Pindads Long Term Chances to Support UN Peacekeeping Mission

On Friday, December 4^th, 2015, PT Pindad (Persero) receives a visit from Peace Keeping Mission Coordination Team. The coordination team which consists of 14 Ministries and Institutions is led by Andi Rahmianto as Director of International Security and Disarmament Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The entourage is received by Heru Puryanto, Vice President of Product and Process Development of PT Pindad (Persero) whom acted as Directors representative.

Heru Puryanto said his welcome greeting to the entourage and also inserts his hope that todays visit could generate a better cooperation between Pindad and the Peace Keeping Mission Coordination Team in the future. Hopefully on todays visit, we could exchange information as many as we could and todays meeting could be a beginning for a further cooperation between these two institutions, said Heru. He also adds that PT Pindad (Persero) keep its active state to produce many products, not only military but also commercial products and invites the entourage to visit some of production facilities to get depth information regarding the production process of Pindads products.

Andi Rahmianto said that visit to PT Pindad (Persero) has a connection with Indonesias readiness to give an input regarding United Nations peacekeeping operations and furthermore, Pindads role which quite important to support the personnel performance on the field. On the last 10 years, Pindads products are already used on many operations such as Anoa combat vehicle and long barrel riffles such as SS1 and SS2. Our visit today is strategically has a long term implications, because related with Pindads products as a supporting element of our troops achievement at United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations which obtained praises regarding their performances, said Andi.

The long term implication, said Andi, is the effort of Peace Keeping Mission Coordination Team which based on Defence Industry Law Number 16 Year 2012 to promote some of Pindads products which is used by Indonesian troops in various peacekeeping missions. Hopefully, in the longer term, Pindads products could be introduced and even more used by other troops in various United Nations missions. In addition, UN procurement in one year to reach 15 billion dollars, half of which is used for the procurement of UN peacekeeping supports in the form of products of defense equipment, so we saw a strategic opportunity for Pindad to fill, continued Andi.

Indonesia has been participating in UN Peacekeeping Missions since 1957 with more than 30 hundreds personnel assigned in a conflict area. For this year, 2840 personnel which are consist of Indonesian National Armed Forces and Indonesian National Police personnel has been assigning in 10 UN Peacekeeping missions. This program has now become one of the main programs under the leadership of President Jokowi with the vision 4000 peacekeepers at the end of his tenure. PT Pindad (Persero)s products, 14 units of Anoa Combat Vehicle was sent to Lebanon to support United Nation Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) and 24 units sent to Darfur to support the mission of the United Nations Mission In Darfur (UNAMID). Hopefully, this visit can solidify Pindads effort to support the participation of Indonesia in maintaining world peace. (Anggia)