Free trade zone finally launched
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presided over a ceremony that marked the much awaited opening of the free trade zone within Batam, Bintan and Karimun islands on Monday.
Batam island, part of the Riau Islands Province, was designated as a bonded zone by a Presidential Decree of 1992, but its legal status as a full-fledged free trade zone was only recently formalized in 2007, and later government regulations that validated its implementation.
The area’s economically strategic location at the gateway through the Malay Straits had been acknowledged since the early 1970s, but poorly coordinated development efforts and power struggles with within the government over the control of the area hampered its true potential as the nation’s growth center.
With an average of 30% in annual growth of new investments, Batam today serves as a major logistics and manufacturing base for prominent global industrialists including McDermott International, AT&T, Bechtel, PerkinElmer, Seagate Technology, Babcock & Wilcox, Matsushita, Hitachi, Sanyo, Nippon Steel, Hyundai, Sony and Philips. Hosting about 1.5 million visitors each year, it is also the second most popular international tourist destination in Indonesia after Bali.
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| Batam shipyard at Batam City. |
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January 20th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Moga2 batam bisa nyaingin dominasi perdagangan singapura yang selama ini merajai kawasan.
Btw, link blog ini sdh saya add di blog saya, mas. salam kenal….
January 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Nyaingin sih harusnya nggak juga mas. Kayaknya lebih baik kalau keduanya berkembang saling melengkapi, yaitu Batam jadi basis manufaktur dan logistiknya, sedangkan Singapura tetap jadi basis perdagangannya.
Trims banget atas linknya
Saya sudah pasang link balik tuh.
April 18th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Its good to know that Batam is a free trade zone nowadays. It makes Indonesia can compete with other country like Singapore.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Waaaah, tambah mantap aja batam. Itulah kelebihan kota2 yang dkat ama perbatasan antar negara, smoga dengan ini indonesia bisa makin maju… salam kenal ya mas…
May 8th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Setuju mas. Saya rasa kalau tidak dibebani berbagai birokrasi yang tidak perlu juga akan lebih cepat perkembangannya.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Yes, let’s hope it’s going to be implemented consistently too.