Tanah Abang traders ask for free rent until 2010

Tanah Abang traders ask for free rent until 2010

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Occupants of destroyed kiosks in the Tanah Abang textile market
in Central Jakarta, whose rents are due next year, are asking
market officials to delay their rents until 2010 at the earliest.

"I need more time to gather the money to pay the rental fee
for 20 years, which could reach up to Rp 170 million (US$19,100)
per square meter," Nurfaizi, whose eight-square-meter kiosk
located in Block A of the market was destroyed in the recent
fire, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Ismed Roza, head of the business division of the Tanah Abang
Market Traders Cooperative (Koppas) and who also has a kiosk in
the market, said it would take at least two years to complete
repairs on the burned market.

"Let's say the repair work is completed in 2005. That means we
still have the right to use the kiosks for another year.

"And the cooperative will negotiate with the market operator
over the possibility of letting the current occupants use the new
kiosks rent-free until 2010," he told the Post.

Fire burned in the market for four days last week, badly
damaging three of the six blocks in the four-story building.
About 2,000 vendors in Block A and a total of 500 others from
Block C and Block E lost all of their merchandise in the fire.

The 20-year rental agreements for the majority of the kiosks
in Block A, which opened in 1975, expire next year. The rental
agreements for the newer kiosks on the block's upper floors,
which were granted in 1995, are valid until 2015.

Besides the issue of rent, the occupants are facing other
difficulties regarding their right to reoccupy their kiosks once
the building is repaired. Some vendors, concerned about their
future, have sold their rental rights to raise capital.

In a meeting with the vendors on Thursday after a visit by
former state minister for cooperatives and current member of the
Indonesian Cooperatives Council's advisory board, Adi Sasono,
Koppas chairman Nuzli Arismal advised the kiosk owners to retain
their rental rights to avoid being squeezed out by middlemen.

Earlier, Adi Sasono promised the president of city-owned
market operator PD Pasar Jaya, Syahril Tanjung, that the
cooperatives council would provide facilities for small-scale
traders.

Syahril assured the kiosk owners they would be allowed to
reoccupy their kiosks in the repaired building without having to
pay any additional fees.

Many of the kiosk owners whose businesses were not damaged in
the fire have already reopened for business, but are forced to
close their shops early because there is still no electricity in
the building.

Sanitation workers at the market are in the process of
clearing away debris. When that is finished, 2,900 makeshift
kiosks on floors five through seven in Block F's parking lot will
be opened.

Nuzli said Koppas expected to receive Rp 300 billion from the
offices of the State Minister for Cooperatives, Small and Medium
Enterprises and the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare,
as well as the Ministry of Finance to help the cooperative
members reopen their businesses.

"The money will be used by 747 Koppas members to reopen their
businesses and to pay their future rental fees," he said, adding
that Koppas members accounted for less than 10 percent of the
market's total occupants.