National

TNI Military Production Requires US$300-500 Million
Monday, 29 November, 2004 | 21:31 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:According to Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, Director General of Defense Strategy at the Ministry of Defense, has said that Indonesia requires funds amounting to between US$300 million and 500 million to carry out cooperation with other countries in producing military vehicles.

“This is not easy. We might need five years to settle this matter. We need a very high level of commitment,” Sudrajat told reporters after giving a speech in a seminar entitled “Regional Defense Strategy: Cooperation in a Changing World” at the Defense Equipment Exhibition on Thursday (25/11) in Jakarta.

The cooperation in producing military equipments will be difficult to be carried out as the defense ministry is yet to see adequate allocation for defense system equipment in the State Budget during the next six months.

Therefore, the government will only carry out cooperation in the transfer of weapons technology for the time being.

Such cooperation has already been conducted with Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

However, this cooperation still creates difficulties for Indonesia as the producing countries usually require Indonesia to purchase their products first.

To be able to cooperate with the Czech Republic for example, Indonesia must first buy Czech-assembled planes.

“We have to purchase at least 35 planes to be able to cooperate with them in weapons production,” said Sudrajat.

Because of this, Sudrajat said that to establish cooperation with particular countries, the government must first carry out studies and then make adjustments in line with the state economy and finance, especially in establishing cooperation with Eastern European countries.

Indonesia is still making efforts to cooperate with Eastern European countries, particularly in the matter of military equipment.

“These are countries which require markets for their military products and still have political considerations,” said Sudrajat.

Since the US government imposed a military embargo on Indonesia in 1999, Indonesia has prefered cooperating with Western and Eastern European countries as well as the People’s Republic of China and South Korea.

“In the matter of weapons, Indonesia tends to cooperate with Eastern European countries,” Sudrajat stated. (Sunariah-Tempo News Room)