T

he government'€™s recently issued economic stimulus package allowing street vendors to use state land will not be seen as an incentive since such regulation is already in place, an analyst has said.

According to Indonesia Global Justice analyst Rachmi Hertanti, a similar measure is covered in the 2012 Spatial Planning Law, which is supported by a ministerial decree to ensure its implementation.

'€œIt just corroborates the implementation [of a prevailing law],'€ she said over the phone on Monday. She added that if the purpose of the policy was to help street vendors expand, then the government needed to also consider the designated locations.

She cited several cases in which vendors at traditional markets had been forced to relocate to new spaces where rent was simply too high.

Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Ferry Mursyidan Baldan said during the announcement of the seventh policy package on Friday that his office would issue a regulation soon that would allow street vendors to use state land in certain parts of the country to ply their trade.

The street vendors would then be given a building use permit (HGB), which they could use as collateral to obtain loans from banks, he said. Over 30 areas in various provinces will be included in the program, with the first site in Banten to be available soon.

The street vendors, along with other informal groups constitute the informal sector. The sector served as the backbone of the country'€™s economy when the country withstood the 1998 financial crisis. According to an estimate by the Indonesian Street Vendor Association (APKLI), the number of street vendors nationwide reached roughly 22 million in 2013. In 2012, 54 percent of 118.05 million workers were informal workers, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Rachmi said problems not only remained in land certification procedures but also in land distribution as the government needed to determine an exact target of vendors to receive such incentives. In addition, she said the government needed to equip the designated spaces for street vendors develop basic infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Asia Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC) chairman Bambang Ismawan shared a similar view, saying that the package would only be fruitful if the government developed supporting infrastructure.

'€œIf the government just relocates them to a place far away without proper facilities, doing so will kill their businesses instead of developing them,'€ he said, adding that the government had to establish dialogue with street vendors prior to relocating them.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) executive director Enny Sri Hartati said many relocation programs sponsored by the government turned into failures because the new locations were not in line with demand. Enny added that the government should also assist street vendors in gaining access to financing given the nature of their businesses.

In addition to granting the use of state land to street vendors, the new economic policy also provides employee income tax incentives for labor intensive industries and the simplification of business permit attainment and licensing procedures, among other things. Since early September, the government has issued seven policy packages to boost the country'€™s economy, which has expanded at its slowest pace since 2009.