US-based technology and manufacturing firm Honeywell plans to tap into Indonesia’s robust infrastructure development, especially of airports and railways, that is aligned with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s vision for the coming years.
The company acknowledges Jokowi’s ambitious program to execute infrastructure construction worth more than US$400 billion from 2015 to 2020 to spur economic growth in the country and therefore make the nation with Southeast Asia’s largest economy one of the 10 top countries for the firm globally.
“We know that Indonesia needs new bridges and railways, that infrastructure is something the government is discussing,” Honeywell Indonesia president director Alex J. Pollack said on Thursday.
He has referring to the government’s target to build as many as 49 new dams over the course of five years, as well as 1,000 kilometers of new toll roads, among other projects.
With the development, the company aimed to provide advanced technology for the country’s infrastructure projects, including for its airports.
The firm boasted about its smart airport technology, claiming that it would be able to improve the efficiency and safety for the airports, as its technology would enable air traffic controllers to handle the number of aircraft landing in an hour with improved traffic management.
“With growth of 11 percent in the numbers of passengers annually and as the Soekarno Hatta International Airport already has to manage 22 million passengers currently, we think it will need an advanced technology and integrated system,” Pollack said.
The company also cited Jokowi’s policy to waive advanced visa requirements for 90 countries, which was expected to increase foreign tourist numbers, as the government aimed to attract 20 million foreign tourists by 2019.
The company would look to work with related companies such as state airport operator Angkasa Pura (AP) I and Angkasa Pura II, as it aims to get the technology applied in the country’s busiest airports such as Soekarno Hatta and Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, as well as in six to 25 other major airports in Indonesia.
Honeywell International last year booked $15.2 billion in revenues globally from its aerospace business, a decrease from $15.6 billion in 2014.
The company set the revenue growth to be double the gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year. The government itself aimed for 5.3 percent economic growth for 2016, as the country scored merely 4.79 percent last year.
It currently runs an aerospace manufacturing facility in Bintan, Riau, which had started to operate in 2005. It has also supported an existing maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) facility for aircraft owned by national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and the largest low-cost carrier, Lion Air Group.
Honeywell is also seeking involvement in railway projects in Indonesia, as it recently worked with the Transportation Ministry on radar scanner technology for automatic detection and warnings at railway crossings.
It recently wrapped up the technology’s trial at the Bintaro railway crossing, Jakarta, and the company expected to follow that up with installation of the products.
The company would also try to get involved in the country’s mass rapid transit (MRT) project, currently under construction in Jakarta, as it would want to apply its safety scanner system, which would also support Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan’s aim to have a safer transportation system.
The ministry allocated Rp 12.5 trillion ($957.8 million) for transportation safety and security improvement this year.