*INDONESIAN STATE-OWNED FIRMS TO RAISE INVESTMENT IN BURMA* 14 March 2012
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan says that Indonesia will expand business in Myanmar [Burma] by setting up SOE Incorporated in the near future. "Myanmar's current condition is like Indonesia in the 1970s, the time when we started to develop the country. Indonesia should be able to take on this opportunity," Dahlan said on the sidelines of a signing ceremony between PT Samator Gas Industri and PT Krakatau Engineering in Jakarta on Tuesday [13 March]. He said that state lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), publicly listed construction company Wijaya Karya and state gas and oil company PT Pertamina were among the SOEs that would participate in the business expansion. "We have sent a number of BNI, Wijaya Karya and Pertamina executives to observe conditions in Myanmar for six months," he said. The executives have been tasked with collecting information on how to do business in Myanmar so that a strategy can be devised to penetrate the market. "Indonesia should participate in developing Myanmar because we are both ASEAN countries," he said. Indonesia is rather late in investing in Myanmar, especially compared to Singapore. The city-state's sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings, is believed to have invested about US$3 in Myanmar. Myanmar atau lebih dikenal dengan Burma, saat ini sedang menjadi pusat perhatian bisnis di Asia Tenggara, dimana penerbangan kesana dan hotel di negeri itu sering penuh. Tiga hal penting (Perbankan, Infrastructure dan Industri Minyak dan Gas) memang sedang menjadi topik perbincangan hangat, sesuai dengan strategi Menteri Dahlan untuk membentuk ekspansi bisnis di negeri itu. Khusus untuk Minyak dan Gas, akhir tahun lalu, negeri itu dibawah kordinasi MOGE (Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise), sebuah badan yang semacam Pertamina-BPPKA tempo dulu membuka penawaran 18 Block Migas Onshore (Invitation for Bids to conduct petroleum operations in Myanmar Onshore areas -2011), dimana sebagian dari block tersebut sudah ada yang diumumkan pemenangnya. Tahap kedua penawaran Block MIGAS akan segera diumumkan. Mudah-mudahan Team-nya Menteri Dahlan tidak sampai menghabiskan 6 bulan untuk melakukan observasi, karena memang sudah termasuk terlambat.
