IPB builds shopping mall

JAKARTA: The Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) is building a shopping mall on a 10,000 square-meter site in Sukasari, Bogor, where its dormitory used to stand.

The mall, called Ekalokasari Plaza or E-Plaza, is being built under the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) system by PT Indah Pesona Bogor, which has also built a dorm in Gunung Gede for the institute.

Under this system, the developer will have the right to run the mall for 25 years. Construction of the project is now 80 percent completed and is expected to finish by the end of 2003.

IPB is one of a number of state educational institutes that now have to raise their own funds following the government's decision to gradually decrease its subsidies.

The developers president, Tendy Irianto, accompanied by a spokesman from the IPB, told reporters on Thursday that the four- story mall would target the middle and upper income brackets.

"We know that many Bogor residents from the middle and upper income brackets go to Jakarta every weekend for shopping," Tendy was quoted by Antara as saying.

He also said that E-Plaza would allow small-scale traders to operate there under a revenue-sharing system.

The mall is expected to employ between 2,000 and 3,000 people, he added.--JP