Urbanization creates new problems for Jakarta

Urbanization creates new problems for Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The government-sponsored family planning program
has helped develop the city's economy and reduce population
growth, but the influx of migrants from rural areas has created
new problems, the governor said.

"The city's family planning program has prevented around
4,000,000 births in the last 26 years, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja
said yesterday after the city's annual workshop on family
planning.

He said that without the program, Jakarta's population
could have reached 14,279,072 million instead of its current
10,215,762.

Surjadi said the program had succeeded in lowering government
expenditure on education, health, employment and security, so now
the city could focus on improving the lives of the less
fortunate.

"We have developed a life improvement program which so far has
gathered in around 77,400 families," he said. The program has
two functions it helps families save money, and it loans other
families money for their businesses.

The first program had helped families save Rp 630 million
(US$259,924).

The second program had helped some 28,700 families with small
businesses borrow Rp 620 million.

As an adjunct to the government project universities should
give training to small family businesses to improve their
management and business skills, Surjadi said.

"Theoretically, it sounds easy to implement, but the
government still has to supervise them," he said.

Surjadi said that despite the success story, the city had yet
to cope with the new problems arising from urbanization.

"Urbanization has become a major dilemma in Jakarta. The
economic development has encouraged rural people to migrate to
the capital."

Surjadi earlier said that some 400,000 people in Jakarta, or
11.7 percent of the labor force, were jobless and the increase in
low-skilled workers had made unemployment a constant problem.

"The migration of the poor will always pose problems for the
municipality and this will remain so in the coming years," he
said. He said the private sector and government officials needed
to cooperate to reduce urbanization problems."

"I call on city officials, and mayors outside Jakarta, to
improve the economy of their territories," he said.

Such an undertaking would prevent migration to Jakarta. (10)