Dahlan Iskan: Kompas.comThe State-Owned Enterprises
(SOE) Ministry has appointed new directors of strategic businesses with the
expectation they will form “dream teams” that could compete with foreign firms.
SOE Minister
Dahlan Iskan said on Thursday that he had recently picked professionals and
highly dedicated people as directors of several strategic SOEs.
Muhammad
Firmansyah Arifin, who previously led state-owned shipyard Dok Perkapalan
Surabaya, will replace Harsusanto Soenarwan at ship-builder PT PAL’s helm.
"I have
just appointed Firmansyah, former president director of DPS, as president
director of PT PAL,” he said. "PT PAL should focus their work on building
warships at least for the next two years. The company is not allowed to receive
any work order to make commercial vessels.”
Indonesian
strategic SOEs are typically involved in production of both military and
civilian products. As the demand for military products are much less than those
in the commercial sectors, most companies rely on civilian orders for their
day-to-day activities.
Dahlan also said
that he appointed some new directors in aircraft-maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia
(DI) to make it a healthier company.
"The
composition of human resources in PT DI is getting better now and they have
received a lot of orders to make aircraft, too," he said.
"I also
have allowed PT DI to receive loan from Bank Rakyat Indonesia as high as Rp 1 trillion
this year."
Contacted
separately, PT DI’s special assistant to the president director on quality
assurance, Sonny Saleh Ibrahim, said that there were two new directors being
appointed: finance director Uray Azhari and general affairs and human resource
director Sukatwikanto.
“Previously, the
finance director was held concurrently by aircraft integration director Budiman
Saleh and general affairs and human resource director by technology and
development,” Sonny told The Jakarta Post over the
phone.
PT DI has just
signed agreements with pioneer airline Nusantara Buana Air (NBA) to buy N219
commuter airplanes in a contract worth US$120 million.
A letter of
intent was signed at the Singapore Airshow on Feb. 16 followed by a memorandum
of understanding signed by both firms and RTCom Investment Com Ltd to finance
the program.
PT DI also signed
a cooperation agreement with ailing state-owned airline Merpati Nusantara
Airlines to buy 40 Chinese-made COMAC ARJ-21 regional jets.
“We are
cooperating with Merpati to buy the Chinese aircraft because they are willing
to give us an offset of 40 percent,” Sonny said.
Offset is an
industrial scheme in which the buying party is given certain amount of trade
off from the total contract value, usually ranging from providing parts and
components up to license for local assembly.
Flag carrier
Garuda Indonesia
signed a contract to buy 18 Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ 1000 NextGen regional
jets without requiring any offset. (nfo)
