Japanese investors help boost industry expansion
Japanese investors help boost industry expansion
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Business expansion by Japanese investors is largely to thank for
the higher take-up in industrial space in Greater Jakarta during
the first semester, according to a property market consultant.
PT Procon Indah reported recently that new industrial space
built during this period totaled 83 hectares, a 137 percent rise
over the same period the previous year, due to higher demand from
producers of motorcycles and autos, as well as companies
producing components for automobiles, motorcycles and household
appliances.
"Motorcycles and automotive industries -- all Japanese
companies -- dominated the demand," said Procon senior manager
Rudy Halim. "This has been the case for the last 23 years."
Rudy said these car and motorcycle producers had acquired more
land in industrial estates, mostly in Bekasi and Karawang.
The Jababeka, Lippo Cikarang, Suryacipta and Bukit Indah
IndoTaise industrial estates absorbed more than 80 percent of the
new take-up in Bekasi and Karawang, with the rest going to
estates in Serang, Cilegon and Tangerang, according to the Procon
report.
Indonesian Industrial Estate Association chairman Johannes
Archiadi confirmed the Procon report, saying Japanese companies
had historically been the major customers of industrial estates.
"They are the most loyal investors in the country," he told
The Jakarta Post recently.
The picture was not all rosy, however. Of thousands of
hectares of industrial land in the country, only 25 percent is
being utilized.
"If infrastructure and regulation obstacles could be removed,
the expansion in the estates would be faster," Johannes said,
referring to frequent complaints of industrial estate developers
of damaged roads and confusing regulations related to the
implementation of regional autonomy.
He said the government should revise Presidential Decree No.
41/1996 on industrial estate, which he said was "out of date" and
did not accommodate the regional autonomy law.
Despite the problems, however, Procon projects more industrial
land will come on the market in the near future.
The report cited plans by the Bekasi Fajar Industrial Estates
to open 65 hectares of saleable industrial land later this year.
Jababeka is also currently working on an additional 100
hectares in Bekasi that it expects to be finalized early next
year.
Procon also projected the industrial land market would begin
to see demand from other industrial sectors, such as building
material suppliers and chemical manufacturers. (006)