17-day contest on horticulture planned

The City Park Office will hold a contest on horticulture from Aug. 12 to 28 at the Banteng Square, Central Jakarta, the office's head, Syamsir Alam, announced yesterday.

In order to lure visitors, Syamsir said the organizer will hold entertainment programs during the contest, which will feature flower and fruit arrangements, aquarium making contests, plant decorating contests and competitions on building decoration.

The contest is scheduled to be opened by Governor Surjadi Soedirdja.

When asked about the overall condition of public parks in the city, Syamsir said that at least 300 of the city's 400 parks have been converted into other projects, including gas stations.

"But we were able to convert 52 of them back to parks in the 1992/93 period and 14 during the 1993/94 period," he said.

Syamsir said he has also notified owners of 35 gas stations built on city parks to close their operations by the end of the 1997/98 fiscal year at the latest.

"Those whose gas station operating licenses expired this year will be given one year to extend their operation in order to allow them to prepare to move to other locations," he said. (arf)