Hatta Recieves Japan's Deputy Minister For Economy

Jakarta, July 15 (Antara) - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa here on Monday received Japan`s deputy minister for economy Yasutoshi Nishimura who came to ask about progress of the coal-fired power plant development project in Batang, Central Java. "They worried about the slow process of land acquisition for the project. But I have told them that 200 hectares of land have been acquired," Hatta said. He said he had pledged the problem would be solved immediately before the public-private PLTU project worth Rp30 trillion would be started before the end of 2013. "The land that has not been acquired is indeed vital but only a few hectares are left. It is relatively small meanwhile financial closing must be done in October," he said. Hatta said the PLTU would use a sophisticated technology from Japan which in the long term would be useful for meeting energy demand in Indonesia. "The power plant could be categorized as one of the best and biggest plant because it would an ultra-super 2x1000 MW critical technology," he said. Yasutoshi meanwhile hailed the Indonesian government`s good response and commitment to settling the land acquisition problem. "The Japanese government supports the PLTU project because it has the most efficient technology that will benefit Indonesia and so we are expecting cooperation," he said. The project is expected to use 233 hectares of land and it will be the first project using environment-friendly technology. The winning bidders of the project are a consortium of J-Power, Itochu and Adaro with an offering price of 5.79 cent US dollar/KwH and a HPS (temporary reference) price of 7.1 cent US dollar. Until now Indonesia has not had a power unit with a capacity of 1,000 MW. The biggest so far has a capacity of 660 MW namely the Tajung Jati and Paiton plants.