Ministers support city's low-cost apartment projects

Ministers support city's low-cost apartment projects

JAKARTA (JP): The ministers of housing, manpower, public works
and national development planning agreed yesterday to help the
city administration fast-track the development of its six low-
cost apartment projects.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the acceleration of
the projects was signed during a ceremony yesterday by Minister
of Public Housing Akbar Tanjung, Minister of Manpower Abdul
Latief and Governor Sutiyoso.

Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar and Minister of
National Development Planning Ginanjar Kartasasmita were
represented by assistants.

The Rp 41.64 billion low-cost apartment in Pluit, North
Jakarta, will be the first pilot project ever jointly constructed
by the city administration and the four ministers.

The other five projects will be built in Cawang in East
Jakarta, Petamburan in Central Jakarta, Meruya Selatan in West
Jakarta, Pengadegan in South Jakarta and Sindang in North
Jakarta.

There will be a total of 9,376 low-cost units built in the six
locations.

"We have set aside Rp 200 billion to Rp 300 billion for this
low-cost apartment scheme. The Ministry of Manpower is interested
in joining the project because it is related to the welfare of
city workers," Latief said after the ceremony.

"Many workers live in slum areas. As part of the city housing
rejuvenation program, there is already some Rp 1 trillion set
aside from the Jamsostek fund in the state-owned Bank Tabungan
Negara (BTN) to provide sufficient housing credit services for
the workers."

He urged the municipality to proceed with the projects as soon
as possible.

"The sooner the projects are completed, the better chance low-
income workers will have to acquire an apartment. It will
certainly be far more decent than living in slums."

Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb.M.
Rais said construction on the Pluit apartment was scheduled to
start in April.

"The Pluit apartment is part of an integrated plan to be
developed in North Jakarta, including the rejuvenation of slum
areas along riverbanks.

"North Jakarta is the estuary of the city's 13 rivers. So it
is important to free the riverbanks of slum areas and create
better homes for the residents living there."

In Jakarta, he said, there are three categories of slum areas,
namely high-, middle- and low-density areas.

The high-density slums have about 219,000 residents living on
465 hectares of land. A middle-density slum, spread over 1,874
hectares, is home to 572,000 people while the low-density
category consists of 500 hectares with a population of 99,000.

Rais said the municipality had no choice but to proceed with
the kampong rehabilitation program for middle- and low-density
slum areas and modernize high-density slum areas by developing
low-cost apartments.

"From 1992 to 1997 the municipality has managed to built
17,000 low-cost apartment units."

Sutiyoso said the signing of the MOU demonstrated the
political good will between the municipality and the central
government to help low-income people survive this turbulent
economic period.

"As instructed by President Soeharto, I want to improve the
city's performance. Therefore, I praise all the ministers for
joining this program. We could not have started this project
without their support," Sutiyoso said.

Akbar Tanjung said the participation of developers was badly
needed but many shirked their responsibility to help construct
low-cost apartments.

He acknowledged that the previous program, in which private
companies were invited to build cheap houses on state land
without evicting local residents, as stated in Presidential
Instruction No.5/1990, did not run as well as expected mainly due
to a lack of commitment from the city administration.

"Under this cooperation agreement, the project will hopefully
come together quickly."

Tanjung said the city administration could take action against
153 developers who failed to abide by their obligation to build
low-cost apartments.

"The administration can extend their business permits or just
revoke those belonging to the developers who have not complied.

"Don't use the monetary crisis as a reason to avoid your
responsibility (to build the apartments)."

Based on Gubernatorial Decree No.540/1990, developers, who
hold permits to clear at least 5,000 square meters of land or
more, are obliged to set aside 20 percent of their projects for
the construction of low-cost apartments. (edt/ind)