Saudi BinLadin Group plans to invest at least $4.3 billion in Indonesia’s agriculture sector, a senior Indonesian official said on Tuesday.

Alwi Shihab, the President’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters that the group was interested in investing in the rice-farming sector in Papua province.

’They need at least 500,000 hectares of land and the total cost for investment based on the preliminary study is $43 million for every 5,000 hectares, which means the total cost would be $4.3 billion,’ Shihab said.

’This is no longer in the preliminary stage. The investment will be realised in the near future,’ he added, but gave no further details. - Reuters