Kadin DKI to help traders

JAKARTA: The Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin DKI) vowed on Friday to help the occupants of burned kiosks in the Tanah Abang textile market in Central Jakarta, to retain their leases on the kiosks.

"We will help them find the best solution to the matter," Kadin Jakarta chairman Pungki B. Purwadi said as quoted by city- owned news portal beritajakarta.com.

Pungki was responding to the demands of many kiosk owners for the city administration to give them 30-year titles to their kiosks.

Should such long-term leases be granted, they could be used as collateral to access fresh capital.

Pungki added that Kadin DKI was also ready to help the traders secure loans from the city-owned Bank DKI or state-owned Bank Mandiri.

Over 2,500 kiosks were burned in the Feb. 19 fire that lasted for four days. The market, which is dubbed the biggest in Southeast Asia, will soon open again as the city-owned market operator, PD Pasar Jaya, has started to build temporary kiosks in the market's Block F parking lot. --JP