0 Businesses benefit from Banten’s improved infrastructure

Investors operating in Banten say business has been good, partly in thanks to the province’s new and improved infrastructure, which includes the Tangerang-Merak toll road. “The toll road has helped my business core grow rapidly,” Banten-based businessman Mbay Mulya Syarief told The Jakarta Post recently. “It now only takes an hour to get from Cilegon to Jakarta. It used to take eight hours.” Providing one-stop logistics and trucking services, Mbay of PT Buana Centra Swakarsa, which employs around 2,000 workers, is one of the Banten businessmen who heavily rely on smooth roads. 

“As you can see, 400 of my trucks pass through the toll road every 30 minutes. It should be well-maintained because it has provided for multiplier effects,” he said. He added that investment would further increase in the future as the province continued to develop while floods and traffic congestion kept hitting neighboring Jakarta, in addition to the planned Sunda Strait bridge. The province recorded Rp 76.9 trillion (US$7.9 billion) in total realized investment in 2012, including Rp 56.1 trillion in foreign direct investment, according to data from the Banten administration. 

The province targeted a 27 percent increase in total realized investment to Rp 98 trillion this year. In a separate interview, Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah said that there were wide-open opportunities in manufacturing, housing, trade and services, as well as shopping centers, tourism, health, agribusiness and fisheries. Under Banten’s existing master plan, about 20 percent of the total area of 9,160 square-kilometers has been designated for such business activities. Banten is currently home to thousands of small, medium and large-size firms that are mostly involved in the production of electronic, healthcare, metal, textile and garment, leather and shoes, sports apparel products, electricity and other consumer goods. 

The province has provided about 16,103 hectares of land for industrial activities. About 1,184 hectares of this land, which covers 19 industrial plants in Tangerang, Serang and Cilegon, has been used for the development of industrial estates, with the remaining 14,919 hectares for new investment. The presence of the toll road, strategic location and unlimited manpower supply, Ratu Atut said, had significantly helped spur economic growth in the province, which reached 5.2 percent. Growth is projected to increase to 5.7 percent next year and 6.6 percent by 2015. 

“We are working hard to further stimulate the economy as well as tourism by focusing on the development of infrastructure and on the simplification of investment licensing procedures,” she said. The administration had initiated and laid down new development concepts to further encourage industrial and tourism activities in the province by focusing on the development of a new toll road to link Serang with Panimbang in the southern coast, including alternative road access as well as a specific economy zone (KEK) and a seaport in Bojonegara both for trade and export activities. 

Separately, Tangerang Merak toll road operator PT Marga Mandala Sakti (MMS) president director Wiwiek D. Santoso said that the firm had completed the final phase of the 72-kilometer toll road reconstruction project to support development programs in Banten. This year, MMS is focusing on widening all entry and exit road access heading to and from the Cikupa, West Balaraja, East Serang, East Cilegon and Merak toll gates. “We hope that the smoother toll road can contribute to a significant increase in the number of tourists visiting Banten, which has great tourism potential and economic growth,” she said.

source : the jakarta post