Freeport ready to renegotiate contract, but with condition

Freeport Indonesia has indicated a willingness to renegotiate the company's existing contract of work over the gold and copper mining site in Papua as demanded by the House of Representatives (DPR).

The company's president director Armando Mahler said on Tuesday that the company's management would be ready to renegotiate the contract on the condition that the talks would be based on mutual benefits.

"We are still waiting for the evaluation from the government's special task force. When the result of the evaluation is ready we will sit together with the government and House members, and to talk the matter," he said.

He, however, warned that if there should be a revision in the contract, it should be based on mutual benefits. "Through the negotiation, we hope, we will be able to find win-win solution," he added.

The House members have called for a review in the contract, which they said, has failed to provide significant benefits both in term of financial contribution to the government and in the recruitment of the local people.

The vice chairman of the House's Commission VII from the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P), Sony Keraf, for example, accused the company of paying less attention on the local workers. According to him, the foreign workers employed by Freeport are not only greater in number but are also given bigger salaries.

Unlike Sony, the commission's vice chairman from the National Mandate Party (PAN) Tjatur Sapto Edi was more concerned about the small amount of the financial contribution given by the company to the government.

He said that the review was needed because the existing mechanism in calculating the company's financial obligation was not clear and transparent. (Bernard)