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)