State firm to take over customs inspection from SGS
JAKARTA (JP): PT Surveyor Indonesia (SI), a state-owned surveying company, plans to open branches in China and five other countries this year.
SI's president, I Nyoman Moena, said over the weekend that the opening of the overseas branches is part of the surveying company's strategy to take over all pre-shipment inspection of Indonesia's imports from the Swiss-based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) by the end of this year.
He said the branch office in China will be opened either in Beijing or Shanghai.
Moena, a former senior official of Bank Indonesia, said the opening of SI's branch in China will greatly assist Indonesia in monitoring the country's imports.
China has so far refused to let foreign surveyors conduct pre- shipment inspection on their exports, he said, adding that the Chinese government's approval of the opening of SI's branch is very encouraging.
"It indicates that the Chinese government is now getting more open and transparent to foreign countries," Moena said.
Indonesian producers often raise dumping charges against China's products sold here but it has been difficult to prove them due to the absence of foreign inspection firms in that country.
Other offices
He said the other five offices will be opened in Italy, Germany, South Korea, Japan and the United States.
The opening of the five branches will enable the company to carry out pre-shipment inspection of Indonesia's imports at ports of loading in 17 countries.
SI now operates offices in 11 foreign countries: Singapore, Malaysia, France, Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Thailand.
SI is 76 percent owned by the government, 20 percent by SGS and four percent by PT Sucofindo, a state-owned firm responsible for the pre-shipment inspection of exports.
"I hope we will be able to handle all pre-shipment inspection of imports by the end of this year or in the middle of next year at the latest," he told Bisnis Indonesia daily.
The government assigned SGS to conduct customs inspection in 1985. (hen)