Abstract: In September 1994, a ceremony marked the official start of the construction of Paiton I. Attending were the US ambassador and representatives of some institutions that might put up money, along with the secretary general of the Ministry of Finance. One might have expected higher level Indonesian officials for such a large project, but this was really only a ceremony. No contract for construction had been executed and the all-important financing was still missing. The US government were to become much more deeply involved before the project could proceed. This chapter will show that the involvement was so deep that one must question the meaning of “turning to the private sector” for infrastructure.

Keywords: foreign investment, US government, power projects, Indonesia, guarantees, financing,