Transportation loans badly needed

Transportation loans badly needed

JAKARTA (JP): An executive of the Organization of Land
Transportation Owners (Organda) expressed concern on Monday over
the slow disbursement of loans worth Rp 56.3 billion (US$7.5
million) pledged by the government to help the ailing
transportation sector.

"We've held meetings several times to discuss the
disbursement, but it has not been realized up to now," Aip
Syaifuddin, head of Organda Jakarta, said.

"Coordination meetings have been held three times with
transportation businesspeople, once with city-owned Bank DKI
which is in charge of channeling the loans, a few times with
Organda board members and Bank DKI, and four times with the
central bank," he said.

He acknowledged that he had become bored with the meetings as
there had been no realization of what had been decided.

In line with a memorandum of understanding between
representatives of Organda and officials of the directorate
general of land transportation, the central bank and 13 regional
development banks, the loans should have been disbursed starting
the middle of this month.

If the banks in charge of channeling the loans themselves had
called for disbursement, the central bank should have immediately
responded, Aip was quoted by Antara as saying.

The Rp 56.3 billion in loans to be given to 15 public
transportation cooperatives/companies in the Jakarta area is part
of the total Rp 94.1 billion loans with an annual interest of
only 6.5 percent pledged by the government in 15 cities
throughout the country, Aid said.

The Rp 56.3 billion loans will be channeled to transportation
businessmen to enable them to buy spare parts amid the
skyrocketing prices due to the economic crisis, he said.

Out of the Rp 56.3 billion, Rp 35.57 billion will be used to
finance the maintenance of 3,175 wide-bodied buses and Rp 20.75
billion for minibuses, he said. (hhr)