Minister says RI, China may settle Merpati contract soon

Mustaqim Adamrah, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Mon, 03/23/2009 1:22 PM

The government is expecting the protracted contract dispute between ailing state airline company PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines and China's Xi'an Aircraft Industry can be settled this week, State Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil says.

"We still need more discussions; between Merpati and Xi'an; and between the Indonesian government and the Chinese government," Sofyan told The Jakarta Post recently.

"We're settling this problem. We hope to resolve this by next week (this week) and hope no more talks are required. We'll announce the result next week (this week)," he said.

Acting Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sri Mulyani Indrawati flew to China Wednesday to resolve several problems hampering China's pledge to finance the country's 10,000 megawatt power projects.

These problems include the contract disputes with China and Xi'an.

The dispute started in 2008 when Merpati failed to honor its commitment to pay up US$230 million for the purchase of 15 Xinzhou-60 aircraft, at a price of around $15 million each.

The commitment was stipulated in a contract Merpati signed in 2006 with Xi'an. Merpati used a soft-loan facility from the China Export Import Bank to finance the purchase.

Partly due to its financial problems, Merpati is now placed under a financial restructuring program run by the Asset Management Company (PPA).

Xi'an has said it might take the dispute to international arbitration.

With Merpati's "huge" debts, the dispute apparently widened to the extent that there was growing speculation that the row between Merpati and Xi'an may have played a part in holding back loan disbursements for the 10,000 MW projects led by state power company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

Chinese lenders would be likely to stick to their positions until the Merpati debts are settled.

Since there were no other options open, Merpati and PLN finally passed on the dispute to the government for settlement.

"Merpati already has had business-to-business negotiations with Xi'an four times (to settle the dispute). But there were no agreements on some points (in our negotiations)," Merpati president director Bambang Bhakti said, after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the vice president's office Friday.

"So, this will go back to government-to-government (talks)," he said, adding the company would only be able to pay for eight aircraft.

"We start making an operating profit but we're still on our way to recover. How are we going to repay our debts?" he said refusing to elaborate.

A presidential palace source said the government would now cover half of the Merpati debts to Xi'an.

PLN president director Fahmi Mochtar has now ensured that Chinese financiers would stick to their commitment to help fund the power projects. The crash energy program needs $8 billion to be completed. PLN has so far secured $6.4 billion.