Investors often cheat, Joop says

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave acknowledged yesterday that many investors have disguised their property projects as being for tourist resorts in order to obtain immediate approval from the government.

"As the government has committed to developing the tourist industry, many businessmen said that their planned projects are tourism-related businesses. But I've found that only 10 percent of their projects are really for tourist attractions and the other 90 percent for housing complexes or other property businesses," he said after delivering a speech at a seminar on investment in the tourism sector at the Shangri-La hotel here.

He also said that the government will never approve tourism projects to be built on fertile land producing agricultural commodities.

He said the tourist resort in Nusa Dua, Bali, is a good example of a tourist facility development on barren land.

When asked, Joop said that he was not yet informed on whether the 8,000-hectare Teluk Naga tourist center would be established on an agriculturally productive area on the coast of Tangerang, West Java.

The Teluk Naga project, which will be jointly developed by the West Java administration and private sector firms, was approved by President Soeharto late last month. The project will include marine attractions, apartments, malls, a fishermen's village and low-cost houses.

The project, the completion of which is expected to take 21 years, will include the reclamation of 4,000 hectares of the Teluk Naga coast and 2,500 hectares of ponds. Rice fields and houses in the area will be demolished for the project, while thousands of people will have to leave the site.

Joop said yesterday that no tourist project should affect farmlands or residential areas.(icn)