PT PAL Plans To Deliver Over Three Missile Vessels To SE Asian, African Customers By 2018-end

Indonesia’s state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL is planning to deliver at least three missile vessels to Southeast Asian and African countries and four to the country’s Navy, this year.

"Our target for this year is to build four 60-meter-long missile ships ordered by the Indonesian Navy. We expect to export two missile vessels to Malaysia, one missile vessel to Thailand and several missile vessels to African countries," PT PAL Indonesia president director Budiman Saleh said as quoted by Antara on Monday. 

The production of the 60-m missile vessels is the second of its kind ordered by the Indonesian Navy after PT PAL completed and delivered three missile ships to the institution.

In addition to missile vessels, PT PAL also manufactures missile destroyer ships and landing platform decks (LPD) for national marine defense equipment.

"With regard to exports, we have penetrated the Southeast Asian market, including Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as the African market, including Senegal, [the Democratic Republic of the] Congo, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso," he said.

Budiman, along with several directors of PT PAL, met with Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Monday to discuss the development of the Indonesian ship industry and plans to provide training to young Indonesians.

"We also talked about the vocational program, which is one of the government's big programs for about 1,500 Indonesian youths across the country," he added.