PT TELKOMSEL HAS NEW PRESIDENT DIRECTOR

Jakarta, Jan 30 (ANTARA) - The stakeholders of PT Telkomsel namely PT Telkom and SingTel (Singapore Telecommunication) have named Sarwoto Atmosutarno new president director of PT Telkomsel to replace Kiskenda Suriahardja.

"The transfer of post was done behind closed doors at Telkom Building this afternoon," Telkom's chief commissioner Tanri Abeng said to ANTARA here on Thursday.
He said the change was done because the term of office of Kiskenda would soon expire while Sarwoto currently the company's executive general manager was considered having the competence and capacity to replace Kiskenda.
"We need a leader in Telkomsel that could promote the company's performance. Telkomsel is the largest contributor to Telkom and therefore a man with a better criteria needs to be stationed there," he said.
He said Telkomsel also needed a person who could make the company remain survive in the midst of current fierce competition in the cellular phone business.
Sarwoto is one of the brains behind the development of Telkom satellites and has also played a big role in it.
A source in Telkomsel however said that the plan to replace Kiskenda had actually been considered since three months ago.
The change has also been done in connection with a case of fraud on Telkomsel customers done jointly with content provider PT Cahaya Intiza Abadi.
Tanri Abeng said the agreement to conduct the change was done two weeks ago by way of a circular resolution agreement made by Telkom as the holder of 65 percent shares of the company and SingTel that holds the rest 35 percent of the shares.
"The decision to replace the president director is done through a circular resolution for a practical reason. So it was not done through a general shareholders' meeting," he said.