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State companies tighten monitoring to ensure product quality
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Ready for take-off — Officials prepare a CN235-200, a product of state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia, for delivery to Thailand, in front of a hangar of the company in Bandung. (The Jakarta Post/Arya Dipa)
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ix major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in strategic industries will team up with state surveyor firm PT Surveyor Indonesia (SI) to ensure their services and products meet the quality standards required in their respective markets.
The six SOEs are oil and gas company Pertamina, electronics company Len Industri, gas distributer Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), aircraft manufacturer Dirgantara Indonesia, explosives producer Dahana and hospital chain Pertamina Bina Medika.
Under the cooperation agreement signed recently, SI will provide a wide range of services, including research, consultation, inspection, verification and monitoring.
This includes inspections to ensure companies meet local content requirements (TKDN). For example, SI will ascertain whether TKDN are met by Dirgantara Indonesia, which still imports most of the components needed for its aircraft production. SI will also carry out supervision work for the construction of Dahana’s explosives plants.
Moreover, SI will provide services to assess the health services provided by Pertamina Bina Medika and the electronic railway equipment manufactured by Len Industri.
"We previously only focused on verifying and inspecting raw materials for several companies, such as Pertamina. Now, we want to offer [automated] systems to companies in the strategic industries to minimize human error," Surveyor Indonesia president director Dian M. Noer said.
Meanwhile, the SOEs Ministry’s undersecretary for mining, strategic industries and media affairs, Fajar Harry Sampurno, expressed hope the cooperation with SI would revive the country’s strategic industries.
The cooperation was also aimed at producing synergy among state-owned companies, which in the past had been difficult to achieve because of a lack of business cooperation among them, Fajar said, adding that many of the 143 SOEs were not aware of each other’s core businesses.
"However, I see light at the end of the tunnel today following the MoU," he said, expressing hope of achieving long-lasting cooperation.
His view was shared by Toto Pranoto, managing director of the University of Indonesia’s Economic and Business School Management Institute (LM FEB UI), who said good synergy between SOEs was necessary for the strategic industries, which had so far relied on imported materials and foreign technology to support their production.
“To improve [their performance], the SOEs should not only be financially healthy but also able to acquire new technology to come up with innovative products meeting demand in the country,” he said, emphasizing that SOEs should focus on the domestic market instead of the export market.
He encouraged SOEs to invest in research and development to create innovative products, suggesting that the companies allocate funds or use their profit for research and development.
“The government should not expect high dividends from the SOEs in the strategic industries, because they still need large funds to improve their performance,” he said.
Toto also suggested the government encourage government institutions, such as the Defense Ministry and the Indonesian Military, to use military-related products and aircraft produced by the state-owned companies.
Some SOE products, such as the aircraft produced by Dirgantara, have been exported to a number of countries, including South Korea and Turkey. (ars)
