Food bazaar by street vendors

Food bazaar by street vendors

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is launching a one-month food bazaar in which hundreds of sidewalk vendors will present traditional Indonesian dishes.

The bazaar opens on Monday and is designed chiefly to cater Moslems breaking their daily fast through the current Ramadhan month. Governor Surjadi Soedirja is slated to open the bazaar.

Nyoman Djendria, the head of city administration's Informal Sector Development Agency, said the event is being organized as part of his office's drive to assist vendors in the informal sector, Antara reported yesterday.

Djendria said his agency oversees the activity of hundreds of thousands of people who make their living in Jakarta's informal sector, including 104,000 side-walk vendors and 9,000 scavengers. The office also oversees the activities of some 19,483 household industries and 345,775 services industry, which also belong to the informal sector.

Djendria said it is the duty of the administration to assist workers in the informal sector. "Their improvement is important if we are to narrow the wealth disparity that exists in the city."

He said the strong 8.7 percent economic growth rate which Jakarta has averaged in recent years also has is consequences, namely its attraction of thousands of people with little education and few skills. Most of them end up working in the informal sector. (30)