330,000 new comers estimated for Jakarta

330,000 new comers estimated for Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The City Population Office predicts the number of "newcomers" returning to the capital together with their Jakartan family members after the Idul Fitri holiday will reach over 330,000 this year.

"The prediction is based on the average number of newcomers arriving in the past, which is generally equal to about 11 percent of the total number of Jakartans that leave the city," said Suwarno, the head of the statistics department.

The city administration estimated that 3 million people left the city to celebrate Idul Fitri in their hometowns. It is common for many of them to return to the city together with their friends or relatives to look for jobs.

"About 314,900 newcomers arrived in the city last year, or 10.52 percent of the 2.9 million people who left the city at that time," Suwarno said.

However, Suwarno said, not all newcomers stay in Jakarta and many of them continue on to Jakarta's buffer townships of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi.

"Some of them go to Jakarta only to visit a number of the city's major recreation centers or to meet with their relatives," Suwarno said.

The city administration has anticipated the annual influx of newcomers and has set several requirements for those intending to stay and work permanently in the city. The requirements include documents on the change of residence from heads of their villages and guarantees that they have jobs and a place of residence in Jakarta.

All subdistrict chiefs have been ordered to register any newcomers living in their areas.

"Those who fulfill all of the requirements can obtain temporary citizenship cards from the city administration. They are valid for six months before they are declared as permanent residents of Jakarta," Suwarno said.

He said that the city administration has issued about 75,000 new citizenship cards per year since 1989.

In order to reduce the number of newcomers entering the city, Suwarno said, the Jakarta municipality launched a program describing the harsh conditions and facts of living in Jakarta in cooperation with a number of city administrations in West, Central and East Java and South Sumatra.

"The program explains that living in Jakarta is not as easy as they imagine. It is aimed at preventing people without skills from coming to the capital," Suwarno said.(yns)