Chinese banks resume loan disbursement to PLN
Tuesday, March 3 2009 - 02:34 AM WIB
PLN?s vice president Rudiantara said in Jakarta on Monday that he had recently visited China to ensure that the contract row between Merpati and China?s Xi?an Aircraft would not affect the disbursement of their loans.
During a meeting with executives of the Chinese banks, they had agreed to resume the loan disbursement, he said. He acknowledged that there was a slight delay in the loan disbursement but it was due to the credit crunch resulting from the global financial crisis rather than due to the contract row between Merpati and the Chinese aircraft company.
He said that China Export and Import Bank (Chexim), for example, has recently disbursed a loan totaling US$180 million to partly finance new power projects at coal-fired Suralaya and Paiton power plants.
?Of the $180 million, $90 million was disbursed last week,? he said.
Chexim earlier asked for a rise in interest rate, citing the financial crisis. But, during negotiation, PLN managed to persuade the bank to stick to the initial agreement without a rise in interest rate.
Rudiantara said that PLN would need at least $5 billion in foreign currency, and Rp 32 trillion in local currency to finance the power projects. The larger part of the loans is expected to come from Chinese banks.
He said that PLN was seeking new sources of funds such as from the Middle East to obtain additional loans for the power projects. (*)