City allows commercial banners in some sites

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has decided to allow advertisers to post commercial banners in certain locations in a bid to put banner displays in order, an official said on Thursday.

Tonni Boediono, head of public facility orderliness of the city public order office, said that the decision was aimed mainly at preventing any indiscriminate placement of commercial banners and at the same time at increasing the city's revenues.

"We are continually faced with various problems in controlling the reckless displays of commercial banners. For example, illegal banners we remove before dawn frequently appear again at about 6:00 a.m.," he said.

He said that this decision was considered to be the most effective way as every day his office was forced to get rid of an average of 35 to 40 offending items.

"We have frequently warned the companies which display the banners about their indiscriminate displays. Most of them insisted that the city administration allow them to put up their advertising in certain locations," he said.

Tonni said that by putting the banner displays in order the administration was expected to be able to effectively keep a check on them.

He also said that the administration had chosen 30 locations for the displays, including on Jl. Fatmawati in South Jakarta and the Kelapa Gading traffic circle and on Jl. Kyai Maja in North Jakarta, but most of them had not been fully utilized.

In each of the 30 locations two poles were set up to enable advertisers to display commercial banners. Each location is capable of accommodating five banners.

Based on the existing law, displays of commercial banners are prohibited, except those at company complexes or at magazine and newspaper stands.

Tonni said that there had been three advertising companies which had submitted proposals to manage the locations.

"We are open to any company interested in joining the banner display business," he said, adding that the number of banner display locations was expected to reach 60 this year.

The advertising companies would be required to share their income with the city administration through the payment of the banner levies set by the city revenue agency, he said. (ind)