RI assures China of support for thermal power plant project

Beijing (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani on Tuesday paid a whirlwind visit to Beijing where she met with her Chinese counterpart, Jin Renqing, to give the assurance that Jakarta fully supports the building of thermal power plants with a combined capacity of 10,000 MW with Chinese credits in Indonesia.

"Yesterday (Tuesday) Mrs. Sri Mulyani paid a whirlwind visit here to meet Chinese Finance Minister Renqing to discuss the plan to build thermal power plants with funding from the Chinese government," chief of the economic division at the Indonesian embassy in Beijing, Andriana Supandy, said on Wednesday.

While in Beijing, Sri Mulyani also met with Deputy Governor of China`s Export and Import Bank Liu Lian Ge, Andriana said.

During the meeting with Renqing, Sri Mulyani expressed full support for China`s wish to build the thermal power plants with Indonesia`s state electricity firm PT PLN as the executing agency of the project, she said.

She said the Chinese government had earlier expressed doubt that the Indonesian government would support the project.

"But after Finance Minister Sri Mulyani came here as the first competent official, the Chinese government is confident about the project and will remain committed to assisting Indonesia in realizing it," she said.

It was reasonable for the Chinese government to get first hand information from the Indonesian official about the local government`s full support for the project which would cost an estimated US$8.8 billion, she said.

For Indonesia, the presence of the thermal power plants was urgent to ensure power supply in the densely-populated islands of Java and Bali where demand for electrical power tended to increase, she said.

During the meeting, the two governments agreed to pay close attention to the construction of the power plants which is scheduled for completion in three years` time, she said.

To follow up on the meeting, China would in the next two weeks send a special team which would be made up of representatives of insurance companies, banks and technical agencies to Indonesia to discuss a wide range of issues.