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)