Anthony Salim to join reclamation project
JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb.M. Rais said yesterday that Anthony Salim of the widely diversified Salim group would join the reclamation project in the Jakarta Bay.
A memorandum of understanding between Anthony, the group's vice-president, and the city administration's North Jakarta Reclamation Implementation Board was signed Friday, he said.
The signing ceremony was closed and officials would not talk to the press about it.
"He proposed reclaiming 600 hectares in the northern part," Rais said at City Hall yesterday. He said that Anthony, tycoon Sudono Salim's son, had experience in reclamation projects.
Rais said the municipality and the North Jakarta Reclamation Implementation Board, which supervises the 2,700-hectare project, would study the proposal before signing a development agreement.
Rais said he did not know how much Anthony would invest in the project. According to the plans, the project would consist of residential, business, recreational and tourist attractions stretching 32 kilometers along the Jakarta Bay, from Pluit in the west to Cilincing in the east.
The Salim group had earlier proposed reclaiming 4,000 hectares of the Teluk Naga shoreline in Tangerang, West Java. The plan to include tourism sites, a commercial area and fishing villages was approved in 1995 by President Soeharto.
The environmental impact study of the total planned area of 8,000 hectares is yet to be revealed.
On Saturday councilor Djafar Badjeber of the United Development Party questioned a cooperation plan between the city and private sector companies in the reclamation project.
He said previous cooperations between the municipality and private sectors had not been advantageous to the city.
"In prior cooperations, most of the policies were determined by private sector companies instead of the municipality, even though the city had a large share," Djafar of Commission D for development affairs said Saturday.
He said the cooperation between the municipality and PT Jaya Ancol, in which 80 percent of the share belongs to the city was an example. Jaya Ancol manages the Ancol Dreamland Park in North Jakarta.
PT Pembangunan Jaya, which developed the park, is partially owned by the city, which has a 40 percent share.
"PT Jaya Ancol and PT Pembangunan Jaya determined most of the policies and left the municipality behind," Djafar said.
The city is often uninformed of new developments at the Park, Djafar said.
Company
He urged officials to learn from experience before stepping into the cooperation for the reclamation project.
The city has proposed a bill to form a company, under the North Jakarta Reclamation Implementation Board, to set up joint ventures to carry out the project.
"The waterfront city project is a prestigious project and it will cost a lot. The project's plan looks good on paper but the most important thing is whether all the plans will work in reality," Djafar said
In this mass project, he said, the city should not be overtaken by the private sector.
For instance, he said, the city should make sure the developers do not take building materials, such as sand, from the Seribu Islands. Unchecked sand quarrying is a major environment hazard in the Islands.
The proposed company, tentatively called PT Pembangunan Pantai Utara Jakarta, is to seek cooperation with third parties to invest in and manage different sectors under the project.
In the proposed draft, the city would have a 99 percent share in the company. The Korpri (Civil Servants Corps) Foundation would have the remaining 1 percent.
A high-ranking official requesting anonymity said earlier, one constraint of the city in facing interests of the private sector was its lack of officials with adequate skills. "We lack experts who can assess proposals," the source said.
Councilors have also said the municipality faces pressures from the central government and private parties.
The source said the city is trying to cope with the constraint by cooperating with university experts. (ste)