Jakarta – Hit by poor sales, Indonesia's national distributor has offered to sell "Timor" cars to government officials in various provinces, it was reported yesterday. An official of PT Timor Distributor National, the marketing arm of PT Timor Putra Nasional (TPN), confirmed that negotiations were under way with the central Java provincial administration on terms of sale of its cars to the province.

A similar offer was also being made to other provinces, the Indonesia Times daily newspaper reported.

President-director Sumitro Surachmad said that the company had imported 18,000 fully assembled Timor sedans last October, but because of poor sales, 5,000 remained unsold.

PT Timor officials said the company would deal with three government agencies on the proposed sale of the cars to the provincial governments.

In February last year, the government allowed TPN to produce a national car in co-operation with South Korea's Kia Motors Corp, and gave the company tax and tariff exemptions.

Last month, the company lowered its monthly sales target from 4,000 to between 2,500 and 3,000 units because of low domestic demand. – DPA.