New Towns and Industrial Estates in the Suburbs of Jakarta

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New Towns and Industrial Estates in the Suburbs of Jakarta

In order to understand the suburbanization in the metropolitan region of Jakarta, it is essential to recognize the socio-economic dualism pervading Indonesian urban society. The manifestations of this dualism are the presence of the modern city and the kampung city in urban areas. The kampung, ‘village’ in Indonesian, is associated with informality, poverty, and the retention of rural traditions within an urban setting. Firman (1999) argues the existence of kampungs and modern cities reflect spatial segregation and socio-economic disparities.

The growing numbers of migrants to Jakarta and poor Jakarta natives have produced new squatter kampungs on the periphery of Jakarta (Cybriwsky and Ford, 2001). Many constructions in the central city also caused some residents of kampungs to be evicted and relocated to the periphery (Silver, 2007). The periphery also attracted migrants because of its improved infrastructures and facilities in (Goldblum and Wong, 2000). Since 1950, Jakarta has attracted people from all parts of Java and other Indonesian islands. The flood of migrants came to Jakarta for economic reasons as Jakarta offered the hope of employment.

Starting in the early 1980s, agricultural areas and forests in the suburbs of Jakarta were converted massively into large-scale subdivisions and new towns (Silver 2008). Over the period of 1990 and 2010, more than 30 new large new towns were built in the suburbs of Jakarta ranging from 500 hectares to 30,000 hectares. They converted more thousands hectares of rural land (Firman 2014; Winarso and Firman 2002)

The massive development in the suburbs of Jakarta was a result of a series of deregulation and de-bureaucratization measures enacted by the Suharto government in the 1980s (Winarso and Firman 2002). The subsidized housing finance program and municipal permit system for land development also contributed to the massive development in the area. These policies have most benefited some developers that were strongly linked with the New Order regime (Leaf, 1994)

The residential enclave for narrowly targeted moderate and high-income families characterized Jakarta’s suburban area (Firman, 1998; Leaf, 1994). Located on the periphery of the city, these settlements were built in automobile-accessible areas with various high-quality amenities such as modern golf courses. High-income families in the central city also moved from the city in search of better living quality (Goldblum and Wong, 2000). The high cost of houses and the need for automobiles restricted low-income families from the suburban housing market. One in five families in Jakarta’s suburbs owned an automobile (Leaf, 1994).

The first new town in the suburbs of Jakarta is a collaborative project of Bumi Serpong Damai in the early 1980s. This first new town was planned for an eventual population of 600,000 in a total area of 6,000 hectares; a project developed by several private developers and led by the largest private developer – the Ciputra Group. Other new towns in the suburbs of Jakarta include Bukit Jonggol Asri, Bukit Sentul, Pembangunan Jaya, Lippo City, Cikarang Baru, Tigaraksa, Kota Legenda, Kota Cileungsi, Royal Sentul, Bintaro Jaya, Lido Lakes Resort, Gading Serpong, Modernland, Kota Wisata Teluk Naga, Kota Modern, Kota Citra Raya and Alam Sutera dan Kedaton (Firman 1998; Silver 2007; Winarso 2010).

New towns in the suburbs of Jakarta are aimed at middle-upper income groups (Goldblum and Wong 2000; Firman 2004). They are mostly furnished with golf courses, shopping malls, cinemas, hospitals and hotels. The design of new towns was influenced by American design concepts to offer luxury, secured and self-sufficient neighborhoods and improved lifestyles. Many new towns also led to large scale displacement of farmers and existing residents such as Tigaraksa that evicted about 1,400 farmers (Firman 2004).

In a number of these new towns, the State Housing Provider Agency (Perumnas) joined with private developers to assure some housing was targeted for low and moderate-income families (Cybriwsky and Ford, 2001). Most of the new towns offered relatively few employment opportunities. Their initial concept was to create self-contained communities but this was barely implemented. Instead, the new towns became “bedroom suburbs for city-bound commuters” (Cybriwsky and Ford, 2001). The new towns were still heavily dependent on the central city (Firman, 1999; Silver 2007) and the development of large-scale housing projects intensified the daily interaction between the fringe areas and the central city of Jakarta. This worsened the traffic problems in metropolitan Jakarta.

