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Citramas, Sinar Mas team up for digital venture into Batam’s $14b economy
Batam island’s economy is expected to grow at an 8.78 percent compound annual growth rate to reach US$14 billion in 2023.
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An artist rendition of Nongsa D-Town on Batam Island. The plot of land on the right side of river is owned by Citramas while that on the left side is owned by Sinar Mas Land. Each company has contributed 5 hectares to build the town under joint venture firm Citra Sinar Global.
(Citra Sinar Global/Special Photo)
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roperty developer heavyweights Citramas and Sinar Mas Land are jointly developing on Batam Island a new digital hub marketed as a place for foreign start-ups, particularly those based in Singapore, to outsource their digital talent.
Sinar Mas Land said in a statement that the 62 hectare Nongsa D-Town, developed through joint venture Citra Sinar Global, in which Citra Mas Land and Citramas each own a 50 percent share, is expected to host some 5,000 digital talents by the time it completes the second phase of development in 2024.
Neither company has disclosed their investment in D-Town, except that they would contribute 5 hectares each for first phase of development, whereby the developer will focus on constructing office space before constructing retail businesses in the second phase.
“This is promising potential to be explored between the two countries; in which Singapore is the center of business and Batam provides the necessary talent and location,” said D-Town director Marco Bardelli in the press statement.
According to the Batam Indonesia Free Trade Zone Authority (BP Batam), the island’s economy will grow at an 8.78 percent compound annual growth rate to reach US$14 billion in 2023. The digital economy will contribute 4 percent to GDP. BP Batam also projects the island to receive $5 billion in investment and will have a population of 1.35 million people by that year.
D-Town’s developers focus on Singapore because, other than being a short 30-minute ferry ride from Batam, the island nation is also Southeast Asia’s start-up financial hub – attracting 65 percent of the $14.09 billion invested in the region last year – and in need of 87,000 digital talents, according to officials statistics.
“And right now, Singapore is looking for talent abroad because they are expensive [in Singapore] and because their numbers are few,” said Justine, a business development manager at headhunter start-up Glints, at a D-Town promotional event in Singapore on Nov. 28.
