SIER to promote small industries

SIER to promote small industries

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): The state-owned PT Surabaya Industrial Estate Rungkut (SIER) has tied up with German consulting firm GITEC to establish an engineering center to assist small and medium industrial firms here.

"Under a 12-year contract, GITEC will conduct a survey and prepare a concept for the operation of the planned center," SIER's president, Sugiat, told the media after attending the company's shareholders meeting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here yesterday.

He said that a German-based bank, KFB, will finance the whole project and will provide assistance on engineering, managerial and quality improvement for small and medium industrial companies, particularly those operating at the Pasuruan Industrial Estate Rembangan (PIER), some 54 km south of here.

Sugiat said he could not mention the investment needed for the project, which will be designed to promote small and medium industrial firms to become medium and large companies within two to three years.

SIER is an industrial estate company in Surabaya, whose shares are 50 percent owned by the government, 25 percent by the East Java provincial administration and the remaining 25 percent by the Surabaya mayoral administration, while PIER is an industrial estate built by SIER in 1992 on a 507-hectare area.

Sugiat said that 45 foreign and domestic companies currently operate in PIER to manufacture water filters, electronic goods and construction machinery. The industrial estate has been designed to house 411 industrial plants.

He added that his company offers more competitive prices for industrial space, averaging at US$30 per square meter, as compared to similar estates in East Java.

He said more foreign investors, particularly those from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, are expected to relocate their factories to the industrial estate in Pasuruan. (15/kod)