Condet to be turned into tourist area

Condet to be turned into tourist area

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration wants to turn the Condet
area of East Jakarta into an "agro-tourism" center in which
visitors can enjoy local typical fruit, an official said
yesterday.

City Agriculture Office chief H.M. Maharanto said that his
agency has trained farmers in the area to grow local fruits,
ranging from salak to duku, with a view to speeding up the
program.

"The training course given to the farmers included techniques
for producing high-grade fruit seeds and maintaining their
quality," he said.

Maharanto said that currently about 200,000 salak trees and
9,000 duku trees are being tended by residents in Condet under
his office's guidance.

He said that the city administration has designated Condet a
conservation area in order to preserve both the local Betawi
culture and the area's fruit. The Betawi are the indigenous
people of Jakarta.

Maharanto said that Condet is already in the process of
becoming a tourist site. He said an increasing number of people,
mainly Indonesians, are visiting Condet to buy fruit or just to
enjoy the environment.

"Fruit from Condet has become popular. It cannot be found in
supermarkets because it is all sold on site," he said, adding
that people could visit Condet to buy duku in January and
February. Salak may be purchased there in October, he said.

The transformation of Condet into a tourist area is also
intended to reduce the number of Jakartans spending their
weekends at the Puncak mountain resort area in West Java,
Maharanto said.

He said that coordination with related agencies is needed to
help speed up the transformation program. The City Building
Restoration and Protection Agency, for example, has been asked to
advise local residents on the restoration of their houses for use
as tourist accommodation. (yns)