Cambodia, Indonesia's Rajawali to set up airline
Reuters - 1 hour 5 minutes ago
(Re****ting by Nury Sybli, writing by Tyagita Silka, editing by Sugita
Katyal) - JAKARTA, April 10 - The Cambodian government and Indonesia's
Rajawali Cor****ation agreed on Thursday to set up a new national flag
airline to serve Cambodia's growing tourism industry, the company said
in a statement.
The joint-venture company's capital is estimated to reach $50 million
and the Cambodian government will own 51 percent while Rajawali Group
will own the rest.
"With a national flag carrier, we envisage our economy and tourism
industry will grow rapidly," Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An,
said in the statement released by Rajawali.
Cambodia launched its own national flag carrier, Royal Air Cambodge ,
in the mid-1990s but it went bankrupt, resulting in heavy losses for
the government.
The new carrier, however, might have a better chance due to the rising
number of tourists to Cambodia. In 2007, the country attracted more
than 2 million tourists and more than 60 percent of them used air
travel.
The number of tourist arrivals in 2007 rose almost 19 percent from the
previous year and air travel increased more than 25 percent, according
to the tourism minister on the official Web site http://www.mot.gov.kh.
Rajawali was founded by Indonesian entrepreneur Peter Sondakh, ranked
by Globe Asia magazine as 19th wealthiest Indonesian with a net worth
of $510 million. The group controls diversified businesses from a
cement firm to department stores and a taxi company.
It holds an around 25 percent stake in Semen Gresik , Indonesia's
largest cement maker. Rajawali also founded the country's third-
largest mobile phone firm before selling its stake to Telekom Malaysia
and Emirates Telecommunications .
(Re****ting by Nury Sybli, writing by Tyagita Silka, editing by Sugita
Katyal)
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