JAKARTA The Indonesian government Monday submitted a list of 37 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for its privatization drive this year to the House of Representatives. “There are 37 SOEs that we propose for the 2008 restructuring program,” said Minister for State-owned Enterprises Affairs Sofjan Djalil. “But we have yet to get a final say from the privatization committee. We plan to hold a meeting with the committee this week regarding the 37 SOEs,” he said during a hearing with the House commission four overseeing SOEs.

The 37 SOEs range from insurance firms, banks, pharmaceutical company to shipbuilding company. Among them are also such big names as steel producer PT Krakatau Steel, aircraft-maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia, railway industry INKA and plantation firm PTPN. Indonesia has 158 SOEs that Vice President Jusuf Kalla once said was too many. The government is launching a program to halve the figure in the next few years by either privatization, merger or liquidation.

Source: http://news.indahnesia.com