Pertamina looks big but empty: Baihaki

To many people, the state oil company Pertamina is a big company with branches every where, but actually the company is just "empty", the company's new president Baihaki Hakim has said, DetikCom reported on Tuesday.

"The people know that Pertamina is a big company with operation units almost every where, but for me, Pertamina is big but empty," the former president of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) said in his remark at a press conference on Monday.

Baihaki said that the company's poor condition was partly due to the lack of the government's attention.

According to Baihaki, Pertamina could not perform well because the government still imposed several barriers such as prohibiting the company from obtaining loans from banks. A number of law and regulations, which treat the state oil and gas company as the extending hands of the government also hamper the operation of the company, while at the same time, the company is also subject to pay taxes as high as private companies. (*)