Good news: There is still room for more malls
Good news: There is still room for more malls
Sally Piri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Good news for developers and mallgoers. Despite the aggressive
construction of new malls in Jakarta, the City Administration
says that there is still an abundance of space in the capital
available for new shopping malls to be built.
"We need to continue building because the demand is likely to
increase. If we stop the construction, then we will experience a
setback because it will mean lower productivity," claimed City
Spatial Agency head Nurfakih Wirawan.
Nurfakih told The Jakarta Post that the aggressive
construction was actually part of a design to turn Jakarta from
an agrarian city into a service city that would stand equal to
cities like Singapore or Hong Kong.
"One of the visions in the development of Jakarta is to make
this city become a service city," he said in a telephone
interview recently.
Jakarta is not endowed with abundant natural resources as
other provinces in the country and will therefore rely on
potential that it has from seaports, the airport and shopping
areas, he argued.
The intensified construction of shopping malls is hoped to
eventually benefit the people who will have their needs fulfilled
and who will also enjoy a healthy economic growth propelled by
increased consumption.
Nurfakih explained that the total population of Jakarta was
the basis for the decision to give the go-ahead for the
construction of new malls. "There are about 10 million people
registered as residents of Jakarta. And this is twice the figure
of Singapore and these people need more shopping spaces," he
said.
Those 10 million people are crammed into a 634-square
kilometers of area here, which also serves as center of the
country's commerce, industry and administration.
The government official said that the city spatial plan would
be made and revised in the best interests of business in the
city.
The city administration apparently has turned a blind eye to
the fact that the construction of new malls continually
encroaches on the green areas and other public spaces.
A construction of new mall is now underway at the entrance of
Senayan Sports Complex, which will swallow up a green field that
is already diminishing due to the existence of a four-star hotel
nearby.
Residents in Cibubur, in East Jakarta are now complaining
about the massive traffic congestion in their neighborhood ever
since the construction of a new mall kicked off in the location,
while a trade center in Central Jakarta stands accussed of
occupying a public road connecting a nearby neighborhood.
Nurfakih claimed that compared to other cities in Europe,
America and Asia, Jakarta has cleaner air.
"If you fly above Jakarta, it still looks green. It's even
greener than Paris, New York and Tokyo," he asserted.