City seeks closer ties with neighboring

City seeks closer ties with neighboring

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration is seeking to finance projects in
neighboring towns as part of its efforts to resolve perennial
problems in the capital.

A document seen by The Jakarta Post last week showed that the
city administration was allocating Rp 500 million (approximately
US$48,000) in its 2006 budget to preserve water catchment areas
along the Ciliwung River, Rp 200 million for social problems in
neighboring towns, Rp 300 million for spatial problems and
another Rp 300 million for joint efforts to find shared trash
dump sites.

The Ciliwung River originates in the Puncak area of Bogor
regency and passes through Bogor town, Depok and then Jakarta
before emptying in the Java Sea.

The amount is actually a small part of the city's 2005 budget
of around Rp 14 trillion, but the allocation is still significant
as it is the first time Jakarta has earmarked funds for its
neighbors.

Jakarta borders Depok and Bogor in the south, Tangerang in the
west and Bekasi in the east.

The funds will be disbursed through the Greater Jakarta
Cooperation Board (BKSP), which is slated to receive a Rp 6.5
billion allocation from the city's 2006 budget.

A source with the city administration told the Post that
Governor Sutiyoso was also more than willing to disburse budget
money for the improvement in the education and health sectors,
especially in areas near the capital's border areas, which
usually are in a poor state due to a lack of attention from local
administrations.

"The cooperation must result in mutual benefit for all
administrations involved," said Sutiyoso.

The former Jakarta military commander acknowledged that the
capital still needed real cooperation from its neighboring towns
to tackle the perennial problems; including the supply of clean
water, waste disposal and flooding.

For the supply of tap water, Jakarta has been using untreated
water from a reservoir in Tangerang for clean water in the
capital.

In the last 15 years, the city also has relied on the Bantar
Gebang dump in Bekasi, West Java to dispose of its 6,000 tons of
daily waste, while Jakarta needs Bogor's help to stop the rapid
development in the hill areas in order to reduce recurrent floods
in the city, some 40 percent of which is below sea level.

Sutiyoso has repeatedly floated the idea of placing Jakarta
and neighboring towns under a single management structure to
effectively tackle problems in the area amid slow progress in
cooperation.

Cooperation between Jakarta and surrounding towns has
foundered as authorities in the neighboring towns complained that
they would benefit little from any cooperation with Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Secretary Ritola Tasmaya revealed that the
city administration also planned to establish an "agro-business
center" to ensure that other cities in the Greater Jakarta area
also benefit from the cooperation.

"The center will be in charge of distributing agricultural
products in the capital. Those towns will supply the agricultural
products, while Jakarta will be the place to market their
products," he told reporters at City Hall on Thursday.

"There will be a give-and-take relationship between Jakarta
and other cities in the Greater Jakarta area," he said without
giving details of the planned center.