Street vendors will no longer occupy sidewalks and cause traffic congestion as the newly-endorsed bylaw on spatial zoning requires commercial area owners and developers to allocate 5 percent of their space for street vendors.

Jakarta Spatial Planning Agency head Gamal Sinurat said over the weekend that his side would ask all commercial areas '€” office buildings, trading areas, shopping malls and multipurpose compounds to set aside 5 percent of their space for street vendors in compliance with the new bylaw.

In its implementation, he said, owners of office buildings and malls could give 5 percent of their space or pay a sum amounting to 5 percent.

Developers winning office building projects and building owners will be also asked to allocate five percent of their project sites for small-scale enterprises, he said, additional building permits would not be issued if applicants did not contain the provision of 5 percent of the space for the informal sector.

 '€œThe requirement is a breakthrough from the new bylaw to give a fair solution to the street vendor issue in Jakarta,'€ he said, adding that the requirement was based on the economic justice principle that medium and large-scale business enterprises have a social responsibility to help small-scale enterprises and the informal sector.

Separately, Spatial Planning Agency secretary Izhar Chaidir revealed that the city administration intentionally inserted the ruling in the draft bylaw and won support from the City Council since it was deemed a fair solution to the widening gap between big businesses and small-scale enterprises in the city.

He said the city administration cited the relocation of a large section of street vendors to city-run traditional markets as a good example and that it would be fair that 5 percent of commercial areas were allocated for street vendors.

According to him, the traffic flow in the city will be run smoothly during the day if workers in office buildings can have their lunch in food courts located in their own area.

 Izhar also said the city administration would impose sanctions on developers, office buildings and
other commercial areas that infringed the ruling.

Referring to Bylaw No. 26/2007 on Spatial Planning, the sanctions vary from written warnings, fines and jail sentences.

'€œThe bylaw carries a maximum penalty of a three-month jail sentence and a Rp 500 million [US$41.500] fine,'€ he said, citing that applicants and the Building Supervisory Agency (P2B) officials handling the building permits would be subject to the sanctions.

Trisakti University urban analyst Nirwono Yoga hailed the new bylaw, which provided economic justice to small-scale enterprises and traders in the informal sector.

However, Nirwono said that the regulation would not be effective if the city did not make regulations on which types of street vendors would be relocated to the commercial areas.

'€œIf the street vendors are not regulated, many more people will migrate to the city to seek a trading location in the commercial areas,'€ he said, adding that only street vendors having Jakarta ID cards would be relocated to the commercial areas.

According to him, the city administration should identify commercial areas that have to accommodate street vendors and small-scale enterprises and allocate their spot to avoid any disturbance, especially in office buildings and compounds.

The chairperson of the Indonesian Shopping Center Association (APPBI) Jakarta chapter, Ellen Hidayat, declined to comment, saying that she had not received a copy of the new bylaw.

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