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)