Tourism police get Rp 1.5b this year
Tourism police get Rp 1.5b this year
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration has allocated Rp 1.5 billion to the
tourist police, including Rp 500 million for English language
training.
The allocation of the money, taken from the 2003 city budget,
was revealed during a hearing between the City Council's
Commission B for economic affairs and the city tourist agency
here last week.
Head of the agency Aurora Tambunan said the Rp 1.5 billion was
part of a budget of Rp 40 billion allocated for the city tourist
agency.
The total city budget is Rp 11 trillion this year.
She said Rp 500 million of the money allocated to the tourist
police would be used for English language training, another Rp
300 million would be spend on increasing the number of personnel
from 66 to some 250, while Rp 350 million would be used to
purchase communications equipment and uniforms.
The tourist police chief, Comr. Edhy Moestofa, claimed that
his unit was unable to perform its job well due to a lack of
personnel.
The tourist police have several important functions including
providing adequate protection to tourists, patrolling tourism
resorts, protecting very VIPs, as well as guarding hotels,
restaurants and other places frequently visited by tourists.
He also revealed that out of 10 cars assigned to the tourist
police, only four were still roadworthy, while out of the unit's
18 motorcycles, none were roadworthy.
Commission B chairman Syarif Zulkarnaen Ginting said that his
commission would give full support to any efforts to improve
facilities and activities aimed at boosting the tourist industry
in the city.
He said the contribution of the tourism sector was some Rp 700
billion last year, which was small compared to the last year's
total city budget of around Rp 9 trillion.
"We hope that in the future, tourism will provide a more
significant contribution to the city budget as unlike other
regions, Jakarta is a service city that gets no revenue from
natural resources," Syarif said.