Kemenko Perekonomian Set SEZ Nongsa Officially Operating

Secretary General of the KEK National Council Elen Setiadi together with BP Batam and SEZ manager Nongsa gave a press statement regarding the official Nongsa SEZ in Batam City (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (Kemenko) has set a Nongsa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Batam City, Riau Islands Province (Kepri) officially operating, marked by the submission of a decree (SK) for the Chairman of the SEZ National Council, namely Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto Number 4 of 2022.

Secretary General of the KEK National Council, Elen Setiadi, in Batam, Riau Islands, last Saturday stated that the inauguration of the Nongsa SEZ was based on the results of an evaluation conducted by his party and from these results, the Nongsa SEZ was deemed worthy of operation.

"So preparing the operation of the area that needs to be assessed is the construction of infrastructure, areas, roads, electricity and then clean water, waste management and so on so that this area is suitable for operation," he said, quoted by Antara, Sunday.

In addition, he said, what is even more important is that the SEZ manager can invite investors to enter and develop the activities in it. So the service to invite investors and serve investors can be done with the readiness of it.

Therefore, he said, to support the readiness of this operation, the SEZ National Council and the Ministry of Economy have appointed one of the Batam Entrepreneurship Agency (BP) officials as the executor of the administrator duties in the SEZ.

"Why is this a bit different from the others, the others are separate, but this is attached to BP Batam. Because there are many things, including the matter of land under the control of BP Batam, so there is synchronization for operations in the field," he said.

He said the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy wants the development in the Nongsa SEZ to be a digital center. One of them, which has been realized is the data center, where currently three investors have entered with an investment value of IDR 2.6 trillion.

"And it has begun to be developed, there are already three investors and three data center developments, two from international and one from the central government," he said.

"The government puts its national data center here, so the national data center has three data centers, one of which is in Nongsa. And this has been handed over by the Minister of Communication and Information Technology and will begin to be built in early January 2023. So we hope that the national data center at the end of 2023 will be completed and can operate," he added.

With the SEZ Nongsa operating, the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy targets managers to create jobs.

"Currently, the investment value for regional development carried out by managers and business actors that have entered is around Rp. 2.6 trillion. The target is that this can create new jobs. Currently, only 1,600 workers have been absorbed in this investment," he said.

"We hope that in the future with a larger development, with incoming investments, of course, more labor will be absorbed," said Elen Setiadi.