Wemen BUMN Blak-blakan Soal Pilih China Untuk Garap Kereta Cepat Jakarta Surabaya

Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Kartika Wirjoatmodjo. (Mery Handayani/VOI)

Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Kartika Wirjoatmodjo opened his voice regarding Indonesia's decision to choose China to work on the extension of the Surabaya Jakarta high-speed rail project.

This is because of China's experience working on the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train.

Tiko, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo's nickname, said that Indonesia and China had signed an agreement to conduct a joint study or joint study related to the Jakarta Surabaya High Speed Rail project.

"Yes, because they have built an exhibition, we will see later, of course commercially, China must see whether it is visible or not and how many project costs. So, we give them the opportunity and they don't immediately say yes," said Tiko to reporters, written Thursday, November 2.

"They are currently conducting a study, of course, the study will determine how many cost projects and whether commercially benefit or not," he continued.

Tiko said, until now there has been no contractor or consortium formation appointed for the Jakarta Surabaya High Speed Rail project.

Furthermore, Tiko said that the decision related to the contractor or the establishment of this consortium had been awaiting a feasibility study for the project.

"We haven't talked about who the company is, we talked to the Chinese government through the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)," he said.

Previously, it was reported that the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan also revealed that there had been an agreement with China to continue the project for the extension of the fast train to Surabaya.

"Pak Jokowi wants the Jakarta Surabaya high-speed train to continue. Earlier I heard that the agreement with China is also running. In fact, the interest is much cheaper than the interest offered by other countries," he said, quoted from the Instagram account @luhut.pandjaitan, quoted Tuesday, October 31.

Luhut said that China's technology can also be proven to make Indonesia have a high-speed train.

"We have proven it and we already have experience. This is the first key problem, this is land acquisition which is not clear. Now that we have experience, we don't have a problem anymore," said Luhut.