The newly appointed president of Japan Highway Public Corp. pledged Thursday to prioritize the quasigovernmental firm's profitability and the repayment of its huge debts ahead of its planned privatization in fiscal 2005.
Speaking at his inaugural news conference, Takeshi Kondo, 62, said that while the government will decide by year's end how to carry out its plans to complete 9,342 km worth of expressways, the entity will need to scrutinize these plans carefully to see how deeply it can commit itself to them.
Of the 9,342 km in question, some 2,100 km have yet to be completed, with the total construction cost estimated at 16 trillion yen.