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tate-owned cement maker PT Semen Indonesia and state-owned lender PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) are aiming to increase their cash flows from one of their fastest growing markets in the country, the Papua area.

Semen Indonesia president director Dwi Soetjipto said the Papua area (Papua and West Papua provinces) had become the fastest growing market for the country'€™s cement industry.

'€œCement sales in Papua and Maluku recorded the highest levels in the country, surpassing those of Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan,'€ he said.

Demand for cement in Papua and Maluku surged 54.8 percent to 1.22 million tons in 2012 from 790,000 in 2011, according to data from Semen Indonesia.

That compares favorably with the growth in demand from Java, Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi, which only reached 14.6 percent, 21.3 percent, 13.9 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively, in the same period.

Dwi said that most cement demand in Papua was for the construction of various buildings, including housing and offices, and was in line with the area'€™s surging economic growth.

Papua recorded 14.84 percent in economic growth last year, the highest among all provinces, and West Papua came second with 9.3 percent growth. The two surpassed the national economic growth of 5.7 percent.

To cater to growing demand for cement in the Papua area, last year Semen Indonesia built a rotary packing plant for a total investment of Rp 162 billion (US$13.8 million) in Sorong, West Papua.

The plant produces 2,200 bags per hour and currently supplies between 300 and 400 tons per day to the West Papua area alone.

Semen Indonesia expects that in the near future the plant will be able to supply cement to the Papua provinces, the markets of which are now dominated by Holcim and Tiga Roda.

Another state-owned enterprise, BRI, also aims to further expand its business in Papua, as the region had among the fastest growing markets for the company.

Rapiuddin, the head of BRI Sorong, which handles BRI'€™s operations in the West Papua area, said Tuesday that West Papua had become one of the largest contributors of revenue to his company.

'€œWe recorded our highest growth in Sorong, with the biggest share as compared to other BRI branches nationwide,'€ he said.

BRI'€™s outstanding loans hit Rp 430.62 trillion nationwide last year, of which Rp 1 trillion was from its West Papua'€™s operation.

Rapiuddin said that BRI Sorong had set a target to pocket a 20 percent increase in its outstanding loans this year and a 40 percent increase in its fee-based income. BRI won 28.1 percent of the overall market share in West Papua.

As of August this year, BRI'€™s total outstanding micro loans (KUR) in West Papua hit a record high of Rp 91 billion, already surpassing its last year'€™s total outstanding loans in the province of Rp 83 billion.

Of the Rp 91 billion, Rp 39.35 billion was micro KUR and the remaining Rp 51.45 billion was retail KUR.

This year alone, BRI had set targets to pocket Rp 102 billion in KUR from its operations in West Papua.