KALIMANTAN HAS GOOD POTENTIAL FOR OIL PALM PLANTATION

From Nashir Mansor

BALIKPAPAN (East Kalimantan), Jan 25 (Bernama) -- Kalimantan offers vast
potential for Malaysian investors to venture into oil palm plantation.

PT Dermaga Perkasapratama operations director Leong Kim Wah, who is from
Kuala Lumpur, said the reason being that there were vast acres of land suitable
to be used for oil palm plantation in Kalimantan.

"Those keen should liaise directly with the district officer or mayor and
the governor," he told a group of businessman from Sabah who were on a 10-day
tour of Kalimantan.

The trip, sponsored by the Berjaya Foundation, is to look into investment
potentials in the Indonesian province.

On Pt Dermaga Perkasapratama, which is a subsidiary of Bayan Group, Leong
said the company had been in East Kalimantan since the 1980s and was involved in
the construction of infrastructures for the oil and gas industry.


He said that in 1974 the company ventured into coal mining.

"Last year, the company produced 10 million metric tonne of coal. Coal
produced by the company is exported to Asian countries, including Malaysia, and
also to Europe," he added.

Leong said Pt Dermaga Perkasapratama, which had its headoffice in Jakarta,
could produce up to 11 million metric tonne of coal a year from its six mines
located in areas in Balikpapan.

-- BERNAMA