with have been sold to various individuals, and state companies, according to Saadilah.
When the company was founded in February, Soeharto owned 44,950 shares worth Rp 103,385 million, making him the biggest shareholder. Other initial shareholders include tycoons Soedono Salim, Sudwikatmono, Anthony Salim, Prajogo Pangestu, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Rachman Halim, Putera Sampurno, Henry Pribadi, Usman Admadjaja.
Former vice presidents Umar Wirahadikusumah and Sudharmono also sit on the board of commissioners. Saadilah is accompanied by Rahardi Ramelan, deputy chairman of the National Development Planning Board, and Giri Suseno Hadihardjano of the Institute for the Development and Application of Technology (BPPT), both as directors.
"Two billion dollars sounds like a lot of money. But it is not that much," Soeharto said at yesterday's meeting.
Divided over the 200 million people, it amounts to $10 a person, and spread over five phases, it means $2, or close to Rp 5,000, he pointed out.
"I hope all regent chiefs can grasp the strategic national interest involved in building this plane.
"This is no white elephant. Not at all. This is something that we desperately need. And we have to build this before others do, so that we can secure the market," he said.
"National pride doesn't come cheap. We have to pay for it," he added.
He said the regent chiefs in the first phase are expected to collect Rp 5,000 from every citizen in their area. Some people may not be able to raise that money, but others are expected to make up for this by buying more than one share.
Once the regent chief have collected the money, then they could proceed to buy the shares on behalf of the people, he said.
Soeharto promised that all the money collected by PT DSTP would be managed in a transparent manner.
The money collected would not be used directly to finance the project and therefore the funds would be put in a bank deposit, earning interest, he said.
Although he stressed that Indonesia is building the N-2130 to meet the growing need for air transportation within the archipelago, the plane would also be expected to penetrate export markets. (emb)