Indonesia wants to tap Phl firms for infra projects

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Indonesian government is encouraging Philippine firms to invest in infrastructure projects in this vast Southeast Asian state.

Indonesian Minister for National Development Planning Bambang Permadi Soemantri Brodjonegoro told reporters in a chance interview the government wants to tap the expertise of foreign companies, including those from the Philippines, for infrastructure.

He said Indonesia could learn from Filipino companies as they already have experience in terms of implementing infrastructure projects under the publicprivate partnership (PPP) program.

“The Philippines is already ahead in terms of implementing PPP in their country and of course, we would like to do the same,” he said.

Like the Philippines, the Indonesian government is pushing for infrastructure development to drive economic growth.

The Indonesian government has set an infrastructure budget of around $500 billion under the 2015 to 2019 National Midterm Development Plan.

Brodjonegoro said the Indonesian government is encouraging private sector participation in infrastructure projects due to the 77 percent gap in infrastructure financing.

“We need more and more private sector involvement, not only foreign participa- tion, but also domestic participation,” he said.

He said very few Indonesian firms are presently involved in infrastructure projects as most focus on resource-related industries such as palm oil, coal, oil and gas, as well as mining.

He said Indonesia also wants Philippine firms to be involved in geothermal projects here.

“What we know in Indonesia, you are quite advanced in geothermal in terms of private sector so, we hope some private sector from the Philippines will be participating (in projects here),” he said.

He said the government is also hopeful more Philippine firms would invest in Indonesia.

Earlier this week, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) announced its tollway arm Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. has increased its indirect stake in PT Nusantara Infrastructure Tbk to 48.27 percent after acquiring 6.6 billion shares representing 42.25 percent of the Indonesian firm from PT Matahari Kapital Indonesia.

Nusantara Infrastructure is engaged in toll road operations, seaport management, water utility management, renewable energy power plant and telecommunication tower management.

MPIC, meanwhile, is involved in tollways, rail, power, water, hospitals and logistics.