Indonesian govt cancels tender for telecom infrastructure work in remote areas

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government has canceled a tender to build telecommunications infrastructure in remote areas, saying neither of the two final bidders met the qualifications, the Information Ministry said Friday.

"The tender is declared to have failed and the government will re-tender the project," said a statement posted on the ministry's website.

The tender initially attracted dozens of participants, but only PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and PT Asia Cellular Satellite made it to the final round. The others either did not qualify to bid or pulled out voluntarily.

"Telkom will certainly bid again when the government re-tenders the project because we are committed to building telecom infrastructure in remote areas," Eddy Kurnia, Telkom's vice-president for public relations, told Thomson Financial.