Thu, 20 May 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Palu city administration, Central Sulawesi, expressed readiness to accept the relocation of Chinese medium-sized industrial enterprises in the next five years.

"We have already started land procurement in stages for the Chinese investment in the next five years. Some 70 thousand Chinese industries will be seeking new locations," Palu mayor Rusdy Mastura said on the sidelines of a seminar in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Rusdy said his side had started preparing 5 thousand to 20 thousand hectares of land for industrial estates in Palu.

Rusdy also said he is also preparing a port which is only five minutes away from the industrial estates.

He believed that the industrial estates in Palu would not pose a competition to those in Java island but would rather serve as support for the industries in the most densely populated island in Indonesia.

"I do not wish for industries like those in Java, like those producing chocolate, we wish to supply the cocoa butter," he said.

The Palu administration has prepared four chief commodities of the region namely cacao, rattan, seaweed and copra, whose industries will be developed.

To support the project, Rusdy said he has allocated 41 percent of the region`s budget for education, especially based on regional commodity processing.(*)