RI won't change stand at WTO's telecom talks
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will not change its stand in the final round of the telecommunications negotiating group of the World Trade Organization (WTO), scheduled to be begin in Geneva on Friday, a senior official has said.
The secretary-general of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Jonathan L. Parapak, said Indonesian telecommunications policy would not be changed.
Indonesia would deliver its current policies and regulations on telecommunications in the meeting, he said, and not make any new announcements.
"I can't unveil the detail of our tabling yet as we still have to coordinate when we arrive there. We'll leave for Geneva on Wednesday night," Parapak told The Jakarta Post during a break in a hearing at the House of Representatives between Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave and the Commission V on tourism, post and telecommunications, public works and housing.
"We will just deliver the basic telecommunications conditions in Indonesia including local, long distance and international telecommunications, data switching, telex, telegraphs and cellular. This will be a comprehensive report," said Parapak, who is to represent Indonesia at the negotiating group.
A number of nations have been waiting for Indonesia to deliver its position on telecommunications liberalization.
The deadline for an accord of the telecommunications pact is Feb. 15, postponed from its original schedule of April 30, 1996. Liberalization will take effect on Jan. 1, 1998. The WTO estimates the world telecommunications market amounts to some US$512 billion per year.
Telecommunications is one of three major issues of service deregulation being sought through the WTO, in addition to financial services and maritime transport.
Indonesia licenses five private joint ventures to install and manage telecommunications networks in five operational regions of the country, under a 15-year joint operation contracts until 2010. Leading world-class telecommunications operators participate in the joint operation projects including France Telecom, West Inc., Telstra of Australia, NTT of Japan, Cable and Wireless of Britain and Singapore Telecom.
"Many developed countries were surprised when Indonesia introduced the joint operation projects, involving overseas world-class telecommunications operators," Minister Joop said recently. "I also believe that the foreign operators involved in this projects have their own interests."
"Welcome to the most open telecommunications industry in the world," he said, referring to Indonesia's allowance of foreign investment in the telecommunications industry.
In the cellular mobile telephone industry, Indonesia had also allowed operators to be partly owned by foreign firms like DeTeMobil of Germany, Dutch PTT Telecom Netherlands and Nynex of the United States and Mitsui of Japan. (icn)