Govt has yet received a claim from OPIC
Tuesday, July 11 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Minister of Finance Bambang Sudibyo said that his office had not yet received a claim of said $290 million from Overseas Private Insurance Corp. (OPIC), a U.S. federal insurance firm that guarantees U.S. investment overseas.
Speaking at a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission VIII on mines and energy, Bambang said that currently the government and OPIC representatives were having a negotiation in Jakarta.
Therefore, Bambang said, the government had not yet allocated any fund for OPIC.
OPIC actually asked the Indonesian government last March to pay US$290 in compensation claim that it had paid to California Energy/Mid American Energy Holding.
An international arbitration ordered state electricity company PLN and the government to pay $290 million to the two U.S. energy investors for the former's decision to cancel the latter's energy projects in Indonesia, Patuha and Dieng.
As the government and PLN did not have the money to pay, OPIC - as a federal insurance firm that guarantees U.S. investment overseas - paid the compensation. (*)