Java investment to be restricted

Java investment to be restricted

JAKARTA (JP): The government, in an effort to evenly
distribute industrial investment in Indonesia and curb the
conversion of productive agricultural land for non-farming
ventures, will soon restrict further industrial development in
Java to the island's industrial estates.

Rahadi Ramelan, deputy chief of the National Development
Planning Board, said that if prospective investors intend to
build industrial plants in Java, they must do so within
industrial estates which, he said, currently still had vacant
plots.

He said a government regulation providing a spatial
masterplan, which was currently being finalized, is expected to
encourage industrialists to invest in regions outside Java and
persuade them to occupy the vacant land in many of Java's
industrial estates.

The draft of the regulation has already been completed and has
been submitted to the related ministries, he said as quoted by
Antara.

The implementation of the ruling, he added, will be discussed
in a coordinated meeting led by the state minister of national
development planning.

The deputy chief of the resources development unit of the
Agency for Technology Assessment and Application (BPPT), M.T.
Zein, said it is essential to create new development centers in
eastern Indonesia.

Currently, nine such centers exist, including Sanggau (for
West Kalimantan), Seram (for Maluku), Manado-Bitung (for North
Sulawesi), Bima (for West and East Nusa Tenggara) and Pare-pare
(for Central Sulawesi).

Zein said that by the end of the second Long-term Development
Plan period, which will end in 2019, eastern Indonesia is
expected to have 54 growth centers.

The sectors which will play the biggest role in the eastern
provinces will include fisheries, shipping, agribusiness,
forestry, mining, tourism and services, Zein said.

Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto said
earlier that the government was presently considering the
possibility of issuing 80-year land permits, such as those issued
on Batam Island in Riau.

Land permits for industry in other parts of Indonesia
currently expire after 30 years.

Rahadi said that during the current sixth Five-Year
Development Plan period, which began in April 1994, 54 percent of
road and bridge construction work will take place in eastern
Indonesia, 44 percent of the state budget for harbor facilities
will be allocated for that region, while 33 percent of the
development of irrigation systems and 53 percent of the country's
new rice fields will be developed there.(pwn)

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