Taiwan companies to build Manado-Bitung road
Taiwan companies to build Manado-Bitung road
Yongker Rumthe, The Jakarta Post, Manado
The LED Group, a construction and road building business group
in Taiwan, is preparing a substantial transport infrastructure
project in North Sulawesi's emerging industrial districts.
The construction company will build a 47-kilometer-long
tollroad connecting the industrial districts of Manado, Bitung
and a seven-kilometer-long coastal road in an industrial estate
along the Bitung coast.
Chairman of Manado-Bitung Integrated Economic Development Zone
(Kapet Manado-Bitung), Fenny Wurangian, told The Jakarta Post on
Friday that the plan was based on a number of feasibility studies
carried out by Taiwanese businesses.
He explained that the plan emerged after Indonesia showed its
intention to develop Bitung harbor into an international seaport.
"After several meetings with the local administration, the
Taiwanese business group revealed that they had been interested
in North Sulawesi for some time now, especially Bitung, which
they consider a business gate to the Pacific," he added.
The project will be conducted under the build-operate-transfer
scheme, whereby Taiwan, as the sole donor, has the right to
operate the tollroad for a certain term before handing it over to
the administration.
"So don't be shocked when the road tolls go at first to the
pockets of the Taiwanese firms who built the project," Wurangian
remarked, when appealing to locals to participate in the multi-
billion rupiah investment.
Wurangian said that Kapet Manado-Bitung was arranging several
meetings between Taiwanese businesses and the administration to
discuss technical matters regarding the construction of the
tollroad.
Plans for several technical engineers from the LED Group to
design the construction together with engineers from the
administration's infrastructure office, will be revealed at the
meeting, which is scheduled to take place from Dec. 27 to Dec. 29
in Manado.
"With the authority of the governor, we will try to remove any
bureaucratic obstacles that may hamper the project. We also have
a security guarantee from local security officers and from
residents around the project site," said Wurangian.