Joint team set up to realign estates

JAKARTA (JP): The National Land Agency (BPN) will soon set up an inter-ministerial team to realign industrial estates as a follow up to the instruction from the minister of agrarian affairs on the stoppage of location permits for new plant projects.

Marjudi Sastro Wihardjo, the BPN director for land reform, announced yesterday that the team would include representatives of the ministry of industry and trade and the office of the minister for investment development.

"The team will study the problems faced by investors in the development of industrial estates," Marjudi said.

State Minister for Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono instructed agrarian offices throughout the country last month to stop issuing location permits for industrial projects planned outside industrial estates.

Soni instructed that all new industrial projects in the Bekasi, Tangerang, Bogor and Krawang regencies in West Java must be established in industrial estates.

Marjudi said the inter-ministerial team would take stock of location permits already issued for industrial projects planned to be established outside industrial estates.

"The team will look into their problems and try to work out solutions in an attempt to facilitate the realization of investment projects," he said.

"New industrial projects outside the four regencies must also be set up in industrial estates, except when there are no industrial estates already developed to accommodate new factories," the directive stated.

The instruction was issued apparently in a bid to accelerate the implementation of 178 industrial estates with 53,000 hectares already licensed throughout the country.

So far, only 17,995 of the 53,000 hectares licensed for industrial estates have been acquired by developers and of that total only around 6,370 hectares have been developed into industrial plots ready to accommodate factory buildings. (vin)