Councils reject plan to revise market baylaw

Councils reject plan to revise market baylaw

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Claiming to defend the interests of small and medium enterprises
(SMEs), the City Council rejected on Tuesday plans to review a
bylaw which obliges the owners of shopping centers to allocate
space to SME's.

"The revision of the bylaw will not occur. It is our aim to
help small and medium enterprises," the City Council's Commission
B for development affairs Dani Anwar said.

Dani said that the council would develop new methods of
implementing the bylaw instead.

He added that Cilandak Town Square in South Jakarta, Senayan
Plaza in Central Jakarta, all Carrefour outlets and some 14
businessmen, who planned to open shopping centers, had already
agreed to comply with the bylaw.

"Why should some businessmen reject the bylaw when so many
have complied. It is the responsibility of the administration to
monitor its application," Dani added.

Commission B member Haim Mahadin said the city administration
needed to crack down on market operators who ignored the bylaw.

"We should be firm about implementing the bylaw. If this bylaw
is ignored a bad precedent will be set and people will not trust
any regulations we make," Haim, a councillor of the National
Mandate Party, said.

Assistant to the city secretary for economic affairs Hari
Sandjojo said he had coordinated with relevant officials in
trying to make sure that operators of the shopping malls and
supermarkets would comply with the bylaw.

"Of course, we will watch to ensure that the bylaw works, that
businessmen comply with the regulation," Hari said, adding that
many businessman had paid compensation before the bylaw came into
effect in the middle of last year.

He said the bylaw would only be enforced for shopping malls
and supermarkets that had opened after the bylaw came into effect
and those who had not paid compensation.

The bylaw states that the owners of shopping centers with an
area of between 200 square meters (sqm) and 500 sqm should set
apart 10 percent of the space for SMEs, and shopping centers with
an area of over 500 sqm should set apart 20 percent of the space
for SMEs.

If the review of bylaw No. 2/2002 on private markets was
approved, businessmen could pay compensation instead of
allocating space to SMEs.

Governor Sutiyoso, apparently under pressure from the owners
of shopping centers, had earlier expressed his willingness to
review the bylaw.

After meeting with Sutiyoso, the chairman of the Indonesian
Shopping Centers Association, M. Sjohirin, claimed that the bylaw
could harm both the business owners and SMEs.

Sjohirin argued that the owners would suffer financially from
the loss of space to SMEs and the SMEs would not be able to
compete with the range and quality of products sold by bigger
businesses.