Jakarta. The Indonesian government is preparing to establish a new state-owned holding company focused on agriculture and fisheries by merging three existing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) into an entity called Agrinas, a senior official said on Monday.

The three SOEs to be consolidated -- Virama Karya, Yodya Karya, and Indra Karya -- will be merged and financially supported by the newly established sovereign wealth fund Danantara.

“The establishment of Agrinas is being prepared by the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry,” said Zulkifli Hasan, the Coordinating Minister for Food Security.

During a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto to discuss the plan, Zulkifli said that several ideas had emerged, including the development of 20,000 hectares of coastal fishponds and 1 million hectares of palm plantations.

He added that the upcoming holding company would also be tasked with building rice milling facilities to strengthen national food production.

On the same occasion, Danantara CEO Rosan Roeslani said Agrinas will not receive funding from the state budget, but will instead be fully financed by Danantara, which collects and manages dividends from all SOEs.

“Agrinas will fall under the oversight of Danantara, and its funding will not come from the Finance Ministry,” Rosan said.

Add as a preferred source on Google +