TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The metropolitan city of Jakarta has the capital to become a business and economic hub that can compete with New York City, as well as with other global cities, said the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia.

"Jakarta already has the resources because it is a business city of Indonesia and it is also economically large, so this prospect can be maintained and continued," CORE economist Yusuf Rendy Manilet said on Sunday.

Jakarta, however, still needs to improve some aspects to become a world-class business city, one of which is accessibility to public transportation, he said.

He explained that the public transportation is widely used in New York, Sydney, and Melbourne.

While in Jakarta, integrated public transportation is already available, but it does not have much access to buffer areas, such as Depok, Bekasi, and Tangerang.

Manilet said that people who reside in buffer areas but work in Jakarta still choose to use private vehicles because the mass transportation has not reached residential areas.

In addition to public transportation, Jakarta also needs to improve the quality of life of its people by providing housing, especially vertical housing. Jakarta can emulate Singapore to develop vertical housing, he said.

With the housing located in the city center, Jakartans do not need to live in buffer areas that are very far. This can also cut travel time which can affect productivity at work, he added.

Moreover, Jakarta also needs to provide solutions to rising sea levels as part of the impacts of climate change, he said.

Although Jakarta's economy grew relatively slow in 2023 compared to that of 2022, Jakarta contributed 16.77 percent to Indonesia's economy.

Jakarta remained recorded as the province with the largest economic contribution for the country, he added.

ANTARA

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