High prices for kiosks ironic, say experts

High prices for kiosks ironic, say experts

JAKARTA (JP): The thousands of vacant kiosks in city markets
are evidence that the city administration has short-sighted
policies, experts say.

The need of informal and traditional traders are not taken
into account and is made worse by red tape and corruption, an
anthropologist and an economist said separately yesterday.

"The empty kiosks are ironic as traders' demand for space is
very high," said economist Didik J. Rachbini. "Something must be
wrong in the market policy and management."

Referring to reports that some 6,000 kiosks in markets across
the city are empty, Didik said this is similar to empty
apartments built for former slum dwellers.

"In practice, the prices (of kiosk rents) would be much higher
than they are, besides numerous fees and levies for all sorts of
papers," he said.

The head of the city's development bureau, Albert Napitupulu,
said kiosks rents range from Rp 800,000 (US$342) to Rp 3.6
million annually.

Didik, the director of the Institute for the Development of
Economics and Finance, said facing red tape and levies is a
common experience of small scale entrepreneurs.

Some 100,000 unskilled workers and small-scale vendors enter
the city each year, "with no access to the city's spatial
policy". This policy prioritizes spatial order in which the needs
of low income people are yet to be incorporated, he said.

"Traders are shrewd," he added. "They will certainly enter a
market if they feel the places are strategic."

Urban anthropologist Ari Indrayono Mahar said prioritizing
spatial order is not wrong, but needs more discussion.

"Certain commodities will only survive in certain markets, and
at certain prices," said Ari, a staff member at University of
Indonesia's Center for Institutional Development Research.

Traders selling food and fresh vegetables often complain that
buyers will not go up stairs to shop. Groceries are sold on the
lower levels of traditional markets, whereas in new or renovated
markets electronics and other crowd pleasers are sold on the
lower floors.

Consumers are mostly office workers with little time to shop,
and they also think prices are higher in renovated markets, Ari
said.

"That's our shopping culture; we still think things are
expensive if the market is not a traditional, dirty place," Ari
said.

Also, Ari said traders in traditional markets and on sidewalks
have a mutual advantageous relationship with local thugs and
officials.

"There is a network which does not just disappear with the
renovating of a market," he said.

Traders willingly pay both official and unofficial fees as
long as their security is guaranteed, he said.

Yesterday Governor Surjadi Soedirdja urged traders to be more
active in improving their own welfare by forming cooperatives.

He made the call at a meeting with some 2,000 traders, among
them members of the cooperative under city-owned PD Pasar Jaya
market. At the event held at a market near the Kemayoran
Fairgrounds, Surjadi also told traders that they "must be open to
change, renovation and progress".

The researchers further regretted that lower level kiosks are
rented out to traders who gain larger profits.

"It is illogical that electronic traders get the ground
floors," Ari said.

The experts said a will to render better services by
officials, and better organizing among traders, would lead to a
way out of the problem of empty kiosks. (anr)