Soeharto, Goh to open Bintan tourist resort
Soeharto, Goh to open Bintan tourist resort
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto and Singaporean Prime
Minister Goh Chok Tong will officially inaugurate the 23,000-
hectare Bintan Beach International Resort in the northern part of
Bintan, an island in Riau province, on June 18.
"The construction of this megatourism project hasn't yet been
completed. But we've already developed more than 60 percent of
the would-be largest integrated tourism resort in Asia," said
Mary Quah, the marketing manager of Bintan Resort Management Pte.
Ltd, in a press conference here yesterday.
Mary noted that Bintan Resort Management, which was set up in
1993 to manage the resort, is 60 percent owned by an Indonesian
consortium and 40 percent by a Singaporean consortium.
The Indonesian consortium is comprised of the PT Salim Group,
PT Suakajaya Indowahana, the Riau provincial administration and
the Indonesian Navy Foundation.
The Singaporean consortium consists of Singapore Technologies
Industrial Ltd,, the Development Bank of Singapore, Overseas-
Chinese Banking Corporation, Overseas Union Bank, UOL Equity
Investments, Straits Steamship Land, Tropical Resorts and KMP
Bincorp Investments.
Announcing that the Bintan tourism project will be completed
in the 2000s, Mary said that the project's total investment will
reach S$3.5 billion (US$2.8 billion).
"Until now, we've already spent about S$180 million for the
infrastructure construction and $1.66 billion for the tourist
resort's development," she said.
According to Mary, last year there were only 83 rooms
available at the resort. She estimated that this year, the number
of rooms available will reach 555, mostly luxury class. Next
year, the number of rooms will total 1,687, and in 2000 will
reach 3,500.
Mary pointed out that the number of tourists to Bintan last
year reached 31,182, mostly from Singapore. As of June of this
year, more than 32,000 tourists have visited the island.
"We expect to have 200,000 visitors this year," she said,
adding that the resort is projected to accommodate up to 1.5
million visitors in the year 2000. (13)