The Indonesian-Japanese flagship deepsea project in West Java has been included in the list which consists of projects to be funded by foreign loans from 2015 to 2019, and is a key part of the foreign loan process.
As much as $1.7bn in foreign loans is expected to be channeled into the deepsea project and the Indonesian government is also set to provide an additional $595m in loans for the project.
Following the revision, the Blue Book now lists $10.3bn worth of loans for transportation-related projects, up from the previous $6.8bn, the reports said.
Transportation Ministry port director Mauritz Sibarani noted however that the $1.7bn loan figure was at this stage still only a proposal from the Indonesian government. “There are still discussions required, such as on the actual amount of the funding,” he added.
The government has yet to allocate fresh funds for the project as it prefers to wait for a response from its Japanese counterpart. “We will then make a yearly commitment,” Mauritz said, adding that the government expected the loan to only be disbursed in about March or April 2017, in line with the beginning of the fiscal year in Japan.
The future Patimban Port will be located about 70km from the Karawang Industrial Estate and Bekasi in West Java. It will have a container capacity of 1.5m teu once it is partly completed by 2019 and this will be expanded to 7.5m teu by 2027, which is half of the main Tanjung Priok Port’s capacity.
The Indonesian-Japanese joint project is considered a national strategic project that is expected to help ease the flow of goods and services into the country.
Feasibility studies have been completed and Japan expects the draft of its detailed engineering design (DED) to be finished by the beginning of 2017 which will provide exact figures on the project’s costs.
The economic councilor at Japan's embassy in Indonesia, Tasaka Takuro, said that the Japanese government welcomed the Indonesian government’s move to include the project in the Blue Book.
“It’s a very good stepping stone for the two countries to proceed with the project,” he said. However, he said that Japan would not make any decision on the matter before completing its research.
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