More space asked for small-scale traders

A city councilor is urging the management of Blok M Plaza, a major shopping center in South Jakarta, to give more space for small-scale traders to do business at the shopping center.

"The present space allocated by the management of the shopping center for small-scale traders is inadequate," said Hasan Dasy, a city councilor from the City Council's Commission B on finance.

Gubernatorial Decree No. 1469 requires managements of shopping centers operating in the city to provide 20 percent of their space for small traders.

Based on the decree, the management of Blok M Plaza has to allocate around 1,780 of a total of 8,900 square meters of their space for small scale traders.

The management of the shopping center has allotted only 150 square-meters on the ground floor to small traders.

But Dasy said on Monday that the area is not enough.

"More importantly the small traders should be placed in a better location," Dasy added.

However, A. Stefanus R.S, the plaza's operation manager, said that the management policy is in line with the ruling of the city administration and that it could not accommodate more small scale traders due to limited space.(03)