Brunei considering Sea Rider speed boats from Indonesia.

Brunei Darussalam is considering buying Sea Rider speed boats from Indonesia, Secretary-General of the Defense Ministry Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said on the sidelines of the IDA event in Jakarta on Thursday, He was quoted as saying in the local media. He said foreign companies like Daewoo of South Korea and Franco-German EADS had spoken of the possibility of a production cooperation with ammunition and weapon maker PT Pindad. Director general for defense facilities Rear Marshal Eris Heryanto said he had received a representative from Eurosatory -- the French Biannual Defense Exhibition -- who offered Indonesia a special pavilion to show off its strategic industry products in France in June 2010. Indonesian state-owned strategic enterprises, grouped under the acronym BUMNIS, have produced competitive defense products and supplied the Indonesian Military (TNI) with quality armaments. Pindad, for instance, supplies assault rifles and ammunition to the TNI as well as to the National Police and is currently fulfilling a contract to produce 150 6X6 armored personnel carriers for the Army. Aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia has produced light and medium aircraft for the TNI, including the NBO-105 helicopter and the CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft. Shipyard PT PAL produces patrol boats under a German license and is constructing the country's fourth landing platform dock vessel under South Korean supervision. Separately, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono called on the enterprises to develop the country's defense industry, saying each company needed to develop marketing strategies in order to build up a foreign clientele. "BUMNIS are technically capable of producing defense equipment, but in terms of marketing, they are very poor," he told participants of a seminar held in conjunction with the IDA. "They can't rely on the state budget forever to develop the defense industry. They have to reap commercial benefits in order to grow even more". Juwono said to obtain foreign market targets, BUMNIS needed enormous funding so it could fulfill large contracts such as to produce 60 aircraft or 60 patrol boats and be able to provide after-sales services. "BUMNIS needs around US$600 to $700 million in order to develop Indonesia's defense industry," he said, adding that one of the hindrances facing the growth of BUMNIS was limited support from the state.