Telecoms winners announced
JAKARTA (JP): The ministry of tourism, post and telecommunications announced yesterday the winners of four joint operation contracts for telecommunications facilities in Kalimantan, Central Java, Sumatra and West Java.
Secretary-General of the ministry, Jonathan Parapak, told a press conference that the four 15-year contracts would see the installation of 1.6 million new telephone lines before the end of March, 1999.
Parapak said a consortium of Astra International and France Telecom, called Pramindo Ikat, won the contract for installing and operating 460,000 lines in Sumatra.
The contract for the West Java region, which will see the installation of 500,000 lines, was won by the Tiga-A consortium, which includes U.S. West Inc.
Informed sources said the other members of the Tiga-A consortium were the Rajawali Group and Tomen Corp. of Japan.
The Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia consortium, consisting of PT Indosat and its partners Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) Corp. of Japan and Telstra Corp. of Australia, will install and operate 440,000 lines in the Central Java region.
For the Kalimantan region (237,000 lines), the contract was won by Daya Mitra Malindo consortium which consists of Telekom Malaysia Bhd. and ALatieF Corp. of Indonesia.
"However, the bidding process for the contract for the eastern Indonesian islands is still underway because only one bid has so far been submitted for that region," Parapak added.
A consortium of Bukaka Telekomindo and Singapore Telecom International was the only bidder for the eastern Indonesian region, in which 403,000 lines are to be installed.
The five projects are part of the government's program to install five million telephone lines within the current Sixth Five-Year Development Program (Repelita VI) which will end in March, 1999.
Two million of the total have been set aside for private companies under joint operation contracts, while the other three million, to be installed in greater Jakarta and East Java, will be managed by the state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom.
Parapak said that total investment for the projects in the five regions would range between US$2 billion and $3 billion.
Based on the contracts (including the one for the eastern region), Telkom will receive an estimated total revenue of Rp 13.98 trillion (US$6.2 billion) from initial investor payments, guaranteed annual minimum revenues and a percentage of the distributable operation revenues throughout the operational period of 15 years.
12 bidders
The four winners were selected from 12 bidders who were themselves short-listed from 30 consortia who took part in the pre-qualification assessment last November.
The two-page official press release about the winning bidders was very brief. The statement did not, for example, give the names of the local members of the winning consortia.
The statement said that the inter-ministerial team in charge of evaluating the bids had been assisted by national and international consultants, including PT Pan System, Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners (Baker McKenzie), Lazard Freres, McCarthy Tetrault and Dimhart & Associates.
Three weeks ago, when the four winning bidders had been selected, rumors were rampant that the government was trying to jawbone the winners into joining up with the losing bidders.
The government flatly denied the rumors but the delay in the announcement of the winning bidders until yesterday seemed to lend some credence to the speculation.
According to rumors, the government later dropped what foreign telecommunications executives here saw as the controversial request for fear that the proposed method of negotiating the contracts might affect the planned share issue by Telkom in New York and London later this year.
According to the Request for Proposals issued by Telkom last November to interested bidders, the purpose of the joint operation contract for each region will be to perform all activities required to expand, upgrade and operate telecommunications systems in a world-class manner.
Each of the contracts covers the planning, design and construction of new telephone lines and the upgrading of existing installations, as well as the operation of the existing lines and their integration with the new ones.
The contractors are entitled to a share of distributable revenue, which is defined by Telkom as the net revenues from operations under the contract after deducting the minimum Telkom revenues and the operating expenses of the telecommunications systems covered by the contracts. (pwn/vin)