 In 1972, the hydropower development plan strengthened after the government received a report from Nippon Koei, a Japanese consulting company, that the feasibility study of building hydropower plant was possible to be built as well as an aluminum smelter as the main user of the electricity it produced.Following the study, after lengthy negotiations and with economic assistance from the Japanese government for the project - later known as the "Asahan Project", the Indonesian government and 12 Japanese companies signed the master agreement on July 7, 1975 in Tokyo.Furthermore, in order to exercise capital investment in then-established company, the twelve companies together with the Japanese government formed Nippon Asahan Aluminium Co., Ltd. (NAA) on November 25, 1975.