RI to explore land transportation links with Timor Leste, PNG

Antara , Jakarta | Sun, 06/29/2008 7:22 PM | National

The Transportation Ministry is considering establishing regular land transportation services with two of Indonesia's closest neighbors, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea (PNG), a spokesman says.

"We will try to emulate the success of the land transportation route between Pontianak (West Kalimantan) and Brunei Darussalam via Sarawak in Malaysia, which will be operational next September," the director general of land transportation, Iskandar Abubakar, said here Friday.

He said land transportation cooperation with the neighboring countries would not only pay dividends in the transportation sector but also in the trade sector.

The opening of the trans-border land transportation routes would indirectly encourage bilateral trade, he said.

"Indonesian products such as Indomie (instant noodles), for instance, will surely be widely marketed in those countries," he said.

In Indonesia, the infrastructure for land transportation links with Timor Leste and PNG already existed, "but I don't know about the situation on the other side of the borders", he said.

The business director of state-owned land transportation company Perum Damri, Bagus Wisanggeni, said Damri was ready to serve the trans-border routes with its buses. "We are already operating bus services in areas bordering those countries. We only need to extend them a little to reach the borders," he said.

Damri is one of two Indonesian transportation companies that will serve the Pontianak-Brunei Darussalam route. The company intends to run five buses, and PT SSDS, based in Pontianak, will add another five.

The Brunei Darussalam side will also put 10 of its buses in service on the route to Pontianak, Wisanggeni said.(**)