Muhamad Al Azhari

State Enterprises Tipped for Sunda Bridge Project

State-run enterprises specializing in infrastructure construction projects will have a role to play in the development of the Rp 100 trillion ($9.9 billion) Sunda Strait Bridge linking Java and Sumatra, State Enterprises Minister Sofyan Djalil said on Wednesday.

The latest statement by the minister comes less than a week after a preliminary study on the bridge was completed and on the same day as the president mentioned the bridge in a keynote speech, indicating that the government is seriously considering the megaproject as a key component of its ambitious infrastructure plan.

“State-run construction firms will participate as part of a consortium, because it is such a huge project,” Sofjan said, without giving details on the structure of the consortium.

The central government owns three big construction firms — PT Wijaya Karya, PT Adhi Karya and PT Waskita Karya — but Sofyan declined to say whether any of them would participate in the megaproject.

If it is completed, the 30-kilometer bridge would connect the islands of Java and Sumatra, where 80 percent of Indonesians live. It is hoped that the bridge will be operational by 2020, although the government will first have to find the huge amounts of capital needed for the project if it is to be anything more than a dream.

The government wants both domestic and foreign investors to provide the capital, but it has yet to reveal any specific names.

PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, a subsidiary of Artha Graha Networks (AGN), a business group owned by tycoon Tommy Winata, announced last week that it had completed a prefeasibility study to be presented to the central government to obtain further legal support to proceed with the project.

The completion of the study was the latest step in the planning process. A memorandum of understanding was signed in October 2007 by AGN and the Banten and Lampung provincial governments.

AGN will be awarded a 10 percent tender preference, meaning that if the government conducts a tender for the project, Bangungraha will have a 10 percent advantage over other competitors.

However, State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta said that the government might increase the tender preference to 20 percent.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati last week said that the government would prioritize infrastructure projects to bolster the economy, but declined to comment directly on the government’s plans for the bridge.

Speaking to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also said that the government was committed to transportation-related infrastructure development, including the Sunda Strait Bridge and extending toll roads across Java and Sumatra.

In June, the government opened the 5.4-kilometer Suramadu Bridge, which connects Java, the country’s most populous island, with adjacent Madura Island.

“If [the Sunda Strait Bridge] is built, the benefits of development — until now concentrated in Java — will also spread across Sumatra,” Yudhoyono said.

Paskah said that the bridge was important due to the sheer volume of traffic between Java and Sumatra.

About 20 million ferry passengers and 1.7 million tons of cargo crossed the Sunda Strait in 2006, and the figure is predicted to at least double by 2020.

Bambang Soesatyo, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin)’s fiscal and monetary committee, said that only President Yudhoyono himself had the means to establish the working partnership between the government and the private sector that would be needed to build the bridge.

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