UAE-based Emaar's $600m indonesian venture to be operational by 2010

Khaleej Times -26/11/2008 

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The Dh2.2 billion ($600 million) mega-tourism development venture between Dubai's Emaar Properties and Bali Tourism Development Corporation in Indonesia's Lombok Island is now underway and is expected to be operational by 2010. 

Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Indonesia's Public Works, disclosed this to Khaleej Times during a forum on tourism and investment in Dubai the other day. 

"We have started constructing the international airport on the island, and other infrastructures such as water distribution system, water treatment plant, roads and others are now in place." 

Lombok Island, which is less than an hour away from the world famous Bali Island, is now gradually converted into a world-class residential and resort community sprawling over 1,175 hectares. 

Construction of the infrastructure needed for the island to become a tourist destination started in April this year, a month after the signing of a joint venture in Dubai between the state-owned Bali Tourism Development Corporation and Dubai's Emaar Properties PJSC to undertake the Lombok mega-tourism and mixed-use project . 

Minister Kimanto said the joint venture underlines the strong bilateral business relations between Indonesia and the UAE. 

Emaar is one of the first developers from the Middle East and North Africa region to expand into Indonesia, an emerging market with strong growth potential, especially in the tourism sector. 

Three other UAE-based companies expanding to Indonesia, he said, are the Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Investment Authority which will invest a total of $1.3 billion in South Sumatra to build an integrated port and a railway line, Pacific-Inter Link, which has been in Indonesia since 1999 with an initial investment of $150 million, and will put in additional $500 million to build a palm oil refinery plant in Dumai, Riau, and Al Ghurair Group through its subsidiary ETA Star which plans to invest around $500 million to enter Indonesia's refinery industry. 

"We are promoting Indonesia to Dubai and the MENA Region as prospective homes for investors, who are interested to take part in food safety programme." "We also need about $150 billion in the next five years to invest in public infrastructure development projects to maintain our economic growth at six per cent annually.