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GOVT RELAXES PERMITS FOR POWER PLANT INVESTORS

The government has simplified a number of regulations and is offering incentives for investment in the electricity sector in an effort to speed up the realization of the 35,000 MW power-generation project, an official has said.

Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) deputy director for investment planning Tamba Hutapea confirmed that permit issuance was among the regulations simplified.

Tamba said investors now only needed to get 25 permits and wait about 256 days to have them processed. In the past, they needed to get 52 permits, which took around 923 days to process.

He said the simplification was only applicable for regulations at the central government level while rules issued by regional administrations also discouraged investors so those regulations needed to be simplified too. "Land permits, which are under the remit of regional administrations, is not yet satisfactory," Tamba said in a discussion on Monday.

"We want the simplification to also touch on regulations at regional level.," he added.

Tamba said the BKPM was committed to helping investors to resolve problems, such as marketing issues and land acquisition at the regional level, which many investors find to be barriers.

"In the past, we even invited heads of particular regions and asked them why a problem happened and how they could resolve it," he said.

Stalled projects the BKPM is currently helping to resolve include the coal-fired power plant (PLTU) in Batang, Central Java; the PLTU in Celukan Bawang, Bali and the gas-fired power plant (PLTG) in Uncang Batam, Riau Islands.

Besides land acquisition, the BKPM is also committed to helping investors negotiate with other infrastructure stakeholders; such as relevant ministries and state-owned infrastructure companies. As an incentive to investors, Tamba said, the BKPM would assist electricity companies to market their products through finding potential bidders and facilitating business seminars and meetings for them.

Tamba added that the BKPM was currently helping eight companies, with a potential total investment of more than Rp 207 trillion (US$14 billion), to resolve their permit problems. Of the eight companies, four companies, with investment values of about Rp 7 trillion, have not yet received permits for land expansion. The other four, with investment values of around Rp 200 trillion, had recently received their permits, he said.

Source: The Jakarta Post dated 30 September 2015

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