Surabaya candidates stress need for investment ahead of election
Surabaya candidates stress need for investment ahead of election
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
Ignoring the hot weather, Mustiyah cut fruit up into slices and
mixed it with shrimp paste. She then wrapped the food and handed
it to a customer.
"Six thousand rupiah, please," said the rujak cingur
(vegetable and fruit salad with slices of cow's muzzle served
with shrimp paste).
This is a routine job for the 49 year old who has been selling
the popular food for years in Surabaya. She is one of 205,000
people who earn their livelihoods by running small businesses.
Besides small businesses, there are, of course, also many big
businesses in Surabaya. There are hundreds of major undertakings
in the city and the number is increasing all the time. In the
past two years alone, Surabaya has netted 34 investment projects
worth US$50 billion, three of them domestic investments with a
total value of US$7 billion.
Indeed, Surabaya is no stranger to big business. It has for
years hosted many foreign investment ventures. Big overseas banks
such as Citibank, Standard Chartered and others have been
operating in Surabaya for many years. Recently, investment from
the other parts of Asia has also been flowing into Surabaya, such
as from South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Major investment
projects today provide at least 16,000 jobs.
Due to the importance of investment, whether it be big or
small, the candidates vying for the posts of Surabaya mayor and
deputy mayor are now trying hard to sell their investment
credentials to the Surabaya electorate in the run-up to the first
direct elections for these important offices slated the middle of
this year.
Erlangga Satriagung, the chairman of the East Java Chamber of
Commerce, who is set to run for mayor on a Democratic Party
ticket, said that he would prioritize small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) to help foster economic growth in Surabaya.
SMEs were crucial as these made up the vast majority of all
enterprises, said Erlangga.
As SMEs often faced cash-flow problems and had difficulty in
securing funding for expansion, Erlangga said he would campaign
for cheap loans for SMEs if he was elected mayor.
Arif Affandi, who is running for deputy mayor on an Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) ticket, also stressed the
importance of SMEs in spurring economic growth in Surabaya.
"There are many people who are involved in and depend on SMEs.
Thus, they require a lot more attention," said Arif, who is
currently the chief editor of the Jawa Post daily, the biggest
selling daily in East Java.
Arif said that if he was elected, he would address the red
tape that hampered investment by SMEs. "It takes 80 days for
people to get a permit to set up a business. This is too much. We
have to streamline the bureaucracy," said Arif.
Economist Krisnayana Yahya said that in order to spur economic
growth in Surabaya and allow the SME sector to flourish, the
government need to address the lack of legal certainty in the
city.
If this was done, investors would be quick to start putting
their money into the city once again, said Krisnayana.