Governor says masterplan key to urban growth

JAKARTA (JP): Consistency and improvement of Jakarta's masterplan is the key to control the city's growth, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said yesterday in response to President Soeharto's call to control urban growth.

At Monday's opening of the ongoing conference on Asian cities, the President said while cities contribute significantly to national income, their growth must be controlled to prevent further negative effects such as environmental degradation.

"We are evaluating our 1985-2005 spatial plans," Surjadi said, "We need a more integrated plan to cover Greater Jakarta."

Surjadi is optimistic that this goal can be achieved, but only with public discipline.

"We have learned costly lessons that deviations of the plan lead to disasters," Surjadi said.

Violation of construction restrictions on sites designated as water catchment areas, for instance, have been partially blamed for floods here.

Surjadi spoke after addressing the international conference, "The Future of Asian Cities," which runs through Thursday.

Jakarta and other Asian cities must make difficult choices, he told the conference's 400 participants. Jakarta must attract investment while keeping development sustainable and improving the living conditions of the city's residents.

Jakarta is still the most attractive site in Indonesia for domestic and foreign investments, he said.

Last year some 20 private developers were building new towns around Jakarta, he said.

Johan Silas, a Surabaya-based housing specialist, said that in order to control urban growth, more emphasis must be placed on upgrading quality of life.

He cited a study on quality of life in 40 Asian cities in which Jakarta ranks 37th.

However city development is handicapped because it is dictated by investors instead of by urban planners, said Johan, head of the Laboratory for Housing and Human Settlement at the Surabaya Institute of Technology.

He said the municipality has shown "genuine" efforts in improving kampong life, but Jakarta "obviously has some problems," he said.

In areas targeted for development, "sooner or later" a fire occurs, though this suspicion is difficult to prove, Silas said, responding to the question of arson in slum fires.

Because developers "will do anything" for commercial purposes "that does not exclude the possibility of arson," he said. (anr/06)