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)