Urban planners not keen on idea to move govt offices

Urban planners not keen on idea to move govt offices

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post,Jakarta

Urban planning experts expressed doubts that the idea proposed by
Jakarta Regional Representative Council (DPD) member Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja to relocate government offices to areas outside the
city would be an effective solution to urban woes here.

"The problem is that the administration has no clear and
comprehensive scenario on the future of the city after the
relocation. Worse still, the administration has no idea at all
about the development of the new location for the offices," urban
planner Yayat Supriatna of Trisakti University told The Jakarta
Post on Thursday.

Yayat pointed to the relocation of the Tangerang municipal
offices to the area of Tigaraksa that failed to stimulate
business in the area.

"Merely moving administrative services to another area without
developing other supporting facilities that stimulate the economy
there will make such a plan doomed to failure," he asserted.

The idea of moving government offices to an area outside the
capital was floated again on Wednesday by Sarwono, the former
environment minister during Soeharto's administration and the
maritime and fisheries minister for president Abdurrahman Wahid,
as an alternative solution to tackle Jakarta's problems,
including traffic congestion as well as the limited housing space
and green areas.

Sarwono cited the successful moving of Malaysia's capital city
from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya.

Located in between Kuala Lumpur and the international airport
in Sepang, the area is the country's first modern planned city.
It is backed up by a sophisticated information network base on
multimedia technology, hence it's called Intelligent Garden City.

Many other countries, such as Australia and Brazil, had also
moved government offices to suburban areas, giving more space for
the former capital city to be developed as a business, tourist,
recreational and even housing area.

Jakarta, which is a home to more than 12 million people by day
and 10 million by night, has grown into a densely-populated city
with an average of 14,000 residents living in one square
kilometer.

High population density will continue to cloud the city which
is still a magnet for unskilled migrants seeking work given that
at least 70 percent of the country's money is in circulation
here. Between 200,000 and 250,000 migrants come to Jakarta every
year.

In the early 1990s, the administration of president Soeharto
has put forward the idea of relocating government offices to the
area of Jonggol in Bogor regency in West Java. The idea was not
taken seriously. Only the military acted on it by moving its
headquarters to Cilangkap in East Jakarta.

Governor Sutiyoso often complained over various urban problems
in the capital, hoping that his administration will gain the
autonomy to manage its own area with less intervention from the
central government.

Meanwhile, another urban planner of Tarumanagara University,
Suryono Herlambang said that the idea would be very costly, while
it would not help alleviate urban problems in the capital.

"I doubt that such an idea would be workable. If the
administration moves its offices to another area, other urban
activities, let say business activities, will take its place,
then the relocation will simply be a waste," Herlambang said.

He added that the relocation idea also failed to address the
root of urban problems and reflected the administration's
inconsistency in its development policies.