Surveyor Indonesia to replace SGS by end of this year
Surveyor Indonesia to replace SGS by end of this year
JAKARTA (JP): The pre-shipment inspection of goods to be
imported to Indonesia, which has been done by the Swiss company
Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) since 1985, will be taken
over by PT Surveyor Indonesia (PTSI) by the end of this year.
After gradual preparations, PT Surveyor Indonesia will now be
capable of doing the inspection work at foreign ports which has
been handled by SGS since 1985, the chief commissioner of
Surveyor Indonesia, Soedarjono said in London on Thursday at the
inauguration of a PTSI branch office in the British capital.
The bulk of the pre-shipment inspection work is already being
handled by PTSI, the Antara news agency quoted Soedarjono as
saying.
The company, set up in August 1991 to replace SGS, is 76
percent owned by the Indonesian ministry of finance, 20 percent
by SGS and four percent by PT Sucofindo, another surveying firm
owned by the Indonesian government.
Based on a regulation issued in 1985, goods worth more than
US$5,000 being shipped to Indonesia have to be inspected at the
country of origin.
Certain goods such as pulp, fertilizer, oil and gas products
and goods for use in projects funded with foreign aid are
exempted.
The London branch office, located in Camberley, 50 kilometers
southwest of London, is the twelfth set up by PTSI since its
establishment.
The eleven others include those in Rotterdam in Holland,
Antwerp in Belgium, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Bangkok in
Thailand, Sidney in Australia, Paris in France and in Singapore.
By the end of 1994, at least seven more branches would have
been established, among others, in Hamburg, Germany, Milan in
Italy, Kobe in Japan, Seoul in South Korea and New York in the
United States, Soedarjono said.
The possibility of opening a branch in South Africa will also
be studied in view of that country's trade potential, he added.
Robert D. McCutchen, PTSI's director of operation, was quoted
by Antar as saying that PTSI can now tackle the pre-shipment
inspection work as satisfactorily as SGS.
McCutchen is a US citizen who has been residing in Indonesia
since 1972.(17)