Closely following the international summit on Jan. 6 on the aftershock of the earthquake and tsunami, which hit a dozen of Asian and even African countries, Indonesia has hosted another summit over infrastructure construction, dishing out a real big cake to attract investors.

The Indonesian government, which has claimed that the country needs some 145 billion US dollars to finance its infrastructure development over the next five years, presents some 91infrastructure projects at a value of 22.5 billion US dollars for investors, mainly targeted at luring private and foreign investments.

These projects bidding process could be kicked off from February this year, which forms the first batch of projects.

A second batch of projects valued at some 57.5 billion US dollars will be followed in November.

While addressing the opening session of the forum earlier this week, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the Indonesian government had hoped that domestic private and foreign investors would take part in the infrastructure construction, and the government would continue to improve environment by solving the existing problems in the tax system and law enforcement.

The president said the government has offered 91 projects in the fields of land, air and water transportation, energy and electricity as well as other public services in some cities, which are regarded as the most profitable projects. It would also take responsibility for projects in the countryside and some remote areas, which could be less profitable, he added.

The government announced two phases of projects at a value of some 80 billion US dollars have been planned within this year.

During the first phase, the projects include 38 toll road projects, 24 water supply projects, five airports and four seaports, 12 power generation projects as well as projects in energy, railroad and telecommunications.

Of the country's needs of some 145 billion dollars in the next five years, the westernmost province of Aceh, which suffered the most serious losses in the Dec. 26 disaster, needs 4 billion dollars for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The government plans to earmark 25 billion US dollars from its state budget for the infrastructure and another 30 billion dollars would be expected to be financed by its domestic financial institutions.

Apart from this, Indonesia expects assistance of some 10 billion US dollars from foreign donors and a big share of 80 billion dollars would come from private sector and foreign investments.

A senior minister of the government revealed that the next batch of 52 projects at a value of 57.5 billion dollars would come up some months later this year.

Indonesia, which is a big country in the southeast Asian region with a vast land and sea water territories and the fourth largest population, became less attractive to domestic and foreign investors due to its instability following the downfall of the 32-year Soeharto military rule and factors such as weak law enforcement, untransparency of legislature, widespread official corruption and others.

However, President Susilo and other cabinet members have committed to improving the investment environment and would make public a series of government regulations and presidential decrees to guarantee the kick-off of the projects.

The government has also pledged that the projects being offered are free from any kind of legal disputes.

"The government would never offer projects that still have (legal) problems," Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa was quoted as saying by the daily Jakarta Post Thursday.

The minister hoped that all questions surrounding the infrastructure projects could be answered and settled prior to the project bidding.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2005)