Govt assigns team to check estate permits

Govt assigns team to check estate permits

JAKARTA (JP): The government has set up a team of officials to
assess land-use permits issued to industrial estate developers
and revoke any that had not been utilized over a number of years.

State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono said yesterday
the team would consist of officials from his office, the Ministry
of Industry and Trade, the Investment Coordinating Board and
local administrations.

Soni, who is also chairman of the National Land Agency, said
the government considered the development of industrial estates
too slow compared to the high number of land-use permits it had
issued to developers in the last couple of years.

He said that although Indonesia had allocated 53,000 hectares
of land to 169 industrial estate developers by the end of 1996,
only 48 developers had performed and only 6,369 hectares, or 12
percent, of the land had been appropriated.

"The team will assess how serious the industrial estate
developers are. Maybe they have problems with land speculators
who make land prices very high, but maybe it is also their own
fault," he said.

Soni said if the developers had land-use permits but had only
appropriated a small area of land, or nothing at all, the
government would revoke the permits.

"We will assess each case one at a time," he said after a
gathering with members of the Association of Industrial Estate
Companies.

He said almost all land-use permits for industrial estates had
expired.

Despite the slow development of industrial estates, Soni said
a large number of companies had requested land-use permits to
build industrial facilities outside the estates.

"Ever since the 1993 deregulations, the government has issued
2018 land-use permits to such companies for 55,000 hectares of
land," he said.

Soni said about 50 percent of these companies were located in
West Java, particularly in Greater Jakarta and Karawang.

He acknowledged that many companies were reluctant to build
their industrial facilities in industrial estates because of the
high price of plots there.

"Apart from that, industrial estate developers are often
unable to serve their customers and many have poor telephone,
water and electricity facilities," he said.

In Karawang and Greater Jakarta -- which consists of Bogor,
Tangerang and Bekasi -- there are 60 industrial estates covering
a total of 22,000 hectares of land.

Soni said the government would not issue any more land-use
permits to companies that want to build industrial facilities
outside industrial estates if there was an estate in the area.

"Companies can go in one of the existing estates," he said.

He said the government would reject requests for industrial
estate development permits for Tangerang because there were
enough estates there.

He said the government would only extend the land-use permits
of industrial estates which had appropriated at least 25 percent
of the total area allocated to them as stipulated by their
land-use permits.

Industrial estates which, until Oct. 23, 1996, had
appropriated more than 20 percent of their allocated land, could
continue building their estates, he said. (pwn)