The government has announced plans to integrate Jakarta with Bandung and turn it into a massive urban area but says that it will be a long-term project that will require cooperation between the government and private companies.
“The president has made it known his wish to integrate Jakarta and Bandung. We can’t just think of the next five years, we have to think all the way to 2045,” Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said, as quoted by The Jakarta Globe.
According to Luhut, the plan will require designs for settlements, transportation, water availability and other infrastructures that will be coordinated by the government with the help of the private sector.
The government will start discussions on the plan by holding a meeting participated by related officials. It will also invite developers to present their plans for the area.
“Hopefully next month, we can come to a decision, on what we want to make of this region,” he said.
The government has already made moves to connect Jakarta and Bandung by building a high-speed railway network between the two cities, to deepen ties of urban economic development between the two major cities.
The Greater Jakarta area now produces around a fifth of Indonesia’s annual gross domestic product. The area of Bekasi, in particular, is home to many of Indonesia’s largest manufacturing companies.