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.