Danareksa to join $500 million cement project in Central Java

Blontank Poer - The Jakarta Post - 2006-11-09 11:20:14

Jakarta, November 9, 2006 (JP) - State-owned trust company Danareksa has agreed to partly finance the construction of a Rp 4.5 trillion (about US$500 million) cement plant to be built by Semen Gerobogan in Central Java.

Semen Gerobogan general manager Tonny Santoso said Tuesday that Danareksa had signed a letter of intent (Lol) 'to become one of the financiers for the cement plant, which when completed will have a production capacity of 2.3 million tons a year.

However, Tonny refused to disclose any details on the size of Danareksa's investment in the project.

"For sure, three months after the signing of the Lol. we will start the preparations for the construction of the cement plant," he said.

The plant will occupy about 2.500 hectares of land, including a lime mining concession area. For the first stage of the project, only 60 hectares of land will be used for the factory facilities and another 1,000 hectares for lime mining.

The deal signed by Danareksa and Semen Gerobogan was one of 38 investment agreements signed during the Central Java Infrastructure Business Forum, held Nov. 5-7 at the Quality Hotel in Surakarta.

The agreements cover 27 infrastructure projects, including waste treatment, water, railways and the agribusiness. The agreements have a total value of about Rp 6.56 trillion.

Even though the investment commitments failed to reach the initial target of Rp 14 trillion, Central Java Governor Mardiyanto hailed the forum as a success.

"We hope all the projects can be realized so they will be able to support the local economy and create more jobs for locals," he said.

Investors from China, Taiwan, the Netherlands, France and Malaysia attended the forum.