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Lake Toba set to welcome huge investments
Like moths to a flame, investors continue to flock to Lake Toba ready to disburse trillions of rupiah to transform the emerging tourist destination into an international draw card, as the government seeks recognition for the natural wonder as a world geopark heritage site
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ike moths to a flame, investors continue to flock to Lake Toba ready to disburse trillions of rupiah to transform the emerging tourist destination into an international draw card, as the government seeks recognition for the natural wonder as a world geopark heritage site.
According to the Lake Toba Tourism Authority Board (BOPDT), at least 40 prospective investors have shown interest in developing tourist sites in and around the Lake Toba area. Of this figure, 13 are local businesses, while the remaining 27 are foreign firms, hailing from countries like China, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore.
“The most serious ones are from China. They plan to establish resorts, a railway and cable cars in the Lake Toba area,” BOPDT finance and public communication director Faisal told reporters during a recent site visit.
The BOPDT claims Chinese construction firm Masz Group plans to construct a railway connecting Medan to Sibolga via Lake Toba and conducted field surveys from July 8 to 15.
It also said Singapore-based real estate developer KOP Properties intended to develop a 5-star hotel resort in Silalahi sub-district in Dairi regency, despite the fact there have been problems related to spatial planning in the region.
Faisal said the BOPDT had obtained permits from the government to transform a 500-hectare (ha) plot of land in the protected forest area in Sibisa into a commercial area where resorts and hotels would be developed in years to come.
However, an integrated team that conducted a survey in Sibisa recommended that the BOPDT use only 386 ha of the protected forest area.
The BOPDT is currently processing the environmental impact analysis (Amdal) documents, while waiting for the Environment and Forestry Ministry to issue another recommendation for the land that can be used for commercial purposes and the Agrarian and Land Spatial Planning to issue the right-to-manage (HPL) permit.
“Many hotel developers are currently in a wait-and-see mode regarding the legality of land use in Sibisa as we are only allowed to officially invite those investors after we get the HPL permit,” Faisal said.
The government plans to allocate Rp 1.1 trillion (US$81.28 million) for the development of Lake Toba in 2018 alone, up from only Rp 375 billion this year.
It has estimated that it will need around Rp 21 trillion for the development of the site in the 2016-2019 period, Rp 10 trillion of which will be funded by the government, while the rest will rely on financing from various private investors.
The government expects Lake Toba, the world’s largest volcanic lake, to earn recognition from UNESCO and be listed in the latter’s Global Geopark Network by August 2018.
If it succeeds, the government expects to attract 1 million foreign visitors to North Sumatra by 2019, compared to only 240,000 last year.
Silangit Airport, located only 30 minutes from Lake Toba, welcomed its first international flight, serviced by national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, from Singapore on Oct. 28.
Wings Air, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s largest private airline the Lion group, and low-cost carrier AirAsia are also expected to open new flights to Malaysia from Silangit Airport in early 2018.
“We have started the tender process for the expansion of Silangit Airport so that its capacity can be gradually increased from 500,000 annual visitors at present to 750,000 and even 1 million annual visitors in years to come,” said Yosapath Tambunan, junior manager for operations, services and maintenance at Silangit Airport.
