Foreign Businesses Frustrated by Blackouts in Jakarta

The Jakarta Globe, Dian Ariffahmi, Yessar Rossendar & Teguh Prasetyo

Foreign manufacturers are joining the growing list of industries unhappy with Jakarta’s ongoing blackouts, saying frequent work stoppages are gouging into their production and endangering millions of dollars in overseas investments.

A 28-member delegation of Japanese business leaders complained about the outages to Industry Minister MS Hidayat on Monday.

The group was from the Kansai Economic Federation, also known as Kankeiren, which represents thousands of firms from Japan’s Kansai region that operate in Indonesia.

Hidayat said the Kankeiren delegation told him the blackouts in the city were burdening their business activities.

“They didn’t mention which companies are suffering from this power problem, but they represent all business players and investors who put their money here,” Hidayat told reporters after the meeting.

“I told them I am sorry, it is also affecting local industry. But I assured them that electricity infrastructure is among the top priorities in the [Yudhoyono administration’s] 100-day program. So it will be fixed as early as possible,” Hidayat said.

A senior official with PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, the state electricity utility, said last week that Jakarta, Bekasi and Tangerang would continue to experience rotating four-hour shifts of power rationing through the end of the month.

PLN is struggling to meet demand for power in Greater Jakarta since a fire at its central facility in Cawang, East Jakarta, in September. The blaze triggered mechanical problems with other generators on the grid this month because they were overloaded.

Eddy Widjanarko, chairman of the Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo), said shoe factories were operating at only between 50 to 60 percent capacity because of the unstable power supply.

Eddy said Aprisindo was meeting on Monday with seven Korean footwear producers to discuss the blackouts.

In a desperate move to guarantee a power supply, “the seven South Korean firms, which own factories in Gunung Putri, Bogor, in West Java, are now considering setting up their own coal- and gas-fired power generators,” Eddy said.

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