Indonesia vying for construction market in Dubai

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto and a number of construction businessmen will be visiting Dubai in an effort to win a number of construction projects in the Middle East country, a Public Works Ministry Spokesman said. 

"We will try our best to construction market in the Middle East though Dubai because Dubai is the biggest financial center in the Middle East like Singapore in Asia," Sumaryanto Widayatin, head of construction development affairs of the Ministry of Public Works, said here on Monday. 

The minister`s delegation will be visiting Dubai during which it would attend an expo held in that country. 

Widayatin, who is one of the 40 members of the Indonesian delegation, said that the Indonesian construction businesses were to take part in the expo in order to seize construction business opportunities. 

He said that the construction market in Dubai was estimated at US$20 billion. It needed skills such as in the building maintenance. 

Widayatin said that Dubai itself was known as the `big five` in the building business in the Middle East that would surely promise a good market potential. 

He said that Indonesia was now preparing to set up a representative office i Dubai. "The problem is whether to open our own branch office or just to join with the Indonesian Embassy`s attache," he added. 

Widayatin said that could not set any business target for Indonesia in the expo which would be held for three days. 

The public works ministry official said that Dubai had relative big market potentials but it was hard for Indonesian contractors to take part not because of competition but because of certainties in the payments. 

"Overseas, we don`t know to whom the payments that are obtained should be charged. There must be certainties with regard to this. After all, we also need certainties in banking support because no supporting banks already available overseas," he added. 

He said that at present Dubai still had plans to build a lot of new buildings most of which were high rise ones.