Governor says foreign flagged coal barges should leave S. Kalimantan

South Kalimantan provincial governor Sjahriel said Monday foreign-flagged coal barges should leave the area because existing regulations prohibit them from transporting the commodity in Indonesia, local daily Banjarmasin Post reported Tuesday.

On Monday, Sjahriel met with officials of Rig Tenders whose barges transport coal from South Kalimantan to other provinces in Indonesia, and leaders of coal producers like PT Adaro Indonesia and PT Arutmin.

?The governor said in the meeting that coal transportation within Indonesia should be carried out by national barges, and not foreign flagged ones,? said Ardiansyah, the governor?s staff member. Ardiansyah said that government decree issued in 1999, PP No. 82/1999, bans foreign flagged barges from transporting coal in the country, but allows them to carry the item to foreign countries.

Sjahriel said that transportation of coal from South Kalimantan was 60 percent controlled by foreign flagged barges.

Rig Tenders is a national company, but most of its barges are registered overseas.

He said that South Kalimantan wanted more local companies to transport coal from the area, and that the provincial government had approached INSA, a national transportation association, to make it happen. (*)