E

xperts are asking the Jakarta administration to make significant changes if it is planning to limit the population of the capital to only 12.5 million by 2030.

The population cap means the city should curb population growth to around 2.5 million over the next two decades and it needs to lower yearly growth to less than 121,000 per year. Jakarta’s population is now 9.6 million.

Hendricus Andy Simarmata of the Indonesian Planning Experts Association said Friday that the city urgently needed to cooperate with satellite areas to create new economic centers outside the city.

“These new centers will draw people there instead of them going into the capital; because it is impossible to stop people from going [to the capital] to make a [better] living,” Simarmata told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the city would not be able to create new economic centers without the help of satellite administrations.

“Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tange-rang and Bekasi have already set up a regional-cooperation body, but the city has yet to make any use of it,” said Simarmata.

In the newly-signed 2011-2030 Spatial Planning Bylaw, the Jakarta administration and City Council have agreed to limit the population, putting population caps on each municipality and regency.

The Spatial Planning mandates the construction of high-rise residential buildings to accommodate people in high-density areas which are connected to an integrated mass-transportation system network.

Simarmata said that transportation infrastructure should not only be built to connect areas within the capital, but also to reach main areas in the satellite regions.

“This will boost economic activity in the other regions. Constructing more transportation support in the city will only attract more people to live in the capital,” he said.

Separately, Nirwono Joga, an urban-policy analyst from Jakarta-based Trisakti University said that the administration should immediately publish the bylaw for the public to review.

“There are many issues that need to be amended in the bylaw. Since it’s already signed, the people’s only chance for making amendments is in another bylaw,” Nirwono told the Post.

Following the approval of the Spatial Planning Bylaw, the city’s next move is to draft the detailed spatial-planning and zoning-regulation bylaws, and also a medium-term development plan.

“The people, experts and concerned communities should act quickly to include improvements in the other bylaws,” he said.

Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency chief Purba Hutapea said that the administration believed the 12.5-million limit was achievable.

“The major factor affecting population growth in the city is migration from other regions. Migration rates have been decreasing in the past few years,” Purba said.

The agency predicts that there will be fewer new arrivals to the city after the Idul Fitri holiday than in past years.

The agency’s data show there were 109,617 post-holiday newcomers in 2007, 88,473 in 2008, 69,554 in 2009 and 60,000 last year.

“The city’s birth rate is also currently low at 1.1 percent to 1.2 percent per year,” Purba said.

The latest national census put Jakarta’s population at 9.58 million, with an annual growth of 1.4 percent, or 135,000 people per year.

Purba said that the city was looking to control population growth through regular ID-card checks, and transmigration and family-planning programs.

With the current population, Jakarta’s 662-square-kilometer area had a population density of 14,476 people per square kilometer.