The Chinese government encourages and supports domestic enterprises willing to participate in the construction of coal-fired power plants in Indonesia, the minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has said.

At the second China-Indonesia energy forum held in Shanghai last weekend, Ma Kai said it is an important measure for Indonesia to decide to build 10 million kilowatt coal-fired power plants before 2009.

The Chinese government is willing to jointly research a cooperative program with Indonesia's government and to start negotiation on governmental cooperation as soon as possible, said the minister.

Ma Kai said there is great potential for the two countries to cooperate in the energy sector and the current cooperation lags far behind the expectations of both sides.

China has cooperated with Indonesia on such projects as power station construction and has begun to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel its LNG project in southeastern Fujian Province.

Ma suggested establishing a cooperative mechanism in investment between China and Indonesia.

Both sides should strengthen dialogue and communication between major institutions in charge of energy investment to create a good environment for enterprises, he said.

Ma said both sides should attach more attention to cooperation in such fields as coal, petroleum, natural gas and electricity, renewable energy, alternative energy and efficiency enhancement, aluminum, copper and nickel, public utility construction including roads, bridges, ports and communication, manufacturing fields such as light industry, machine and electronics as well as forestry, agriculture, fishing and processing.

The first energy forum between China and Indonesia was held in Bali Island of Indonesia in 2002.

Source: Xinhua