Indonesia has entered talks with China on high-speed train debt, minister says

[JAKARTA] Indonesia’s Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani on Wednesday (Oct 8) said the government has entered into discussions with China about restructuring the debt of Indonesia’s high-speed train company.

Construction of the US$7.3 billion China-backed high-speed railway began in 2016, and it was meant to start operating in 2019.

But the project to connect the capital Jakarta and Bandung in West Java faced problems, including land procurement issues, pandemic-related delays and ballooning costs, which pushed out its completion.

Rosan declined to disclose details of the proposed restructuring being negotiated with the Chinese government.

“We want a comprehensive reform, so that after we restructure there will be no more things like the possibility of default and so on in the future,” Rosan said. REUTERS