Jakarta – Indonesia will set up a new agency to oversee state companies in a bid to speed their privatization, chief economics minister Rizal Ramli said yesterday.

"We are setting up a new agency to supervise state companies. The agency will be directly under the supervision of the chief economics minister," Ramli told reporters. "We hope that with the new agency, policies regarding the privatization can be made faster and can be carried out more effectively," Ramli added.

Ramli said the agency would be run by a board consisting of the ministers who oversee state companies, such as the finance minister, the trade and industry minister, the energy and mining resources minister and the forestry and plantation minister.

Indonesia's state companies were previously supervised by the minister of investment and state enterprises. But that ministry was dissolved when President Abdurrahman Wahid appointed a new cabinet last week.

Former investment and state enterprises development minister Rozy Munir said earlier this year the ministry was targeting Rp6.7 trillion (US$779 million) in revenue from the sale of state shares in eight firms next year.

Munir also said the government planned to sell shares in nine more state firms this year, on top of eight firms already slated for privatization, if the government seemed in danger of falling short of its Rp6.5 trillion privatization target in 2000.