The Pacific : Fluor Corp. Chairman Les McCraw Sees Business Aplenty in Asia : Construction: The region is expected to spend $1 billion on infrastructure.

With developing countries in the Pacific Rim expected to spend $1 billion on infrastructure projects through the year 2000, small wonder that Irvine-based Fluor Corp. Chairman Les McCraw is playing a role in this year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings.

Roughly half of the company’s $8 billion now come from Asia and other developing regions such as Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa. Fluor is the parent of Fluor Daniel, an engineering and construction company, and A.T. Massey, one of the top five coal companies in the states.

“We are going into a period where we think we’ll have more business outside the U.S. than inside the U.S.,” McCraw said during an interview with Bloomberg Business News. He also noted that the “Asia-Pacific will represent a significant part of that.”

Fluor is set to win a major contract to work on power generators as part of a $2.6-billion power plant project backed by a multinational consortium led by U.S.-based Mission Energy Co., General Electric Corp. and Japan’s Mitsui & Co.

Preliminary contracts for these so-called Paiton projects were handed out in February. However, a second round of contracts is now being awarded by PT Paiton Energy Co., the formal name of the group of companies overseeing the construction of two coal-powered energy plants in East Java. This area is home to about 60% of Indonesia’s 185 million people. The four-year project is set to get underway early next year.

The company also plans to announce in the next few days an Indonesian joint venture with Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Power and Jakarta-based Catur Yasa Co. to operate and maintain power production facilities.

Dick Carano, Fluor Daniel’s Asia Pacific group president, said the venture will start out by taking over part of the operations of an Irian Jaya, Indonesia, mine from Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., a company based in Reno.

The venture will gradually be expanded to serve a number of power-related operations in Indonesia, he said in the interview with Bloomberg.

Carano stressed that his company is involved in a number of non-power projects across the region as well. With 13 offices in Asia, Fluor has been involved in projects ranging from automotive facilities in China to consumer goods producing plants in South Korea.

“We’re very busy across this whole region and see tremendous business opportunity,” Carano said.

Fluor’s presence in the region led APEC leaders to select McCraw to co-chair the Pacific Business Forum, a consultative group set up following last year’s APEC meeting in Seattle. The 33 executives representing all of APEC’s member nations were charged with the task of reporting “on what gets in the way of business,” McCraw said.

The group’s recommendations, compiled in October, will be formally presented to APEC heads of state today.

Along with calling for big picture goals such as an APEC-wide free trade bloc by 2010, the report also highlighted particulars like streamlining immigration procedures for foreign staff of investor companies.

McCraw stated that he expects Fluor to be an “indirect” beneficiary of the group’s efforts.