Regulations on timeshare business

JAKARTA (JP): The government is preparing regulations on the growing timeshare business to protect consumers of the property ownership schemes, a legal expert says.

"Discussions on the draft regulation are still underway," Dimyati Hartono, a legal expert on telecommunications and tourism said yesterday.

Timesharing is a form of property ownership under which a property is held by a number of people, each with the right of possession for a specified time interval. Timesharing is most commonly applied to resorts and vacation properties, but may be used for other properties.

Dimyati said that the planned regulation will be in the form of a decree from the Minister of Tourism Post and Telecommunications.

"A special team has been assigned to make a comparative study of regulations from other countries," he said, adding that he is a member of the team.

He said that the team will also discuss the establishment of an Indonesian timeshare sellers organization.

Dimyati spoke to reporters after attending the opening ceremony of the fourth Asia-Pacific Conference for the Timeshare Industry 1995 at the Shangri-La hotel.

Meanwhile, Director General of Tourism, Andi Mappi Sammeng, said that timesharing has been applied both for hotels and apartments in Indonesia. "It is predicted that by the end of this year there will be 30 companies operating in the timeshare business," he said.

Andi said that for the time being, the government allows star- rated hotels to market a maximum of 30 percent of their rooms for timesharing.(icn)