The State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan therefore called on state-owned companies to not delay investment so that they could contribute maximally to the country`s economic growth.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - About 20 percent or Rp52 trillion of state-owned firms (BUMN)`s Rp260 trillion capital expenditure are still unspent, State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said.

The minister therefore called on state-owned companies to not delay investment so that they could contribute maximally to the country`s economic growth.

"It should not happen that a state company does not carry out its capital expenditure," Dahlan said at the BUMN ministry office here on Friday.

The minister said that he was carrying out evaluation on all state firms to know the absorption of their capital expenditure budget.

"At a time when the world economy is worsening, investment in the country should not weaken. When the economic growth is facing a downward trend, investment should not be delayed," he stressed.

He said that at least there were thousands of BUMN projects with a relatively big investment volume.

"We analyze one by one to see which firm has not yet carried it (capital expenditure) out so that a way out would be sought for, thus continuing their contribution to the national economic growth," the minister said.

He admitted that a number of projects had been delayed because of something, for example, PT Angkasa Pura I which was still delaying its project on the expansion of Ahmad Yani airport terminal in Semarang, Central Java.

"It is delayed until next year because of location problem which should still be dealt with the Ministry of Defence," the minister said.

He said that talks on the land (owned by the Army) with the ministry of defense had been going on smoothly and it was expected the design of the terminal construction would have been finished at the end of 2013.

Apart from that, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia had neither realized its investment yet worth Rp1.2 trillion for the purchase of airplanes of the ATR type because the company changed its capital expenditure plan.

"There is no problem if Garuda does not realize its ATR purchase. Who knows it is going to buy CN-295 airplanes. This could boost the development of domestic economy," Minister Dahlan said.

The same thing also happened to state-owned inland waterway transportation service PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry which had cancelled its plan to buy a number of long-distance ferries worth Rp111 billion.

The ASDP canceled its plan because it was difficult for it to find the ships and indeed a ferry of such a type was not yet needed, the minister said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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