Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the government had implemented a study and planned to establish a special public service agency (BLU) to manage the new strategic area (KSN Bekapur).

“The project will soon be taken into a limited Cabinet meeting attended by President Joko [‘Jokowi’] Widodo,” Luhut told journalists at his office over the weekend.

He said the BLU was aimed at increasing productivity in the three city’s industrial areas, which currently host 23 industrial estates, involving 4,154 industries, employing some 1.6 million workers and contributing 14 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the national industry.

Luhut said the areas would be connected to the Patimban Seaport in Subang, West Java, which is still under construction, as well as the newly launched Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka, also in West Java.

“We will concentrate our industry in the area because 60 percent of our industries are already there. We expect our exports to improve,” said Luhut as reported by kontan.co.id.

Several issues were addressed before expanding the area’s manufacturing activities, including a better water supply, better waste treatment facilities, better road access within the industrial areas and better integration of the licensing arrangement. (bbn)

Popular

The fragile promise of pluralism, religious freedom in Southeast Asia

Power begins to return after outage in Indonesia's Bali island

Coffee, gold push up inflation to 1.95 percent in April