Indonesia Imports KRL From China, Luhut: Temporarily

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan opened his voice regarding PT KCI's decision to import three new series or KRL trainers from China.

Luhut said, imports were only temporary while waiting for the domestic production train to be completed from PT Industri Kereta Api (Persero) or INKA.

For your information, in addition to importing three new KRL series from China, PT KCI has also ordered 16 new KRL series from PT Industri Kereta Api (Persero) or INKA.

"It's just a bridging (trapping) of 3 trains, while we build with INKA in Banyuwangi and Madiun, so that it's made domestically," he said when met at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 7.

Luhut said the new KRL import decision from China had also been discussed in a coordination meeting he chaired involving relevant stakeholders, starting from the Ministry of SOEs, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Industry, and INKA.

Initially, KCI planned to import a used KRL from Japan. However, the plan did not become realized because it did not get the blessing of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP). Therefore, KCI decided to import a new KRL from China.

"Why are we importing used, imports are all (new). But these 3 (KRL imports from China) are bridging to build all of them domestically," he said.

As is known, the decision to order KRL from China, CRRC Sifang Co.Ltd, was made after KCI compared several offers, including from a Japanese company, J-TRECT. CRRC Sifang is also a manufacturer of the Fast Train fleet

This KCI decision also raises allegations in public that there is a threat from the China Development Bank (CDB) to the Indonesian government. Where the CDB is suspected of holding back the debt to the Fast Train project

Regarding this, Luhut admitted that he had not heard the news. "Oh, I just found out about it," he said.