Local Telecommunication and Informatics Equipment Not Top-Level

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The high level of dependency on imported telecommunication and informatics equipment is because local products have not yet met the required quality.Head of the Indonesian Cellular Telephone Association, Johnny Swandi Sjam, said that domestic industry can only provide tower and several software applications. Now tower making procurement is even regarded as more expensive.Two years ago, according to Sjam, import volume reached 70 percent of the total capital expenditure. But now it is estimated that it has decreased to 60 percent because the electronics industry is now changing, he told Tempo yesterday (30/7).Post and Telecommunication Director General, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, previously said that a company's expenditure for imported telecommunication infrastructure support is still 90 percent. On a national scale, the amount of a telecommunication company's import expenditure is between US$2.5 billion and Rp3 billion. The expenditure that is equivalent to Rp27 trillion is not yet included for cellular telephones or handsets, around Rp10 trillion.According to Sjam, the high level of dependency on imported products is because local industry has not yet developed. This factor, he said, is influenced by an investment climate that is unfavorable so that investors are not interested in building factories. If we can produce it by ourselves, imports are certainly no longer necessary, said the Managing Director of PT Indosat .He said devices that are still imported include network devices for radio, base transceiver station, switching, terminal devices and handsets.This is also acknowledged by PT Huawei Technologies Investment, which imports telecommunication devices from China. According to Seruni Rhea, some of the infrastructure products in Indonesia are imported from China via the company.Imported infrastructure devices to Indonesia cover wireless networks and network product lines, which comprise a fixed line network, optical network, datacom network, application , software and terminal. Indonesia still needs almost all of those products, said Rhea.Dian Yuliastuti