Govt regulation on private power producers awaits President?s approval

The government will soon issue a regulation on private power producers and to implement the Electricity Law No. 20/2002, Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported in its Wednesday edition.

?The final draft of the governmental regulation is now at the State Secretariat. We hope President Megawati Soekarnoputri will sign it,? director general of electricity and energy utilization Yogo Pratomo said after attending a discussion on electricity consumers in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Consumers? Foundation (YLKI) organized the dialog.

The government regulation mainly aims to create a conducive invesetment climate for private investors to invest in the nation's power sector. The nation needs US$30 billion of investment in the power sector in the next 10 years or $3 billion per year.

?Of the total investment, two-thirds are expected to come from the private investors as the government could not invest a huge amount in the sector due to financial constraints,? Yogo said. (*)