People who live in the outskirts of Jakarta can save as much as 30% of their transportation costs using motorcycles to work rather than public transport. Motorcycles are ubiquitous and can be acquired with a down payment of as little as $30. The daily jams in Jakarta are getting worse; the peripheries are a “bedroom suburb” for the daily commuters of Jakarta, the center of government and corporate offices, commercial and entertainment enterprises. Commuters from the peripheries primarily used three highways including the Jagorawi toll road connecting Jakarta and the southern peripheries, the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road connecting Jakarta and the eastern peripheries and the Jakarta-Merak toll road connecting Jakarta and the western peripheries. The economy of Jakarta dominates its peripheral areas. In the daytime, the total population in Jakarta is much more than its population in the nighttime; the number of daily commuters in Jakarta is estimated 5.4 million.

Winarso and Firman (2002) revealed almost all large developers were well connected to the President Suharto’s family and inner circle including his daughters, sons, brother, in-laws and close friends. The connection to the Suharto family and inner circle became significant; closeness to the first family helped the large developers expand their business. Interlinking also occurred among the large developers through cross-shareholding, shared directorships and joint ventures; process which turned potential competitors into collaborators and created oligopolistic types of land and housing markets.

In addition to residential zones, the periphery of Jakarta is also made up of specialized zones of commercial and industrial enterprises. These areas complement the other districts of Jakarta: the central business districts on Thamrin-Sudirman corridor, the government offices around Medan Merdeka, the international seaport of Tanjung Priok, and the growing network of freeways. The development of industrial zones in the peripheries of Jakarta also indicated a spatial restructuring that shifted manufacturing from the central city to the periphery. Firman (1998) reported that the central city attracted disproportionate investment in service industries, trade and hotel, and restaurant construction.

The peripheries attracted most of the industrial construction; these include textiles, apparel, footwear, plastics, chemicals, electronics, metal products and foods (Cybriwsky and Ford, 2001). The total area of industrial estates in the suburbs of Jakarta region increased from 11,000 hectares in 2005 to 18,000 hectares in 2010 (Firman 2014; Hudalah 2013). About 40% of the industrial estates in the region were located in the district of Bekasi including seven large industrial estates: Bekasi Fajar Industrial Estate, East Jakarta Industrial Park, Bekasi International Industrial Estate, MM 2100 Industrial Estate, Jababeka, Lippo Cikarang and Pembangunan Deltamas.

Three industrial estates in the district of Bekasi (Jababeka, Lippo Cikarang and Pembangunan Deltamas) also integrated their industrial areas with residential and other urban activities. They created towns rather than estates (Hudalah and Firman 2012). Jababeka also built an inland port named Cikarang Dry Port and opened it in 2010. The Cikarang Dry Port offers a one stop service for cargo handling for international export and import and domestic distribution.

The large seven industrial estates in the district of Bekasi is Indonesia’s largest industrial concentration. They produced about 46% of the national non-oil and gas export of USD 66.428 billion in 2005 (Hudalah and Firman 2012). The industrial activities in the district of Bekasi also generated taxes for the central and local governments as much as 3.4-6 trillion rupiahs in 2005. Nearly 10,000 expatriates also lived in the district of Bekasi in 2005 due to the industrial activities.

The development of private industrial parks in the peripheries followed the development of the three highways stretching from Jakarta to the peripheries - the Jagorawi toll road, the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, and the Jakarta-Merak toll road highways (Henderson and Kuncoro 1996; Hudalah et al 2013). Private industrial parks in the peripheries range from 50 to 1,800 hectares and on average the size is about 500 hectares (Hudalah et al 2013); major industrial centers are located in Cikupa-Balaraja of Tangerang Regency and Cikarang of Bekasi Regency. The industrial center of Cikarang with a total industrial land area of nearly 6,000 hectares is the largest planned industrial center in Southeast Asia (Hudalah and Firman 2012).

The industrial estate in the suburbs of Jakarta region are becoming increasingly specialized and intensifying the trend for the region to become more polycentric (Firman 2014; Hudalah et al 2013). Each industrial estate built its own facilities and infrastructure including roads, waste treatment plants and communication network and resulted in a fragmented industrial complex (Hudalah et al 2013).

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This post is one of the chapters in the book titled:

The Routledge Companion to the Suburbs

edited by:

Bernadette Hanlon and
Thomas J. Vicino. 

The book was published by the Routledge in September 2018. 

You can find the book in the Routledge link here. The chapter on Jakarta was written by Fikri Zul Fahmi, Tommy Firman and myself. 

Tommy Firman is professor of Regional Planning at the Bandung Institute of Technology and Fikri Zul Fahmi is assistant professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia.

Suburbanization in Asia: 
A focus in Jakarta

By:

1. Deden Rukmana, 
2. Fikri Zul Fahmi and 
3. Tommy Firman

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