Batam: Singapore’s shipping rival less than 30km away

[Indos]

LOL. I took a trip to Batam over 30 years ago. Went there with my girlfriend just out of curiosity. I was living in Singapore then and there were regular high speed ferries from Singapore. Took just about 45min. I rented cheaply a brand new car to drive around too.

Batam is just a mini Singapore run by Singaporeans for Singaporeans. I had converted some Indonesia currency but everywhere I went they quoted me in Singapore dollars first. Ha ha ha. Singaporean goes there just like they go to Johor Bharu. To unwind, eat cheap seafood.

I saw detach houses build for Singaporeans, reservoirs to bring fresh water for Singapore. Batam is just an extension of Singapore. Even Indonesian needs a permit to live there.

That was over 30 years ago. So maybe things have changed. @Mista maybe you should go spend a weekend there to play Mahjong to unwind. Ha ha ha.

I dont think Batam supply fresh water for Singapore. The reservoirs there are for Batam people. They dont have much fresh water, unlike Bintan. Indonesian needs a permit to live there ? Majority who live in Batam are Indonesian, few are foreigners.

Today, Batam is inhabited by a heterogeneous mixture of people due to labor migration and desire to be close to Singapore; it is very diverse, two-thirds of the population are migrants.[11] The predominant ethnicities are Javanese, Malays, Batak, Minangkabau, and Chinese. As a municipality it exemplifies the national motto of "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" (Unity in Diversity). The location of Batam, which is close to Singapore, is conducive to the development of economic, sociopolitical, and cultural aspects of the local community.

Batam - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The most powerful person in Batam in the old days is Habibie as he was the one appointed by Soeharto to manage the island and his family until now has many land and business there.

This is for example current Habibie family business venture in Batam island. They also have huge land next to the airport that becomes their hope to build large aerospace factory some day. They have build aerospace company called PT RAI but the office now is still in Jakarta and Bandung.

Home

Regio Aviasi Industri is an Indonesian aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was founded by Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie.

regio-aviasi.co.id

The towers are about to open soon, not yet finished.

 

[thetutle]

What's the reason Batam has not been developed for so many decades? While Singapore is the most developed city country in this region.

Just curious. It doesn't make sense to me, since Singapore got tons of money from the sea port, while Batam has exactly the same location as Singapore.

Only 3 words separates the two countries in terms of development and success. "Lee Kwan Yew".

A person like that has to be born, then somehow, he needs to become president. Then in 50 years you will have what Singapore has.

I've read two of his books and studied what he did carefully, he is the pulsating engine at the heart of Singapore.

Indonesia can use Singapore to develop this island and create massive wealth, but its just piggybacking off Singapore's success. if Indonesia wants to build something to rival Singapore it needs to set up a special autonomous zone for these two islands, restricting working rights for other Indonesians, change the laws so that nothing of the Indonesian legal system remains on these two islands and fond someone like Lee Kwan Yew to run the place. Like a governor.

The problem then is that you have something that does not resemble Indonesia, it becomes almost like HK and china. 1 country 2 systems. I'm not sure Indonesia will allow that.

But it would be a good idea, if Indonesia sees what is possible on a little island it owns, it could change its whole country to replicate this success and it would literally be a superpower.

 

[Indos]

The city that can match Singapore in Indonesia is of course Jakarta. Just like Singapore, Jakarta relies more on service industry that include financial services and many busineses head office. It also has big port called Tanjung Priok.

Statistik Indonesia 2020

Statistik Indonesia 2020 merupakan seri publikasi tahunan BPS yang menyajikan beragam jenis data yang bersumber dari BPS dan institusi lain....

www.bps.go.id

Tanjung Priok Port

Jakarta build another new Port in Muara Baru using reclamation land.

Phase 1

Jakarta

Samsung R&D Office

SR Indonesia | Samsung Research

Concentrate every Capability from Global R&D Centers. 22 R&D Centers in 15 Countries, 6 AI-dedicated Centers.

research.samsung.com

The Soekarno Hatta Airport here has more passengers than Changi airport of Singapore and in term of the look, I prefer Soekarno Hatta

 

[vi-va]

The city that can match Singapore in Indonesia is of course Jakarta. Just like Singapore, Jakarta relies more on service industry that include financial services and many busineses head office. It also has big port called Tanjung Priok.


View attachment 693814

Statistik Indonesia 2020

Statistik Indonesia 2020 merupakan seri publikasi tahunan BPS yang menyajikan beragam jenis data yang bersumber dari BPS dan institusi lain....

www.bps.go.id

Tanjung Priok Port

Jakarta build another new Port in Muara Baru using reclamation land.

Phase 1

Jakarta

Samsung R&D Office

View attachment 693815

SR Indonesia | Samsung Research

Concentrate every Capability from Global R&D Centers. 22 R&D Centers in 15 Countries, 6 AI-dedicated Centers.

research.samsung.com

The Soekarno Hatta Airport here has more passengers than Changi airport of Singapore and in term of the look, I prefer Soekarno Hatta

Port looks very good.

 

[vi-va]

That's because it's a myth that Singapore's prosperity today still depends on her sea port, and that Johor/Batam can become equally prosperous just by being a transshipment hub.

Indeed, Singapore started her roots as a trading port 200 years ago, just like many other cities like HK, NYC, and Shanghai. But like other cities as well, Singapore's economy is no longer that reliant on shipping/transshipment.

Actually, no modern economy is solely reliant on shipping/transshipment. Otherwise Egypt with the Suez Canal and with 100mil people should have a much larger economy than Singapore, or SG under the British should've been much better-off if shipping/transshipment is the secret sauce to prosperity.

The transport and storage industry makes up just 7% of our GDP today, and that includes all forms of transport and storage. Eg; Airport, buses, trains, taxis, delivery, logistics, warehousing etc.

The single most important industry in SG is actually manufacturing, making up >20% of our GDP, largest of which is electronics. Our manufacturing value-add do benefit from oil refining though.

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We also serve as a regional HQ for many MNCs.

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And then there's also the financial industry. Singapore's economy is quite diversified.

I knew. It's times of Knowledge Based Economy. I didn't misunderstand Singapore.

I am just saying it doesn't make sense that Indonesia didn't get a fair share of the pie even the same location of Strait of Malacca.

For those who relies purely on location, resources, but lack of vision and long term planning, dooms to fail, such as oil countries, or mineral export countries.

East Asia(South East) is the only place got prospers other than North America and EU. All others places are either stagnant or chaos.

Reeducation camps in Thailand.

Please stay off if you can't add value to this valuable and non politics thread. Thx.

 

[Indos]

Investment has come to Bintan island.

5 months ago

 

[Indos]

Bintan island green zone will still be retained as tourism sector is still be prioritized for its current and future development.

 

[Indos]

Riau islands province. Bintan. Batam is also part of Riau Islands

New airport for Tambelan island