Bambang Brodjonegoro Calls Bekasi Now The 2nd Largest City In Indonesia, Moves Surabaya!

JAKARTA - Former Minister of Research and Technology / Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency Bambang Brodjonegoro revealed new facts about the order of big cities in Indonesia.

He said that the position of Surabaya as the second largest city in Indonesia had been shifted by Bekasi, this can be seen from the population in the region.

"Talking about big cities, this is what sometimes escapes the public's attention. Because since elementary school we have always been taught the largest city in Indonesia, Jakarta number one, second Surabaya, third Medan, fourth Bandung and so on. We think the data is connected. It turns out that if we update the data based on the population of Dukcapil (or) where, the largest city number one is still Jakarta. The problem is that the second city is already Bekasi, not Surabaya. Surabaya is number three," said Bambang quoted Thursday, August 15.

After Surabaya was in third position, Bambang said the fourth largest city in Indonesia was still in Bandung. However, the fifth position is no longer Medan but Depok. Medan is in sixth position, while the seventh position is held by Tangerang.

Bambang admitted that he forgot the eighth and ninth largest city positions in Indonesia, but he remembers that the tenth largest city in Indonesia was South Tangerang, which in fact only became famous in 2006 and became the youngest area in the Jabodetabek agglomeration area.

He said Bogor himself had been thrown from the list of the 10 largest cities in Indonesia. "Sorry, Mr. Mayor of Bogor left the top ten," he said.

According to Bambang, the latest list shows surprising facts. This means that the urbanization pattern of the Indonesian people is getting bigger. There are 60 percent of Indonesia's population already living in urban areas, but the problem is that the population in Jakarta is actually stagnant.

Currently, said Bambang, the number of satellite cities located in the Jakarta area is increasing.

Furthermore, Bambang considered that this situation was unhealthy because the disparity of the population aka inequality between the people of Indonesia was very large. In fact, Indonesia is an archipelagic country where the distance between regions is very wide.

"Jakarta seems to have a stagnant of 10 million (residents). However, these friends in (around) Jakarta have added extraordinary things. So five of the 10 largest cities in Indonesia are in the Greater Jakarta area. And I don't think it's healthy for a country as big as Indonesia," said Bambang.

"If that happens in Thailand fine, Bangkok is the center of everything. It doesn't matter in England, London is the center of everything. Tokyo is the same way. But, ladies and gentlemen, imagine the difference between Japanese, Thai, UK (England) as a whole and Indonesia," he concluded.