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City sets Marunda as industrial zone, port
The city administration is preparing the Marunda industrial zone in North Jakarta to become a special economic zone with an international port
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The city administration is preparing the Marunda industrial zone in North Jakarta to become a special economic zone with an international port.
City assistant secretary for economy affairs, Mara Oloan Siregar, said the administration wanted to develop Marunda into a special economic zone (SEZ), in which it would have high-tech, high-knowledge and high-value-added industries.
“It won’t be labor intensive, but it will be technology and capital intensive. It will be a high-ranking project,” he said.
The Marunda SEZ project, he said, needs to wait for the completion of the law on SEZ, which was expected to be completed by July next year.
He said the administration submitted the proposal to the central government.
“As soon as the law is completed, we will discuss the proposal with the SEZ national board, chaired by the coordinating minister for people’s welfare,” he said.
“We will consider special incentives to be given to the investors, such as customs, immigration, a cut in revenue tax, easy land permits, and all that will be in accordance with the law.”
Economic expert Dorodjatun Kuncoro Jakti said the new SEZ concept would not be similar to the existing one because Jakarta, as a tertiary education center, could develop a technology-based SEZ that could be a national pilot project.
“Jakarta is a center of tertiary education, a service city and a financial center. If we combine these potentials with high-value-added industries, it will shift us from labor-intensive to resource-intensive industries,” he said.
Therefore, he added, not only would the SEZ have manufacturing industries, but it would have microscopes, medical equipment, computer and software factories.
He said Jakarta should establish the SEZ quickly because Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam had already started similar projects.
To support SEZ activity at the 1,500-hectare Marunda, Mara said, the city administration would build a port called Ali Sadikin International Seaport, which would compete with Tanjung Priok Port.
He said the administration chose Marunda as an SEZ, because it had good access through the future international port, tollroad network and East Flood Canal — which can function as a waterway.
“We also want to integrate the tollroad with the railway network,” he said.
The city administration will start the Marunda development project by investing in PT Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (PT KBN).
In the 2009 budget, the city administration has allocated Rp 100 billion to raise ownership from 11.3 percent to 51 percent.
Of the City Council’s seven factions, four have questioned the SEV development plan — the Democratic Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Golkar Party.
Most of the factions demand that the city administration postpone the project because it has not yet held a feasibility study.
