East Kalimantan govt asks Rini Soewandi to become financial consultant

The East Kalimantan administration has asked Rini Soewandi, president of the publicly listed giant automaker PT Astra International, to become the financial consultant for the administration, the local Kaltim Post daily reported.

The paper said that the move to hire Rini was made to anticipate a number of partnership with private companies or the acquisition and transfer of part of ownership in several private firms including in giant coal mining firm PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) and a partnership with coal firm PT Tanito Harum.

Rini is one of Indonesia's highest paid executive. She is the daughter in law of former East Kalimantan Governor (Soewandi). Her husband, Didiek Soewandi, is a businessman who's one of the investors at Plaza Balikpapan.

The East Kalimantan administration met with Rini recently, but it was not clear whether she had agreed to become the administration's consultant. (*)