Sutiyoso opens discount festival

Sutiyoso opens discount festival

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso on Friday opened the
third annual city-wide discount festival in a ceremony at the
Sarinah shopping center on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta.

The month-long festival, which is held in conjunction with the
commemoration of Jakarta's 472nd anniversary on June 22, will
officially begin on June 14 by offering various domestic products
similar to those sold at major shopping malls at discount rates
of up to 50 percent.

"The festival is expected to attract not only domestic buyers,
but also as many foreign buyers as possible. After all, this
nation offers great quality domestic products," Sutiyoso said at
the opening ceremony, attended by about 1,000 guests.

"All city residents must carefully examine the prices of goods
before they buy them. If it is found anywhere that prices were
first raised very high before discounts were offered, please
complain to the city administration officials."

Malls and shopping plazas currently offering discounts include
the Atrium Senen and Sarinah shopping centers in Central Jakarta,
Blok M Mall and Pondok Indah Mall in South Jakarta and Taman
Anggrek Mall and Citraland Mall in West Jakarta.

The festival, the result of a collaboration between companies
including the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo),
Jakarta Tourism Promotion Board (Jakprom) and city-run market
management company PD Pasar Jaya, was opened with great pomp,
with stringed balloons released into the air and a traditional
music performance.

The ceremony was also attended by several top city officials
and business figures. They included deputy governors Budihardjo
Sukmadi and Fauzie Alvie Yasin, acting director of city water
company PDAM Jaya and assistant to the city secretary Ongky
Sukasah, the city's five mayors and head of the lobbying team of
the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Pungky
Bambang Purwadi.

Pungky noted that in this festival trade transactions were
expected to reach about Rp 1.53 trillion, a 36 percent increase
from the Rp 1.25 trillion in last year's discount festival.

"Due to the economic downturn and the May riots, the 1998
festival made only Rp 1.25 trillion, a 25 percent drop from the
Rp 1.62 trillion in the 1997 discount festival. Hopefully,
Jakarta's birthday this year will be fruitful," Pungky said.

In a related development, a city official said that in
celebration of the capital's 472nd birthday, Jakarta would be
"heavily decorated".

"Representatives of various high-rise buildings here have been
asked by the city administration to decorate their buildings as
much as they like ... with lights," the official who spoke on
condition of anonymity told The Jakarta Post.

"If the administration has money to spare, there are plans to
install kembang kelapa decorative lamps of different colors
around the Hotel Indonesia roundabout." (ylt)