City told to give traditional marts chance to compete<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government has been asked to set aside more
\nfunds to renovate traditional markets in a bid to help them
\ncompete with supermarkets and other modern business centers.<\/p>\n
Ratna Djuwita Wahab, chairperson of the Trade, Cooperative and
\nBusiness Development Bureau of the National Development Planning
\nBoard, said over the weekend that the renovation of traditional
\nmarkets is badly needed because their customers are increasingly
\nabandoning them for modern shopping centers.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a one-day seminar on traditional trade development
\nstrategy, Ratna said that in their development, modern markets
\ntend to expand their business by building new stores near the
\ntraditional markets.<\/p>\n
\"They take over the customers of traditional markets by
\nproviding better and interesting services and transparent prices.
\nEven the products sold in the modern markets are not much
\ndifferent from traditional markets,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"The government should work out a policy to protect
\ntraditional markets because, if not, the expansion of modern
\nmarkets will severely affect the traditional ones,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"In Jakarta alone, there are 490 markets of which 104 are
\nclassified into the informal market group, 162 traditional and
\n224 modern,\" said Hamzah Jaspinoe, a director of the city-owned
\nmarket company PD Pasar Jaya.<\/p>\n
The number of modern supermarkets is increasing steadily in
\nthe city, mainly due to changing lifestyles and purchasing
\nbehavior among Jakartans as a result of the country's economic
\ngrowth, the increasing population and globalization process, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The steady increase of supermarkets is projected to continue
\nover the next few years, Hamzah said, reiterating that if
\ntraditional markets are not upgraded they will be shunned by
\ntheir regular customers.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Anton Lukmanto, a director of Hero Supermarket,
\nsaid that it is beyond the point of discussing competition
\nbetween traditional and modern markets.<\/p>\n
\"The point is how to create cooperation needed to support the
\ndevelopment of retail business in the country,\" he said. (31)<\/p>",
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