market watch | Research Institute

Jakarta, the Moving Parking lot Park, Kyung-suh _ Senior Principal Researcher, POSCO Research Institute

The Indonesian government has resumed and subway construction projects in an effort to ease congestion in . However, Indonesians, who have deep-rooted distrust of government policies, are skeptical.

During rush hour in downtown Jakarta, an inter- esting scene is to be witnessed: People line up on the side of road, raising one or two fingers at pass- ing cars that stop and pick up one or two of them. This extraordinary phenomenon began after the Indonesian government implemented the “Three- in-one” policy, which requires vehicles to have at least three passengers on busy roads, in an effort to ease traffic congestion. Those who climb into cars are called Joki (jockeys); they are profession- al hitchhikers who make their living by riding along with drivers. The three-in-one system has been in operation for more than 10 years. If driv- ers violate the law, they face fines of IDR 150,000 (equivalent to KRW 15,000); however, once they go through three-in-one zones, they pay the hitch- hikers only IDR 20,000 (equivalent to KRW 2,000

to 3,000), and the work is done. Bloomberg

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the 1980s, failed to be completed. In addition, the Car Sales Trends in Indonesia (Unit: 1,000 units) Commercial vehicle Sedan system of roads and traffic signals in Jakarta has Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) 23.3% 1,120 hardly been improved over the past ten years. Ac- cording to a report released by the Ministry of 1,000 893 Transportation in February 2013, traffic congestion costs Indonesia a remarkable USD 3 billion per year. 800 764 604 600 484 400 433 Deep-rooted Distrust of Monorail and 319 Subway projects 200 Traffic in Jakarta became serious in large part as a 0 result of lack of government policies. The good 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 news is that the Indonesian government recently announced that it would resume the monorail and subway projects. The Jakarta Monorail Project, led which cars and motorcycles find themselves entan- by PT Jakarta Monorail, aims to build a 54-kilome- Traffic Jams Cost Indonesia USD gled with one another throughout the day. ter monorail linking Jakarta and its surrounding 3 Billion per year In recent years, however, annual sales of auto- satellite cities. The project is scheduled to begin mobiles in Indonesia have stood at more than 1 mil- this year and to be completed in 2016. The mass The three-in-one policy has been no help in reduc- lion, and 70% of these are being sold in Jakarta. rapid transit system (MRT) project, to be complet- ing Jakarta’s congestion. What is worse, the Indone- While the rate of roads paved for cars in the capital ed in 2017, aims to construct a subway line operat- sian government has not actively cracked down on has increased only 0.9% each year, car sales have ing in downtown Jakarta with a 51:49 joint invest- illegal cars and other violations. The Jakarta Admin- soared 9%. The government does not regulate car ment between Indonesia and Japan worth USD istration once announced that it would implement sales because car manufacturers lobby the govern- 400 million. However, many Indonesians are skep- an odd-even license plate system (a system by ment. In addition, due to lack of administrative pow- tical of these projects, as they are concerned that which cars may not be driven on certain days, ac- er, the government has failed both to expand nar- the construction itself may worsen traffic in Jakar- cording to the license plate number), but withdrew row roads and to construct new ones. Despite the ta, and this construction could be delayed yet the plan after strong resistance from the public, say- belated enactment of the Land Acquisition Law in again, as it was in the past. This is an indication of ing that the city was not ready for such a system. In 2012, plans for the acquisition of land for road con- the public’s deep-rooted distrust of government the meantime, traffic in Jakarta has become so seri- struction have yet to be resolved even among gov- policies. Furthermore, unless the Indonesian gov- ous that it takes more than 40 to 50 minutes for a ernment officials themselves, primarily due to Indo- ernment cuts the long-held, collusive ties between journey that had usually taken only 10 minutes. It nesia’s coalition system. Public transportation such itself and business, these projects will only cause has been quite a while that the roads of Jakarta as buses and taxis are far from sufficient and a se- pandemonium, and the problem of traffic in Jakar- turned into a veritable moving parking lot, one in ries of subway construction projects, beginning in ta will continue to go unresolved.

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