President wants financial closure ceremony for Batang project held at palace
Thursday, June 9 2016 - 02:55 AM WIB
A ceremony for the signing of the financial closure for the giant Batang coal-fired power plant project scheduled for Wednesday has been delayed to Thursday as President Joko Widodo wanted the ceremony to be held at the Presidential Palace.
The ceremony was initially planned to be held at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said stated that Jokowi had changed the date and the venue to the palace.
The 2x1,000 MW Batang coal-fired power plant project in Central Java will be developed by PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI), a consortium comprising of Japan?s Itochu Corp, Electric Power Development Co. Ltd, and PT Adaro Power, a subsidiary of IDX-listed coal giant PT Adaro Energy Tbk. Itochu Corp announced June 3 that BPI had finally signed a US$3.4 billion loan agreement with several banks to help finance the estimated $4.2 billion power plant project. The financial closure will pave the way for the start of the construction of the key project, which has been delayed for several years due primarily to land acquisition problem, in the hope that it could be completed by 2020.
Adaro Energy President Director Garibaldi Tohir welcomes the president?s decision to change the venue of the financial closure ceremony to the Presidential Palace, saying that the move will further bolster the confidence of Japanese investors and banks in the key infrastructure project, and in power plant projects in general.
Garibaldi?s statement comes amid recent development where Japanese investors were losing to Chinese investors in winning key infrastructure projects in Indonesia.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak