Soeharto inaugurates Goro outlet

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto inaugurated yesterday a wholesale outlet billed as Southeast Asia's largest in the elite Kelapa Gading residential district in East Jakarta.

The latest Goro outlet in town, which offers more than 30,000 kinds of products at heavily discounted prices, comes with a huge entertainment center and a massive area allocated for food stalls.

The owner of the facility is Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of the President, and owner of the diversified Humpuss business group.

"This is a purely national endeavor," Tommy told reporters after driving his father around on a tour of the facility in an electric car. "There is no foreign investment here. This is a joint venture, a partnership between private companies and cooperatives."

PT Goro Batara Sakti, the company which owns this facility and the first Goro shop in Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta, involves the Gelael group, which has decades of experience in retailing through its Gelael supermarkets.

Tommy said he plans to open several more wholesale outlets across Indonesia, bringing in even more small-scale traders and cooperatives. "Jakarta alone has room for at least five more shops. But the next one will be built in Surabaya," he said.

PT Goro Batara Sakti's Chief Commissioner, I. Danubrata, was more specific, saying that three Goro centers will be built next year, and that by 2000 the company hopes to manage at least 12 wholesale outlets.

Around 90 percent of the 30,000 products on sale at the shop are locally manufactured, most of them supplied at factory prices, Danubrata said.

Joining the tour of the 10-hectare facility yesterday were several of the children and grandchildren of President Soeharto.

Among the cabinet officials taking the tour were Coordinating Minister for Production and Distribution Hartarto and Minister of Cooperatives Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya. (emb)