3,000 stevedores to get own homes via credit sceme
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek has signed an agreement with a primary cooperative to finance a housing development project worth more than Rp 22.5 billion (US$2.6 million) for 3,000 stevedores at Belawan Port, some 12 kilometers north of Medan, capital of North Sumatra province.
The project agreement was signed by Jamsostek president Ahmad Junaidi and the executive of primary cooperative TKBM Upaya Karya in Belawan on Thursday.
The 3,000 stevedores, all members of the primary cooperative, will each receive a soft loan of Rp 7.5 million as advance payment for the construction of low-cost houses. Every house is to be a 27-square-meter unit on a 70-square-meter plot of land, and the 3,000 houses will be built on a 35-hectare plot located near the port.
Some 250 units will be complete by May, while the remaining 2,750 units will be completed within the next two years.
Ahmad Junaidi said the stevedores' housing complex will be part of the industrial zone near the port and will include places of worship, elementary and junior high schools, a community hall and a sports facility.
"With this commitment, Jamsostek hopes the credit scheme will help low-income workers to own homes of their own. The loan should be repaid within five years with an annual flat interest rate of three percent," he said.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, who laid the cornerstone for the housing project at a ceremony on Thursday, said the project was part of the government's plan to develop one million houses for the needy this year and of the ministry's crash program to develop cheap housing for low-income workers.
"Workers at the port should thank God for this chance to own a house through Jamsostek's soft loan scheme. Thousands of others have lost their jobs and are not able to own a house," he said.
Workers of industrial zones, ports and the informal sector have been prioritized for the housing credit scheme, as their monthly income falls between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1.5 million while a modest house costs between Rp 20 million and Rp 40 million.
Ahmad said for the 2004 fiscal year, Jamsostek had also allocated Rp 75 billion under the credit scheme for densely populated Java so that 10,000 workers could afford their own homes.
So far, Jamsostek has disbursed Rp 184 billion in soft loans to help more than 32,600 workers in industrial zones across the country build homes.
The housing projects include nine low-cost apartment blocks in Batam, Riau; Cikarang, West Java; and Makassar, South Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, three trauma centers in Medan and in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, were also inaugurated on Thursday to provide workers with first aid and emergency medical treatment for work-related accidents.
The trauma centers have been established at the Haj Hospital and Deli Serdang General Hospital in Medan and at the Cut Meutia General Hospital in Lhokseumawe.
The two cities are home to hundreds of thousands of workers employed at middle-scale companies and large factories.