Indonesia's telecommunication giant PT Telkom will spend 1.5 trillion rupiah or 165 million US dollars on early retirement program that affects 1,871 employees, an executive said Saturday.

This year's non-mandatory retirement program will begin on April 1, Telkom's corporate secretary Harsya Denny Suryo was quoted by leading news website Detikcom as saying.

Telkom, which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange, has offered the voluntarily early retirement program since 2001 as part of efficiency drive, affecting about 10,000 employees.

Source: Xinhua