Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Indonesia:

Indonesia Set for Turkish, Chinese Plants (The Jakarta Globe)

Investors from Turkey and China will pour billions of dollars into Indonesia’s energy and cement sectors, a senior official at the Investment Coordinating Board has announced.

Tamba P. Hutapea, the deputy for investment planning at the body known as BKPM, told reporters on Tuesday that Hitay Investment Holdings, Turkey’s leading conglomerate, plans to invest $3 billion in geothermal production in Indonesia.
  Hitay will build geothermal plants in the provinces of South Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and East Java, and each will have the capacity to generate 200 megawatts of electricity, Tamba said.

“For investment in geothermal, they can ask for a tax holiday, but they haven’t asked for it,” he said. “They are still exploring [the opportunity].”

The Turkish company has set up a local office at The Plaza building on Jalan M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta, he added.

Hitay says on its Web site that it has “extensive technical and financial know-how in the renewable energy industry with a specific investment experience in geothermal energy generation.”

It has also invested in financial services, information technology and real estate brokerages.

The Turkish investment comes a day after Tamba told reporters that State Development & Investment Corporation, a Chinese state-owned investment holding company, plans to invest up to Rp 3.2 trillion ($355 million) in West Papua.

He said SDIC plans to build a cement factory, a power plant and a seaport to support production and distribution.

“SDIC has decided that this year, they [the company] will have a groundbreaking ceremony in Manokwari, [West] Papua, to build a cement plant with 3 million tons of capacity per year,” Tamba said.

Initially, the plant will have 1.5 million tons of capacity per year and will need Rp 1.6 trillion in investment.

“We expect the investment will be realized at the latest by the end of this year,” Tamba said.

He said the local government has facilitated all the required permits as well as the land. Of the 56-hectare plot, 28 hectares are for the cement plant, 12 hectares for the power plant and the final 16 hectares for the seaport. “It all has been facilitated by the West Papua government,” he said.

Tamba said the project will involve 1,100 workers during the construction period. Once the cement factory is operational, it will need 300 workers.

SDIC also has investments in resource-oriented fields, power generation, ports, shipping and coal mining, according to the company’s Web site.