Jakarta Fair to Showcase the Nation: Jakarta, West Java

Jakarta’s annual month-long fun and shopping spree — Pekan Raya Jakarta, the 2007 Jakarta Fair — is just around the corner, with the city administration announcing Monday it had already begun registration for participants. The administration said, as of last week, 1,500 participants from small and middle-sized enterprises to top companies had already registered for the event, which is scheduled from June 14 to July 15 as an article in the Jakarta Post explains.

The number of participants is already 25 percent higher than last year’s figure of 1,200.

Governor Sutiyoso said he wanted the event to give a boost to the local economy.

The governor said he was targeting a 10 percent increase in trade from Rp 500 billion last year (US$54.9 million) to Rp 550 billion this year.

He said he was sure new municipalities would join in the event.
“They need to introduce themselves and their products through this fair,” he said.

Indonesia has 33 provinces and 440 municipalities. Before the 2001 autonomy law, the figure was 27 provinces and 297 municipalities.

The president director of PT Jakarta International Expo, the organizer of the Jakarta Fair, Hartati Murdaya said he hoped this year’s Jakarta Fair would effectively present Indonesia in a microcosm, with visitors being able to see products from all the country’s provinces.

She said one more exhibition hall had been added this year.

“Last year we only used halls A,B and C but this year we’re also going to use Hall D, which has 12,000 square meters of space,” she explained.

Vendors and producers of a wide variety of goods, from traditional handicrafts to car accessories, will join in the exhibition and festival.

The fair, which offers concerts, traditional dances and street magicians, never fails to draw large numbers of both Jakartans and people from outside the city.

Hartati said she expected the number of visitors to exceed last year’s crowd of 2.5 million.

The ticket price for this year’s fair will be Rp 15,000 per person from Monday to Friday and Rp 20,000 per person for Saturday, Sunday and national holidays.