Task force proposed for estates

JAKARTA (JP): The government should set up a special task force to coordinate the development of the country's industrial estates, a member of the House of Representatives said yesterday.

Golkar legislator Tadjudin Noer Said said a task force was urgently needed because there seemed to be little coordination between government offices in charge of infrastructure development and those handling investment proposals.

"I am worried that if this condition does not improve, we will not reach our investment target for the second long-term development program, which will end in 2019. We may also fall behind other countries when the global economy is completely liberalized," Tadjudin was quoted by Antara as saying.

"Our market, which has great potential, may become a market for other countries' products," he said.

The government estimates that Rp 815 trillion (US$3.54 billion) in investment is needed for the second long-term (25- year) development plan which began in 1994. The private sector is expected to contribute 80 percent of this.

There are 178 proposed industrial estates, covering a total of 53,000 hectares in 17 of the country's 27 provinces.

But only 3,921 hectares (7.4 percent of the planned industrial area) have come on the market. Forty-eight other industrial estates, covering 17,995 hectares, are ready to be developed, while the land for the remaining estates is yet to be acquired.

Tadjudin said poor coordination by government offices has confused prospective investors, and caused many to cancel their projects here in favor of other countries.

He said that although investment figures in Indonesia continue to rise, officials should compare them with other countries' figures, especially with Indonesia's competitors.

"We should calculate how far behind our competitors we are, not how far ahead we are on last year," he said.

Tadjudin was also concerned by the poor ability of provincial administrations to promote industrial estate development.

"Many things that should be done by the local authorities are not carried out, so the development of estates becomes very slow," he said.

Tadjudin said that local authorities should prevent problems that may arise between businesses and local residents when land is acquired for industrial estates.

"Friction happens because businessmen must often confront local residents themselves. The situation becomes worse when the land is already controlled by land speculators and middlemen," he said. (pwn)