One of the non-military products is heavy equipment."
Bandung (ANTARA News) - State-owned arms company PT Pindad launched its first backhoe called, "Pindad Escava 200," on Thursday.

The launch is a historic event for the company that has now expanded to cover heavy equipment and was attended by the Minister of Defense, Ryamizard Ryacudu, and Public Works Minister, Basuki Hadimuljono in addition to the West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan and a number of officials from the State Enterprises Ministry.

"The presence of Excava 200 confirms our commitment to supporting the governments development program and cooperation between state-owned companies," Pindads President Director Silmy Karim said.

The event was marked by the signing of a cooperation agreement between PT Pindad and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, which expressed its pledge to purchase the equipment.

"Pindad has received an order for 500 units from the ministry of public works and housing and 100 other units from the state enterprises minister for the 2016 fiscal year," he said.

Silmy said Excava 200 was born out of initiatives from a number of cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Public Works and Housing, the Industry Minister and State Enterprises Minister.

The initiative became real after President Joko Widodo called on Pindad to increase production of military and non-military equipment during his visit to the company.

"One of the non-military products is heavy equipment," he said.

Karim said that in terms of technology and design, Pindads experts had no difficulty producing the equipment, adding that Pindad had so far already exported bucket teeth for excavator trademarks used in the country.

"We can guarantee that the percentage of local components in the Pindad product could reach 60 percent," he said.

With regards to further developing the product, Pindad plans to invest up to Rp300 billion. Pindads excavator will be sold for Rp1.2 to Rp1.3 billion.

"Until today, we have only made one unit, but next year we will start conducting mass production to meet orders in the 2016 fiscal year from the two ministries," he said.

Minister Basuki hailed the product saying that his office would need a lot of excavators and he hoped their needs could be met by Pindad starting next year.

"We hope the first deliveries are in February," he added.

He said that besides his office, the product would also be needed by district/city governments.

"We have ordered 500 units and there are more than 500 districts/cities in Indonesia. We hope the product meet the needs of the Indonesian eastern regions," he said.

Minister Ryamizard also shared his view that Pindads heavy equipment could also be used by the military (TNI) for a non-combat operation.

"TNI also needs it, especially the engineer unit. But we certainly have to wait in line. Now Pindad has to meet orders from the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of State Enterprises. TNI will follow later. What is clear is that TNIs needs for heavy equipment are big," he said.

(Reporting by Syarif Abdullah/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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