SOEs minister plans to designate Monas area as Jakarta's city center

Jakarta (ANTARA) - State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir highlighted his vision of designating the National Monument (Monas) area as a city center, which he expects will boost Jakarta's economy.

As cited from his Instagram account here on Thursday (August 1), Thohir stated that he had met with Jakarta Acting Governor Heru Budi Hartono to discuss the revitalization plan of the Monas area.

The minister emphasized that the Jakarta provincial government's support is essential to revitalizing the area and enabling it to emerge as a new epicenter of economic growth.

Thohir also remarked that the Ministry of SOEs would maintain coordination with the regional government to optimize the use of 13 state-owned assets located around Monas managed by Danareksa.

Earlier, on April 20, Thohir noted that his ministry was visiting several countries to attract potential property players to seize investment opportunities to create added value for the assets.

The minister said he aimed to ensure that the assets, including a building belonging to state-run oil and gas giant Pertamina, would not be abandoned after Indonesia's capital city was relocated from Jakarta to Nusantara, East Kalimantan.

He underlined that the SOEs Ministry had earlier applied a similar approach to boost the value of the Sanur Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Health, whose development commenced in December 2021 in Denpasar City, Bali Province.

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The SEZ, covering an area of 41.26 hectares, has absorbed investment worth Rp10.3 trillion (around US$634 million). Moreover, the integrated tourism zone wields the potential to create job opportunities for about 43 thousand workers.

"We need to continue pursuing value creation in a bid to upgrade state-owned assets that have not been optimized, just like what we have done in Sanur," he remarked.