13/1/06 BUKIT TINGGI (Asia Pulse) - Indonesia and Malaysia will cultivate oil palm on some 17,000 ha of land in the Dharmasraya region in West Sumatra beginning next month under a joint venture between PT Andalas Agro Group, a company set up by Indonesia`s Tri Nugraha Thohir (TNT) and Malaysia`s TSH Resources Bhd, an Indonesian official said.

The project is part of a bilateral commitment to set up oil palm plantations on 50,000 ha of land with a total investment of Rp 1.6 trillion (US$168.42 million) in the future, West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi said Friday.

TNT would set up two oil palm processing plants with a total investment of Rp 500 billion with the plants expected to absorb about 4,000 workers, he said.

Fauzi expressed hope that the investors would also be interested in doing business in other fields including the fishery sector.

So far, only 20 per cent of West Sumatra`s fishery sector`s potential of 340 tons of fish per year was being utilized.

Fauzi said Malaysia was quite advanced in marine and inland fisheries technology and West Sumatra was ready to cooperate with the neighboring country to develop Indonesia`s fishery sector.

The governor made the statements following a summit between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Thursday.

(ANTARA)