Telkom to get $400 million in loans from WB

Telkom to get $400 million in loans from WB

JAKARTA (JP): The World Bank will extend loans of US$400
million to the state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) next year, an executive says.

"The loan, with a maturity of 25 years, will be utilized to
finance a telecommunications project called Protel V," Telkom's
development director, Koesmarihati, told reporters here yesterday
after delivering a speech at a seminar on "World Bank procurement
and pre-qualification."

She said the loan will be extended in January of next year.

Protel V is for the development of telecommunications
facilities, including transmission networks, radio transmission
routes, fiber optic transmission facilities, central trunks and
equipment maintenance throughout the country.

Protel V, developed in the current Five Year Development Plan
(Repelita VI) period will cost $1.2 billion, and will be financed
with aid from the United States and Japan.

Koesmarihati said the World Bank has already extended a loan
of $350 million for Protel III and $375 million for Protel IV.

According to Koesmarihati, Telkom will accrue total loans of
Rp 20 trillion ($9.33 billion) from various sources, including
the export-Import Banks of the United States and Japan, KFW of
Germany, The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.(icn)