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.