S

tate-owned pawn shop PT Pegadaian estimates the company's gold sales will increase by 50 percent this year to Rp 1.5 trillion (US$154 million), thanks to new gold ingots carrying the mark of state-owned printing company PT Peruri.

Pegadaian president director Suwhono said on Friday that in terms of volume, gold sales would also increase by 50 percent to 3 tons from 2 tons last year.

In addition to its pawn business, Pegadaian also sells gold to increase its earnings. At present, Pegadaian sells gold ingots hallmarked by state-owned diversified mining company PT Aneka Tambang.

In an attempt to boost its gold sales, Pegadaian signed on Thursday a deal with Peruri, according to which the money-printing company will mark the gold ingots, which will be sold by the pawn shop in three sizes ' 5 grams, 10 grams and 25 grams.

'The gold ingots marked by Peruri will have the Pegadaian logo. This is part of our company's promotion. Each piece will also have a certificate of authenticity,' Suwhono said, adding that the company planned to have 100 kilograms of gold printed by Peruri during the first phase.

Peruri president director Prasetio said his company had the capacity to print up to 1 troy ounce of gold.

Despite the agreement with Pegadaian, he said that Peruri's main business remained the printing of bank notes. Prasetio said the company was looking at the possibility of printing bank notes for more foreign countries.

'We are currently assessing Myanmar and South Africa,' he said.