Indonesia, Singapore Establish Company In Batam, Riau Islands

Batam, Riau Islands (Antara Bali) - Indonesian state-owned electronics company Len Industri and Sunseap Enterprises Pte Ltd of Singapore have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture company, named Len Sunseap Energy, in Batamindo Industrial Area, Batam, Riau Islands Province.

"This is our effort to support the government in generating electricity through renewable energy sources by tapping into the great potential of solar energy in Indonesia," Commissioner of Len Energi Arifien Habibie said here Wednesday.

Len Industry is a strategic state-owned enterprise engaged in the development of renewable energy, a railway transport system, information and communication systems, defense control and electronics systems, and a navigation system.

Meanwhile, Sunseap Enterprises Pte Ltd is one of Singapore's solar power generation system providers.

The joint venture company, Habibie said, will produce solar power plant modules with a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) and will be developed to produce 200MW with an investment of $5 million.

"The establishment of the joint company is one of Indonesia's strategies to increase capacity in the solar energy business and an effort to get into the global market. Such efforts would at the same time increase the competitiveness of the domestic module product in terms of price and certification," he said.

For the initial stage, a total output of 30MW-peak (MWp) will be sold in the global market through Sunseap's distribution network. Meanwhile, the 14MWp will be absorbed by Sunseap and its subsidiaries, and the remaining 6MWp will be absorbed by Len and its subsidiaries.

"The targeted markets are public and private solar power plants as well as the Asia-Pacific regional market. This is also the first investment from Singapore in Indonesia following the Indonesian president's recent visit to Singapore," Habibie said. (WDY)