Indonesia And Singapore Strengthen Batam-Bintan-Karimun Development Cooperation

Beach illustration in Batam. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government strengthens strategic cooperation relations with Singapore through an annual meeting entitled the 13th Co-chairs Meeting Working Group on Batam-Bintan-Karimun and Other Special Economic Zones in Indonesia (Working Group on BBK and Other SEZs) to accelerate economic development in Indonesia. the area.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the government had planned the construction of the Batam-Bintan bridge to improve connectivity between the two regions.

"I hope that Indonesia can continue to work with the Singapore Government, especially in deepening economic cooperation between the two countries and overcoming the economic challenges caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga in an official statement received in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Tuesday May 4th.

Meanwhile, the Working Group on BBK and Other SEZs which was attended by the Deputy for Regional Development and Spatial Planning Coordination Wahyu Utomo and the Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) as Co-chairs of the Working Group on BBK and Other SEZs Beh Swan Gin, discussed several important agendas in development of the Batam-Bintan-Karimun (BBK) Free Trade and Free Port Zone (KPBPB) and the Special Economic Zone (KEK) in Indonesia.

This includes the general development of the BBK KPBPB, the development of SEZ in Indonesia, the development of the digital industry between Singapore-BBK, and the improvement of the BBK-Singapore Logistics Environment.

The meeting also discussed the development of data center investment in Batam and Bintan, where EDB has approached the private sector from Singapore to get feedback on problems that may be faced in investing.

"Batam and Bintan are ready to accept data center development investment in terms of location, basic infrastructure, and human resources," said Deputy for Regional Development and Spatial Planning of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, Wahyu Utomo.

Then to improve the conducive business environment in Indonesia, the government carried out structural reforms from Law no. 11 of 2021 concerning Job Creation. The government continues to strive to improve competitiveness in KPBPB BBK and KEK in Indonesia by issuing Government Regulations (PP) No 40 and 41 of 2021.

In the PP, it has been specifically regulated regarding the Master Plan for the development of BBK KPBPB, in which programs and projects will be listed as well as implementation steps to realize KPBPB BBK as an international logistics hub.

The government has also sought legal clarity for the Implementation of Electronic Systems (PSE) through Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 concerning Electronic Systems and Transactions, which regulates PSE in storing and processing data abroad, processing data in and out, as well as data protection for PSE serving consumers in Indonesia.

The project, which will be built under a government cooperation scheme with business entities, is planned to be built at the end of 2021 and it is hoped that Singapore can participate in it.

In the next agenda, EDB conveyed the latest developments from the Nongsa Digital Park (NDP), which is a collaboration between Singapore and Indonesia which is projected to become a digital hub between the two countries, after the launch of one part of phase II of NDP development, namely Nongsa Digital Town on March 2. .

The governments of Indonesia and Singapore are committed to continuing to carry out further exploration to realize the development of the data center industry in Batam and Bintan. The last agenda in this meeting is a plan to implement a joint study on the logistics ecosystem between Singapore-BBK, through the identification of factors that contribute to the high cost of logistics between the two countries, as well as the design of an action plan to improve competitiveness based on benchmarking with other locations in Southeast Asia.

The Working Group on BBK and Other SEZs is one of the six working groups that form the backbone of economic cooperation between Indonesia and Singapore, along with five other working groups. Namely, the Working Group on Investment, the Working Group on Manpower, the Working Group on Transport, the Working Group on Agribusiness, and the Working Group on Tourism.